Indonesian Embassy at the Hague hosts cultural exhibition on Kuningan celebration (illustration: rakyatina)
THE HAGUE, NETRALNEWS.COM – The Galungan and Kuningan Festival has been held in the Netherlands at the “One Day in Bali and Beyond Cultural Festival”, presenting a different atmosphere in religious celebrations at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague or Den Haag.
Ni Putu Widhia S, officer of Social and Culture at the Indonesian Embassy at the Hague, said the celebration of Galungan and Kuningan was held by the Embassy of Indonesia at the Hague in cooperation with Banjar Suka Duka from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and England, and was attended by more than 600 people consisting of Hindus in various countries in Europe , Friends of Indonesia, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the ambassadors of friendly countries.
One Day in Bali and Beyond cultural festivities event begins with a joint prayer done in the morning, with the procession of Barong placement to Padmasana accompanied by a Balinese tektekan instrument, and continued with the appearance of the rejang dancers.
Indonesian Ambassador to the Hague, I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, lead the trisandhya and panca sembah prayer. The Dharma discourse on Galungan and Kuningan celebration for this year was brought by Prabu Dharmayasa, who emphasized the importance of the people to always hold firm dharma, according to the spirit of Galungan.
After the prayer, Ambassador I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja opened the cultural festival of One Day in Bali and Beyond. This cultural festival is the first time held as a series of celebrations Galungan and Kuningan.
“The Cultural festival consist of various performances, the result of cooperation of groups of Balinese artists from Indonesia who live in Europe and foreign artists in Europe,” said I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, as quoted by Antara, Sunday (16/04/2017).
Gusti Agung added that the artists managed to present a variety of traditional Balinese dance, dance and dance songs. The event, enlivened by about 50 dancers and four Sekaha Gong groups with a total of 60 gamelan players, also aims to promote their skills and abilities to bring Balinese gamelan and dance.
“This is a form of soft diplomacy of the Indonesian Embassy at the Hague in disseminating Indonesian culture, in order to support the achievement of national tourism targets,” added Gusti Agung.
On the occasion, Ambassador I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, also performed three mask dances, namely Keras mask dance, Bondres mask with Belgian artists, and Sidakarya mask.