About BAJRA

BAJRA

the Balinese and Javanese Research Archive

BAJRA is a growing international organization of scholars, performers and media specialists concerned with collecting, preserving, disseminating and promoting understanding of South East Asian classical and popular culture through the development of archives of contemporary audio-visual materials, with special emphasis on Bali and Java.

BAJRA’s archives include audio tapes, slides and film negatives, transcriptions of radio broadcasts, and recordings of televised broadcasts of Balinese and Javanese theatre, dance, music and popular culture. At present BAJRA is actively expanding its archive of audio-visual and media materials on different kinds of cultural production in Indonesia.

AIMS

To collect important South East Asian and Indonesian cultural materials, with particular emphasis on Bali and Java
To preserve these sources for posterity, where possible by remastering digitally
To make these sources accessible through selective translation and annotation
To broaden appreciation of Indonesian and South East Asian cultural variety and change by making materials available for educational use
To promote world class research on, and further cross-cultural understanding of, South East Asian classical and popular cultural production


PRIORITIES

Cataloguing	BAJRA has a vast range of texts, images, audio and audio-visual materials, which require comprehensive cataloguing to make the collection accessible to scholars, performers and educationalists.

Digitizing	Most of BAJRA’s archive materials comprise photographic slides, negatives, audio and audio-visual tapes, which are perishable and have a limited lifespan. BAJRA’s aim therefore is to scan or remaster these materials to the highest possible quality in order to create an invaluable cultural resource for future generations.

Translation	Most of BAJRA’s sources are in Balinese, Javanese or Indonesian language. This limits them at present to a small minority of regional scholars. As much of the material is of great potential interest to scholars across the humanities and human sciences, BAJRA is engaged in translation and annotation of selected materials to make them accessible to a far wider audience of researchers and teachers.

Research	A number of scholars in South East Asia, Europe, the USA and Australia are engaged in research on materials from the archive, or on related materials. BAJRA is committed to an active program of research on its archives and to providing information on related research.

Publication	BAJRA aims to make the results of research available not just through conventional print publication, but through exploring new forms of digital and online publication suitable for its archives of audio-visual sources.

Dissemination	As part of its commitment to furthering understanding of South East Asian classical and popular cultural production, BAJRA aims to make selected materials available for educational use. For details follow this link.

URGENT WORK IN PROGRESS

Among BAJRA’s archives are some 1,500 hours of video tapes (mostly S-VHS) of Indonesian television broadcasts on cultural themes. This collection is of extraordinary importance. Not only is it possibly the largest collection of non-Western television recordings in the world, but it also comprises a unique collection of audio-visual materials on Balinese and Javanese cultural heritage.

The problem BAJRA faces is that videotape is a highly perishable medium. The collection has started degenerating and the entire archive will be destroyed unless it is digitally remastered in the very near future. BAJRA’s urgent priority therefore is to preserve the collection by progressively digitizing the original analog sources using DV or DVD (MPEG2) as feasible and appropriate.

In order the help to cover the very substantial costs involved, BAJRA proposes to make sets of selected materials from the archive available to educational establishments for research and teaching purposes. Under the terms of its licence from the copyright holders of the television materials, these materials are only for educational use and are not available to the general public (for details, follow this link).

BAJRA’S STATUS

The Balinese and Javanese Research Archive is registered in the United Kingdom as an educational non-profit making organization. Its sole function is to promote education as to the history, language, culture and traditions of South East Asia, in particular Java, Bali and other parts of Indonesia. All income is devoted to the preservation and development of the collection.

DEVELOPMENT

BAJRA’s collection is continually expanding. As an educational organization, we are interested in providing links to other educational archives and research programs concerned with South East Asian classical and popular culture and contemporary media.

BAJRA is also interested in including new sources of cultural materials in its archive. For further information, please email us at inquiries@bajra.org.

HISTORY

The archive that now constitutes BAJRA began with the research of Mark Hobart in Bali in the 1970s and has expanded to include the work of performers and other scholars interested in disseminating understanding of classical and popular cultural production in Bali, Java and South East Asia more widely.

The research on Indonesian television was conducted between 1990 and 1998 in collaboration with STSI Denpasar under its Directors, Professor Madé Bandem and Professor Wayan Dibia. For further details regarding this research, see www.bhisma.org.uk; and follow this link for additional information relating to STSI.

In the meantime BAJRA has expanded to include a wider range of materials on cultural production and heritage. Research is currently being conducted on trends in contemporary Indonesian mass media (especially television and the internet).