Location
Desa Mas is belong to the administrative area of Kecamatan Sukawati, Kabupaten
Gianyar, 8 km away from Denpasar city, 23 km from Kuta and 38 km from Nusa Dua
area. Desa Celuk is bordering with Desa Batubulan which is known for it's stone
carving and stages of Barong dances. This location is on the way of the leading
road from Denpasar to Ubud or to Gianyar and within the tour itinerary both Batubulan
and Celuk usually two places never absent on the tour itinerary. Just after the
visit of Barong dance at one of the stages at Batubulan visiting the work of silver
and gold accessories at one of the artist's exhibition house or art shops. Many
guests protested the itinerary which mentioned Celuk as a village and they said
is a town. That is the situation of Celuk today, that the view is a real small
town with bustling life of artists and their activities. Most of gold and silver
production at Celuk has been oriented to the export with proud exhibition halls
at each of the gallery that line up on the left and right sides of the main road
of Celuk. Desa Celuk is bordering directly with Desa Sukawati, where the head
of Kecamatan administrative office is located, and Desa Singapadu beside Batubulan.
Desa Singapadu is strongly influenced by the main activities of the people at
Celuk and now become the only competitor of Celuk in the production of gold and
silver products.
Interest of Desa Celuk
As already publicated on many brochures or writing about Bali and its tourism,
Celuk must have been well known in all countries, that the main interest of this
town is their production of specific accessories made of gold and silver. Many
people asking when it was started that the people of Celuk produced such accessories?
This question can not be answered sufficiently, since what people in Bali know
about Celuk in the past was the place where people making bowls for religious
ceremony in silver leave called " bokoran " This type of bowl is ony
used for activities of religious or ritual relating to the tradition. Suddenly
in 1930s the first reported gold and silversmith was in Celuk, and travelers who
visited Bali during that time explored the interesting places of Bali including
the village. And late 1990s the number of art galleries and unit of gold and silversmiths
were increasing in big numbers followed by the mass production of various designs
of decorative art, accessories and others. The growing popularity of Celuk as
the stop of sightseeing itinerary giving favorable condition for the birth of
many exporters to various contries in the world. This international trade of gold
and silver products from Celuk even made the name of the previously known village
become well known world wide. During the periode from 1980 to 1990 was heard that
almost every families in the village engaged in the work of silver and gold leaving
the rice field and cattle un-managed. The birth of big art shops working with
local tour operators and or importers from various countries has been encouraged
the families to follow the step and tried to deal with foreighners without knowing
the requirement of international trade, only based on trust and good smile of
new buyers. As a result many producers felt into bangkruftcy due to the unpaid
shipment or sales. The discussion of writer to many families at Celuk and Singapadu
in 1995 disclosed that actually the number of producers being cheated by their
overseas partners were surprisingly high. The value of their shipment un-paid
varied between Rp 5.000.000 to Rp 30.000.000 at the time, and compared to the
value of money today it can mean hundred of millions. It is not ethical to mentioned
here what the nationality of the buyers who cheated them, but for the families
in Celuk it was a traumatic experience causing them to sell everything they had
to cover their labour and material costs, even their own costs. The art galleries
that line up reaching Batubulan, along 2 kms to reach the orignal village of Celuk
in the east was the luckiest among them, because they worked with local inbound
tour operator, preparing the visitors with various product of gold and silvers,
sell based on retail and cash. So, they enjoy better conditon of sales compared
to those who tried to look for short cut to sell directly to foreign importers.
There are many big exporters who knew better the detail of international trade
with showrooms at bigger cities such as Kuta, Nusa Dua or Denpasar. They had more
detail information on how to manage the shipment and get them paid through international
methodes, get security for both importers and exporters.
Influence of Flourishing Celuk Gold and Silver
Celuk is the inspirator of the growth of silver and gold product not only in Bali
but also in Yogyakarta, especially in Kota Gede. Art galleries, and exporters
in Bali sell as much as the gold and silver products that made in Bali and in
Yogyakarta. Even in most cases such as in Singapadu and bigger town such as Kuta
and Denpasar the product of Yogyakarta even bigger then what were produced in
Bali. This is due to their technic of production is better and their design was
more varied compared to their counterparts in Bali. That was why the great number
of shipment from Yogyakarta comes every week to Bali, especially to Celuk, Denpasar
and Kuta. Since Yogyakarta also developed production, most of travelers visited
directly the production in Yogyakarta, but they brought the product to Bali before
shipment to their countries to the reason that they will be easier in co-ordinating
the shipment and the administration, beside the frequency of flight from Bali
to abroad that that time was far much bigger compared from Yogyakarta. It can
be said that the growth of gold and silver production both in Celuk and Yogyakata
has been going parallel, giving great advantage to big number of informal workers,
absorbed big nubmer of less skill workers and house-wives, and even children can
take part-time among their school time. During the era of 1980 to 1990s, in Celuk
almost no child roaming on the road, and also writer heard in Kota Gede Yogyakarta,
as they were participating in family working. But this situation was totally changed
after Islamic Jihad blew bom in Kuta, known as Bali bom I in 2002. All production
in Celuk and Singapadu step by step taking rest, and shipment from Yogyakarta
also slow but firmly dropping into the zero level and totally stop after Bali
bom II in 2005. The learning of Islamic jihad is very well know how to kill the
economy of people in Yogyakarta and Bali, especially Kota Gede with their silver
and gold accessories and decorations.
Type of Gold and Siver Product
The most important product of gold and silver are women accessories such as earings,
bracelets, broces, noodles, pins, bottons, wall decors and sitting decor for table,
pandles, frames, vases, watches, and many others more then a hundreds designs
were ever recorded at one of the show room in Celuk. The designs were purely developped
by local artists both in Bali and in Yogyakarta, only few of them brought from
overseas, since the character of silver and gold products from overseas were really
hard to be produced in Bali or Yogyakarta, due to the precision methode and consistency
of elements. The main interest of the local product just relaid on the uniqueness
of the products and the low prices tagged to their individual products.
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