Kamasan

Kamasan is a village on Bali, Indonesia. It is known for a style of painting named after it and has a cultural importance on a Bali-wide level.

Situation
Kamasan is located just next to Semarapura (north-west) and to Gelgel (south), in the Klungkung regency, between the south-east coast and the mountain range of Gunung Agung. Denpasar is 31 km south-west.

Administratively, it is part of Gelgel territory.

Population
In 2014 its population was about 4,000 people.

Painting: Kamasan wayang style
The various 'traditional' styles of painting on modern Bali are derived from the "Kamasan wayang style", or Kamasan shadow puppet painting, which in turn takes it patterns from ancient Java.

Kamasan wayang painting is a 2-dimensional painting depicting shadow puppet performances. It has been listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage (WBTB) in 2015 by the Indonesian Government. It was proposed to Unesco for registration as Intangible cultural heritage in 2018 and 2022.

Historically, artists from Kamasan were used by the many raja courts that existed on Bali up to the early twentieth century. Some became known with the emergence of the kingdom of Klungkung and its palace, which replaced the kingdom of Gelgel at the end of the 17th century; for others, this started earlier, in the 16th century. However, the name of Kamasan is mentioned as early as 1072 AD (Saka year 994), during the reign of Bali king Anak Wungsu.

Other arts
The village also provided gold- and silversmiths, dancers, musicians and puppeteers. The painters have a particular ward in Kamasan, the Banjar Sangging. The smiths are located in another ward, the Banjar Pande Mas.

Wikipedia articles

 * Indonesian art
 * Culture of Indonesia