Author: dmirons

I Ketut Madra dari Peliatan tutup usia dengan tenang dalam tidurnya di rumahnya pada Sabtu malam, 31 Juli 2021. Pelukis yang lahir di Pengosekan pada hari Galungan bulan Oktober tahun 1940 meninggalkan dunia ini di usianya yang ke-80.

Sebagai seorang pelukis cerita pewayangan Bali yang diakui secara internasional, lukisannya juga merupakan wujud rasa baktinya, khusus di empat pura umum di Peliatan, serta Pura Taman Limut di seberang jalan dari rumah keluarga kandungnya di Pengosekan.

Pak Madra juga dikenal sebagai penari topeng yang cerdas dan luwes serta sebagai pemain rebab tunggal di salah satu sekaa (kelompok) gamelan terkemuka di Bali. Bagi teman-temannya yang tinggal luar Bali, Ketut Madra adalah sosok yang ramah, mudah bergaul, humoris, dan berpengetahuan luas yang dapat menghubungkan orang dengan guru yang perlu mereka kenal di Bali.

Ia pertama kali belajar seni lukis wayang pada tahun 1958 di Pura Dalem Banjar Kalah, Peliatan. Saat itu, Tjokorda Oka Gambir, seorang seniman dan guru wayang pada awal abad ke-20, sedang memperbaiki topeng sakral. Madra pun kemudian menawarkan bantuan. Tjokorda Oka Gambir kemudian menunjukkan kepadanya bagaimana cara mencampur warna yang tepat untuk wajah Rangda, dan menyaksikan ia bekerja. Pelajaran yang lebih formal pun segera dimulai.

Pertemuan itu kemudian mengantarkannya pada profesi yang menurutnya adalah sesuatu yang tidak dapat ia dihindari. Ia menjadi pelukis cerita wayang yang mahir yang karyanya dikoleksi di empat benua.

Madra pertama kali melihat dan mendengar drama para dewa dan tokoh-tokoh jahat beserta pelayannya melalui liak-liuk bayang-bayang wayang kulit dan suara dalang masa mudanya. Pada saat ia berusia lima tahun, ia pergi bersama ayahnya, pemain gender wayang untuk acara odalan dan upacara keagamaan di seluruh wilayah Ubud. Ia tidak menonton pertunjukan wayang itu di depan layar bersama dengan para penonton lainnya, melainkan dari belakang layar di antara sejumlah pemain yang menciptakan keajaiban pertunjukan itu. Baginya, adalah awal sebenarnya dari pendidikan yang menginformasikan seninya. 

Ketika ia berusia delapan tahun, ayahnya meninggal dunia, dan keluarganya pun jatuh miskin. Ia harus berhenti sekolah setelah kelas tiga SD. Sering kali ia harus berjalan 10 kilometer untuk memungut biji padi di sawah yang baru dipanen. Pada masa itu, ia juga pertama kali belajar melukis dari sepupunya yang lebih tua yang bernama Dewa Putu Sugi. Ia belajar menggambar pemandangan pasar, odalan di pura, dan panen – yang merupakan subjek lukisan banyak seniman daerah Ubud yang dipengaruhi oleh orang Eropa sebelum dan sesudah Perang Dunia II.

Pada usianya yang ke-18, karena ia perlu mencari nafkah sendiri, ia pindah dari Pengosekan ke Peliatan yang lokasinya tidak jauh dari sana untuk bekerja sebagai pelukis magang di tempat Wayan Gedah, seorang pelukis dan pedagang yang menjual lukisan dan ukiran kayu kepada wisatawan Indonesia. Ketika Wayan Gedah meninggal beberapa tahun kemudian, atas permintaannya, Madra menikahi istri Gedah yang bernama Ni Wayan Lampias.

Setelah pertemuan pertama dengan Tjokorda Gambir, Madra mulai serius menekuni seni lukis wayang dengan mempelajari detail warna, ikonografi, dan kostum sejumlah tokoh, serta teknik dan aturan gaya wayang. Meskipun ia sudah tahu banyak cerita wayang kulit, ia selalu suka berguru dari para pakar di bidang seni wayang kulit untuk memperdalam pemahamannya mengenai hubungan antar dan di antara berbagai tokoh pewayangan.

Pada saat ia berusia 30 tahun, Madra berhasil dalam menekuni pekerjaannya dan memperoleh reputasi yang lebih luas sebagai pelukis wayang sejati serta terampil. Ketika gejolak politik mereda pada akhir tahun 1960-an, wisatawan internasional kembali ke Bali. Ubud sekali lagi muncul sebagai pusat budaya, dan kabar tentang bakat Madra yang luar biasa ini pun menyebar. Kolektor yang tertarik pada lukisannya yang percaya diri, desainnya yang seimbang, dan perhatiannya yang cermat terhadap detail, juga terpikat oleh ceritanya. Sepanjang tahun 1970-an dan 80-an, studio rumahnya selalu ramai dengan murid-murid magang yang belajar melukis dengan gaya wayang.

Madra pernah berkata “lukisan wayang menceritakan kisah yang merupakan bagian dari budaya Bali. Semua tokoh dewa, pahlawan dan penjahat dan pelayan dalam pewayangan ini sangat dekat dengan budaya kami. Bagaimana tokoh-tokoh ini dilukiskan, gaya penggambarannya – semuanya mencerminkan pertunjukan wayang. Membuat keputusan mengenai bagaimana saya akan menunjukkan motivasi tokoh-tokoh ini sebelum saya mulai menggambar, seringkali lebih sulit daripada melukis itu sendiri.” 

Sejak pertengahan tahun 1970-an, karyanya mulai dipamerkan ke luar negeri. Sembilan lukisan dan tiga gambaran oleh Madra menjadi bagian dari pameran Amerika pertama yang berfokus pada seni wayang Bali kontemporer, “Legendary Paintings of Bali (Lukisan Legendaris Bali),” di Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University pada tahun 1974. Karyanya juga sering menjadi bagian dari pameran di Bali dan juga telah ditampilkan di galeri dan museum di Jakarta, dan di kota-kota di Australia, Jepang, Inggris, dan Amerika Serikat.

Pada tahun 1973, dengan kesadaran bahwa penghasilannya sangat bergantung pada hubungannya dengan dunia internasional, Madra pun membeli sebidang kecil tanah di Peliatan dan membangun bungalow pertama yang kemudian menjadi Madra Homestay. Rumah pertamanya dengan tiga kamar sederhana yang didukung dengan pemandangan sawah dan Samudera Hindia dari kejauhan itu jarang sekali kosong. Ia membeli lahan yang berdekatan dan memperluas homestay itu hingga menjadi “tempat yang tenang untuk belajar tentang Bali” seperti yang ia bayangkan. Ibu Lampias, dan kemudian istri keduanya, Ni Wayan Konderi, memastikan keramahtamahan homestay tersebut memenuhi keinginan dan harapan tamu-tamu mereka yang selalu menjawab telah diperlakukan seperti keluarga.

Pada akhir tahun 1970-an, Madra menanggapi dorongan Nyoman Kakul, seorang penari dan guru terkemuka dari desa Batuan. Nyoman Kakul mengagumi pemahaman Madra tentang kisah-kisah yang diceritakan dalam drama tari Bali, dan mendesaknya untuk belajar menari. Pada usia 41 tahun (30 tahun lebih lambat dari usia kebanyakan penari Bali Ketika mulai belajar menari), Madra belajar tari topeng keras, membawakan peran seorang patih yang berwatak keras di istana raja. Karena telah sangat mengenal komposisi peran dan motivasi tokoh-tokoh sebelum mulai belajar menari, sebulan kemudian ia tampil menari di depan umum di sebuah acara odalan di Pura Desa Batuan.

Kata Madra, seni tari adalah pelengkap yang hampir sempurna dalam hidupnya sebagai pelukis. Tampil dalam lakon-lakon yang sebelumnya hanya ia tonton dan lukis memberinya wawasan baru tentang tokoh-tokoh dalam cerita pewayangan dan pemahaman yang lebih mendalam tentang unsur spiritual dan bakti dalam kedua jenis karya seni tersebut. Ia dikenal di kalangan masyarakat Bali karena perannya sebagai Dalem atau raja yang halus budi bahasa dan tingkah lakunya, yang dapat dibawakan dengan baik hanya oleh segelintir penari, dan juga karena perannya dalam tari topeng tua, yakni peran yang juga tanpa suara dalam wujud seorang lelaki tua yang ringkih dan terkadang lekas marah, dengan bahasa tubuh yang menghadirkan kejenakaan sekaligus kesedihan. Peran bersuara yang ia bawakan dalam drama tari bondres dengan mengenakan topeng setengah wajah yang mirip badut memungkinkannya menampilkan kecerdikan dan permainan kata melalui komentar-komentar sosial yang bernada satir.

Madra membawakan peran-peran tersebut dalam acara-acara keagamaan di pura di dekat Ubud, dan juga dengan grup gamelan Tirta Sari di Peliatan, yakni grup yang melakukan tur dengannya ke Jakarta dan Jepang. Untuk menjadi anggota penuh Tirta Sari, ia juga harus menjadi musisi. Pemimpin grup gamelan tersebut mendorongnya untuk belajar bermain rebab, alat musik biola berdawai dua dalam perangkat gamelan. Seorang teman memberinya sebuah rebab dan kaset berisi musik solo. Saat mengetahui bahwa Madra telah mempelajari dasar-dasar bermain dengan meniru rekaman dalam kaset tersebut, pemimpin grup Tirta Sari memintanya membeli rekaman rebab dengan iringan gamelan lengkap – – dan Madra pun dengan cepat membuat dirinya sebagai pemain solo dawai di grup tersebut.

Pada tahun 1980-an, Madra Homestay adalah markas di Bali dan tempat beratih bagi Gamelan Sekar Jaya, grup dari Amerika yang inovatif yang merupakan grup gamelan pertama dari luar negeri yang melakukan tur di Bali. Saat diundang datang pada tahun 1984 oleh Gubernur Bali, I. B. Mantra, grup ini memukau para anggota sekaa gong Bali dan penonton di pulau ini pada tahun 1985 dengan bakat mereka dalam memainkan musik tradisional dan keceriaan komposisi modern mereka. Madra merasa bangga karena Gubernur menghadiri resepsi di homestay-nya setelah pertunjukan terakhir, dan di sisi lain ia juga merasa sangat senang menerima banyak penari, musisi, dan guru seni tari dan musik yang terkemuka di Bali dalam acara latihan yang lebih santai selama tur Sekar Jaya.

Selama proses perbaikan Pura Dalem Gde di Peliatan pada tahun 1997, Madra bekerja selama berbulan-bulan untuk membuat tujuh lukisan baru untuk ketiga pelinggih utama. Ia juga memperbaiki dan memasang kembali dua lukisan dari sebelum Perang Dunia II di pura tersebut, termasuk satu lukisan karya gurunya, Tjokorda Oka Gambir. Lukisan-lukisannya juga menghiasi Pura Desa dan Pura Puseh di Peliatan serta pura di balai Banjar Kalah.

Pada awal tahun 2000-an, Madra khawatir bahwa ia mungkin “salah satu pelukis wayang terakhir.” Madra menuturkan bahwa seni drama wayang kulit tradisional mulai memudar. Seni ini tidak lagi menarik bagi anak-anak muda seperti ketika ia masih kecil. “Anak muda tidak lagi belajar tentang cerita-cerita pewayangan. Ada terlalu banyak hal yang mengalihkan perhatian mereka — TV, komputer, kehidupan modern. Kalau pun ada yang ingin menjadi pelukis, gaya melukis modern mungkin lebih mudah dipelajari. Aturannya lebih sedikit.”

Namun, setelah pameran retrospektifnya yang bertajuk “Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting” di Museum Puri Lukisan Ubud pada tahun 2013, ia semakin optimis tentang masa depan bentuk kesenian yang sangat ia pedulikan ini.

Ia berpensiun dari dunia seni lukis pada tahun 2018. Jauh sebelum ia berpulang, ia tahu bahwa keponakan dan anak angkatnya, Made Berata, yang kini berusia 53 tahun dan yang pernah menjadi dosen seni lukis wayang di ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia) Denpasar, akan meneruskan tradisi melukis cerita wayang, “walaupun ia pada umumnya juga tertarik pada banyak hal lainnya.”

Madra merawat istri keduanya, Ibu Wayan Konderi, dalam perjuangannya melawan kanker otak selama sembilan bulan. Kesehatannya sendiri mulai menurun tidak lama setelah istrinya meninggal pada tahun 2014. Dengat wanfatnya, Ketut Madra juga meninggalkan adik laki-lakinya, Ketut Madri dari Pengosekan. Dan ia juga meninggalkan banyak teman dari seluruh dunia yang berduka, mereka yang pernah tinggal lama di tanahnya yang indah dan belajar tentang Bali, dan mereka semua mendoakan agar perjalanannya lancar di alam sana.

Madra Homestay seperti yang Pak Madra sering katakan, “membuka jendela saya ke dunia Barat.” Homestay tersebut juga membuat karya seni Madra menjadi dikenal oleh pengunjung dari tiga generasi. Orang-orang yang tinggal untuk waktu yang lama disana telah berkontribusi untuk membuat masyarakat internasional mengetahui Bali melalui pertunjukan, kuliah, pameran, serta buku dan artikel akademis dan populer tentang Bali dan budayanya.

Meskipun pandemi telah melumpuhkan perekonomian Bali untuk saat ini, putra Madra, Made Berata, dan istrinya, Ibu Komang, sedang mempersiapkan taman yang luas di Madra Homestay untuk menyambut penulis, musisi, seniman, dan akademisi yang bekerja di Bali selama berminggu-minggu bahkan berbulan-bulan. Mereka akan kembali menerima tamu perorangan dan kelompok kecil, yang umumnya adalah mahasiswa, yang datang untuk belajar melukis, menari, bermain musik gamelan, mengukir, meditasi, dan aspek-aspek lainnya dari budaya Bali.

Ketut Madra of Peliatan, died peacefully in his sleep at home on Saturday night, 31 July, 2021. Born in Pengosekan during an October Galungan in 1940, he was 80 at the time of his death.

An internationally recognized painter of Balinese wayang stories, his paintings are part of the devotional art in four public temples in Peliatan, as well as the Pura Taman Limut across the street from his original family home in Pengosekan.

He was also known as a masked dancer of wit and grace and as the solo rebab performer in one of Bali’s leading gamelan groups. To friends beyond Bali, he was a gracious, charming, humorous, and deeply knowledgeable host who could connect anyone to the Balinese teacher they needed to know.

His first lesson in wayang painting came in 1958 at the Pura Dalem in Banjar Kalah, Peliatan. Tjokorda Oka Gambir, an early 20th century wayang artist and teacher, was repairing a sacred mask. Madra offered to help. Gambir showed him how to mix the correct shade of color for the face of Rangda, and watched as he worked. More formal lessons began soon after.

That encounter led to a career that Madra later said was inevitable. He became a master painter of wayang stories whose work is collected on four continents.

Madra first saw and heard the dramas of the gods and demons and those who serve them through the flickering shadows of the wayang kulit and the voices of the dalang of his youth. By the time he was five, he was going with his father, who played gender wayang to festivals and ceremonies throughout the Ubud region. He would watch the action not in silhouette with the crowd, but from behind the screen within the small circle of performers who made the magic happen. That, he said, was the real beginning of the education that informed his art.

When he was eight his father died, leaving the family destitute. He had to quit school after third grade. He often had to walk 10 kilometers to glean rice kernels off the ground of newly harvested fields. In those days, he also had his earliest painting lessons from his older cousin Dewa Putu Sugi, learning to depict market scenes, temple festivals, and harvests – the subjects of many Ubud-area artists influenced by Europeans before and after World War II.

At 18, needing to earn his living on his own, he moved from Pengosekan to nearby Peliatan to work as an apprentice painter with Wayan Gedah, a painter and dealer who sold paintings and wood carvings to Indonesian tourists. When Wayan Gedah died years later, Madra, at Gedah’s request, married his widow, Ni Wayan Lampias.

After that initial meeting with Tjokorda Gambir, Madra began the serious study of wayang painting learning the details of color, iconography, and costume for scores of characters, as well as the techniques and conventions of the wayang style. While he already knew many wayang kulit stories, he always loved learning more from shadow puppet masters, deepening his understanding of the relationships between and among the myriad characters.

By the time he was 30, Madra was making his living and acquiring a wider reputation as a skillful and original painter of wayang stories. As political turmoil eased in the late 1960s, international visitors returned to Bali. Ubud emerged once again as a cultural center, and word of Madra’s remarkable talent spread. Collectors drawn to his confident drawing, balanced design, and careful attention to detail, were also captivated by the stories. Throughout the 1970s and early ’80s, his home studio was always bustling with apprentices learning to paint in wayang style.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, his work began to be shown abroad. Nine of his paintings and three drawings were part of the first American exhibition focused on contemporary Balinese wayang art, “Legendary Paintings of Bali,” at Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum in 1974. His work has also been part of frequent exhibitions in Bali and has also been shown in galleries and museums in Jakarta, and in cities in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Realizing in 1973 that his income had come to depend largely on his international ties, Madra bought a small piece of land in Peliatan and built the first of the bungalows that would become the Madra Homestay. That first simple, three-room house with views across the rice fields and down to the Indian Ocean was rarely empty. He acquired adjacent dry land and expanded the homestay until it became the “quiet place to learn about Bali” that he had imagined. Ibu Lampias, and later his second wife, Ni Wayan Konderi, ensured the hospitality of the homestay matched the desires and expectations of their guests who always said they had been treated as family.

In the late 1970s, Madra responded to the encouragement of Nyoman Kakul, a preeminent dancer and teacher of Batuan village. Kakul admired Madra’s understanding of the stories told in Balinese dance drama, and urged him to learn to perform. At age 41 (more than 30 years later than most Balinese dancers take their first lessons), Madra learned topeng keras, the role of the rough prime minister in the king’s court. Utterly familiar with the repertoire and motivations of the characters before his first lesson, he danced in public a month later at an odalan in Batuan’s Pura Desa.

Dance, Madra said, was a near perfect complement to his life as a painter. Performing in stories he had only watched and painted brought new insight to character and deeper understanding of the spiritual and devotional nature of both kinds of work. He was known among the Balinese for his sophisticated dalem, the refined kingly role that few do well, and for his topeng tua, another voiceless role in which the body language of a creaky and sometimes cranky old man creates both humor and pathos. His bondres speaking roles in clown-like half masks allowed him to display his wit and wordplay in satiric social commentary.

In the 1980s, Madra Homestay was the Bali headquarters and rehearsal space for Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the ground-breaking American group and the first foreign gamelan to tour Bali. Invited in 1984 by Bali’s Governor I.B. Mantra, the group astonished Balinese sekaa gong members and audiences across the island in 1985 with their talent in playing traditional music and the humor of their modern composition. While Madra was proud to have the governor attend a reception at the homestay after the final performance, he delighted in hosting many of Bali’s leading dancers, musicians, and teachers of those arts during more informal rehearsals during the Sekar Jaya tour.

In the 1997 rehabilitation of Peliatan’s Pura Dalem Gde, Madra worked for months to create seven new paintings for the three principal temple shrines. He also repaired and remounted two pre-World-War-II paintings in the temple, including one by his teacher Tjokorda Oka Gambir. His paintings also decorate Peliatan’s Pura Desa and Pura Puseh and the temple in Banjar Kalah’s community hall.

In the early 2000s Madra worried that he might be “one of the the last of the wayang painters.” Traditional shadow puppet theater, he said, is fading. It no longer had a hold on young people that it did when he was a child. “Young people no longer learn the stories. There are too many distractions — TV, computers, modern life. If one wants to be a painter, modern styles of painting may be easier to learn. There are fewer rules.”

However, after his 2013 retrospective exhibition, “Ketut Madra and 100 Years of Balinese Wayang Painting” at Ubud’s Museum Puri Lukisan, he grew more optimistic about the future of the art form he cared so much about.

He retired from painting in 2018. Well before his death, he knew that his nephew and adopted son Madé Berata, now 53 and a former teacher of wayang painting at ISI (Indonesian Institute of Fine Arts) in Denpasar, would carry on the tradition of painting wayang stories, “even though he is always interested in so many other things as well.”

Madra cared for his second wife Ibu Wayan Konderi through her nine-month struggle with brain cancer. His own health began to decline not long after her death in 2014. He is survived by his younger brother Ketut Madri of Pengosekan. He also leaves behind many grieving international friends who lived for extended periods on his beautiful land learning about Bali, and all wishing him a gentle next journey to the other side.

The homestay, Madra often said, “opened my window to the West.” It also brought his art to the attention of three generations of visitors. Long-term residents there have contributed to international understanding of Balinese culture through performances, lectures, exhibitions, and both academic and popular articles and books.

Though the pandemic has crippled Bali’s economy for now, Madra’s son Madé Berata and his wife Ibu Komang are preparing Madra Homestay’s spacious garden compound to welcome the writer, musician, artist, and scholar working in Bali for weeks and even months at a time. They will again host individuals and small groups, often university students, who come to learn painting, dance, gamelan music, carving, meditation, and other aspects of Balinese culture.

Photo captions and credits:
Top: Ketut Madra with Boma and Kresna at the 2013 opening of his retrospective exhibition at Ubud’s Museum Puri Lukisan. Photo: Anggara Mahendra
Center: The young Hanoman leaps to the horizon to taste what he believes is a ripe golden fruit. Surya, god of the sun, gently warns him that he might burn his mouth. Ketut Madra, Hanoman and Surya, acrylic and ink on canvas, 1972, 54.5 x 44 cm. Photo: Michael Tramis
Bottom: Madra contemplates his topeng tua mask before dancing at a 2013 odalan at the Pura Dalem Gde in Peliatan. Photo: Anggara Mahendra.

Ketut Madra, Pelukis Wayang asal Peliatan Meninggal di Usia 80 – dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Friends of Ketut Madra from the 1970s recently gathered electronically to share youthful memories of Ketut and the earliest days of this “quiet place to learn about Bali.”

In late 1973, Ketut, after a singularly successful year of sales of his wayang paintings, bought a piece of dry land next to the rice fields in Banjar Kalah, the southernmost part of Peliatan’s built area, and began planning a simple thatched pondok with woven bamboo walls, which he hoped to rent to potential students of Bali. It was the first step in creating what would become the Ketut Madra Homestay.

Construction of the pondok began in December and proceeded quickly. Barbara Miller, who studied wayang painting with Ketut, returned to Peliatan in January 1974 and moved in as soon as it was finished.

The bungalow quickly became a natural part of the landscape, removed from the village but still very close to it. It was never empty for long.

The Ketut Madra Homestay, started in 1973 as “a quiet place to learn about Bali,” has always focused on providing simple, long-term accommodation with a remarkable Balinese family in a traditional and spacious garden compound.

Ketut Madra, a well-known painter of traditional Balinese legends, as well as a musician and masked dancer, opens his home to individuals and small groups – especially those who are eager to learn about aspects of Balinese culture. He has taught painting and rebab (the two-stringed lute that accompanies a gamelan) to two generations of guests and has introduced scores of visitors to teachers of Balinese painting, gamelan, wayang kulit, woodcarving, mask making, and much more. Madra’s ties to teachers and artists working in every medium, throughout South Bali and also in the academies of Denpasar, often help connect serious students to the lessons they’ve been seeking.

Over the years, guests have included writers, scholars, and artists, families with young children, and budget-conscious travelers as well as study groups and volunteers in Balinese schools. While the home-stay’s 12 rooms are small and simple, all have bathrooms with hot showers. The luxury of the homestay lies in the warmth of the welcome, the openness of the garden, and the uncrowded peace and quiet that feel so far removed from the Starbucks bustle of 21st-century Ubud.

Madra and his son Made Berata have recently renovated the largest rental cottage in the compound. With one bedroom upstairs and another below, it’s the first to have a kitchen with gas stove and fridge. The downstairs bedroom has its own bathroom and there’s a separate indoor-outdoor garden bathroom for the upstairs room. Either bedroom can also serve one person as a study or office, or the combination works well for a family.

While the home-stay has served for almost 50 years as their “window to the west,” Madra and his family remain deeply in and of their culture. Their guests have the opportunity to attend nearby temple and family ceremonies that are rarely open to tourists. They also easily secure front-row seats for the weekly performances of Peliatan’s renowned Tirta Sari gamelan ensemble.

Reservations and further information:

Ketut Madra Homestay, Banjar Kalah, Peliatan, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia

Telephone: +62-812-3956-1165, mobile and WA number for Madé Berata; berataoffice(at)gmail(dot)com. Reservation can also be made on booking.com; with a search for: Ketut Madra Homestay Peliatan

The homestay has a near 50-year history of connecting guests with Balinese artists and teachers across all genres: gamelan musicians, performing artists, painters, mask makers, wood- and stone-carvers, metal workers, and myriad others with all kinds of local knowledge.

We are also able to help guests with airport connections and vehicle rentals. WiFi connection is available.

Location  Ketut Madra Homestay is in Banjar Kalah in the southern part of the village of Peliatan. Ubud and Pengosekan are just to the west and the village of Mas is to the east. Peliatan is about one hour north of the airport, 40 minutes from central Denpasar, and 20 minutes from the regional capital, Gianyar. It is a convenient location from which to visit other parts of Bali.