Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957)

First published in 1937, Island of Bali has come to be regarded as a classic work on the Balinese people and their civilization. Written with remarkable clarity, Covarrubias describes the geography and nature of the island, along with the history of the people, providing a thorough account of the community, family, and individual in all spheres of Balinese life.
An excellent introduction to Bali for those interested in this unique island! Miguel Covarrubias is a Mexican artist, who visited the island for the first time in 1930 with his wife Rosa. They were fascinated by Bali and its rich culture. They wanted to learn everything they could about its culture, beliefs and language. In 1933, they visited the island again for further research. I had to constantly remind myself that the information on Bali that I was reading was based on observations in the 30s. Of course a lot has changed already, but somehow I can still see some part of it alive. I enjoyed learning about all the different gods and the Balinese belief in good and evil, which is present in everything. The myths were well explained, especially Rangda and the story of Erlangga and his evil mother. This book finally gave me the explanation why Bali is the only Hindu dominated island in Indonesia and what makes its culture so rich. When Islam took over Java, a Hindu king refused to convert and committed suicide. His son (the prince) together with all the priests, intellectuals and royal family fled to Bali, where they continued their Hindu traditions. The author also explains well how Bali's Hindu differs a lot of from India's Hindu in that it has a very strong Polynesian/animist undertone. I learned a lot from this book. I wish something like this could have been written for each island in Indonesia.
Mexican painter Miguel Covarrubias set sail for Bali in 1931 on an optimistic personal quest to discover, absorb, and chronicle Bali’s traditional living culture. Buy into the romance and seduction of Covarrubias—driven by a feverish imagination-- inexorably pulled towards and teased by the lure of Bali, half a world away. Travel back sixty-four years in time to Bali’s unspoiled natural vistas—a happy, peaceful. pristine retreat standing apart from a West mired in crippling economic depression and poised on the precipice of World War II. As a fellow artist on an island with three million artists-in-residence (creativity is considered both a religious and a natural activity on Bali), Covarrubias penetrated deeply into the spirit of the dance, theatre, music, decorative arts, and pastimes of Bali.
Embellished by 114 half-tone photos and 90 drawings by the author and other Balinese artists, this essential, still-relevant classic consists of twelve chapters on the Balinese people and their civilization in the 1930s. Accompanied by painter Walter Spies, Bali’s most famous expatriate resident, they roamed the countryside together with eyes, ears, and canvasses wide open, observing the local life. Covarrubias’s most notable writing describes the organization of the traditional Balinese village: the markets, social order, etiquette, language, caste system, the banjar, law and justice, the courts, the subak, rice culture, and the distribution of labor. This intimate, insider’s foray into every nook and cranny of his own paradise produced key chapters on everyday family life in Bali: the house, cooking, costume and adornment, childbirth, childhood, adolescence, sexual customs, and marriage.
Covarrubias explored the place of the artist in Balinese life and the development and evolution of Balinese art, crafts, sculpture, and architecture. Drama and dance are important components of Balinese life: they come alive through the village orchestras, musical instruments, classical Legong, and the ancient shadow plays. Island of Bali unveils material on priests and religion, temples and feasts, offerings and exorcisms, the Balinese calendar, and the original Bali Aga people. Written from a day when primary forests reigned supreme and witch doctors wielded terrifying power, Covarrubias delves into the cult of the Barong and Rangda, black and white magic, folk medicine, the sacrifice of widows, and death and cremation. The Balinese still lead a magical, mystical, harmonious life that is difficult for Westerners to understand unless they read a profound work like Covarrubias’s Island of Bali. With an artist’s sensibility and a Bali-lover’s eye, Covarrubias paints a complex nirvana with words and easel in this great literary achievement.… (meer)