Unveiled in early April, SAKA Museum’s new KASANGA Exhibition takes visitors through the journey of Nyepi’s (Bali’s Day of Silence) four essential rites. Working together with the art collective, Gurat Institute, the exhibition is an artistic reimagining of this sacred time, where visitors are granted a unique visual and sensory experience of Bali’s ceremonial Saka calendar, after which the museum is named.
“Kasanga, the ninth month in the Balinese calendar, is a time of reckoning,” explains SAKA’s Executive Advisor, Marlowe Bandem. “It marks the peak of cosmic unrest before the arrival of renewal.” The Kasanga rites unfold through Melasti, Tawur Kasanga & Pengerupukan, Nyepi, and Ngembak Geni; these are each explored in new, creative ways through the KASANGA Exhibition, where four distinct zones mirror these sacred Nyepi rites.
The purifying tides of Melasti is depicted through different schools of Balinese painting (Kamasan, Batuan and Ubud), and a floor installation bridges land and water, as if visitors are on the cleansing shores themselves. Tawur Kasanga is experienced through artefacts and archival footage of old rites, showing the rituals of the past. Visitors will experience Nyepi’s four ‘abstinences’ and feel the weight of silence in Zone 3, before experiencing renewal with pieces that symbolise the light of knowledge and new beginnings.
KASANGA is one of three exhibitions opening in 2025, along with ‘Subak: The Ancient Order of Bali’ and ‘The Heritage Gallery:The Five Elements (Panca Maha Bhuta)’ following closely behind. The exhibitions join existing displays at SAKA Museum, including ‘Sasi Wimba Haneng Gata Poem’, ‘Palelintangan: Balinese Astrology’ and ‘Ogoh-ogoh: Walking Among Giants’.
“We want SAKA Museum to be a place of connection, where people from all walks of life can come together to celebrate and learn about Bali’s traditions,” says Dr Judith Bosnak, Director of SAKA Museum. General Admissions can be purchased online through the Saka Museum website.
SAKA Museum at AYANA Bali
Jl. Karang Mas Sejahtera, Jimbaran
@sakamuseum
sakamuseum.org
