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In Brief
Traditional Balinese songs are called tembang, and Balinese literature traditionally divides them into four kinds:
- Sekar rare: the simple children's and folk songs
- Sekar alit: the verse forms called pupuh or macapat, bound by rules of line length and final vowel
- Sekar madya: the kidung sung at ceremonies
- Sekar agung: the kakawin, Old Javanese poems sung to classical metres
The songs most people know are children's songs such as Meong-Meong and Putri Cening Ayu. The call-and-response songs of the janger dance are widely known too, and so are pop Bali songs such as Bungan Sandat.
Sacred singing is part of a ceremony, one of its five sounds. In north Bali, village clubs called sekaa santi sing and interpret the old texts at rites across the regency.
Singing has a long record here. An inscription more than a thousand years old, found at Bebetin in Buleleng, already lists singers among the village's people.
Balinese Songs at a Glance
- What they are called: tembang for sung poetry in general, gending or gegendingan for folk and children's songs
- The four kinds: sekar rare, sekar alit, sekar madya, sekar agung
- Languages: everyday Balinese for children's songs, mostly Middle Javanese and refined Balinese for kidung, Old Javanese for kakawin
- Songs to know: Meong-Meong, Putri Cening Ayu, Ratu Anom, Galang Bulan, Bungan Sandat
- Where they live: temple ceremonies, the banjar hall, schools and competitions, and the stage
- In the north: sekaa santi sing at rites in villages such as Tajun, Penarukan, Sawan, Kubutambahan and Busungbiu
Tembang Come in Four Kinds, From Play Songs to Kakawin
Balinese sung poetry, or wangun tembang, is traditionally divided into four categories (detikBali).
Singaraja's Banyuasri ward office has published a fuller account in Balinese, with examples of each (Kelurahan Banyuasri).
Sekar rare: children's and folk songs
Sekar rare are the oldest layer, sung by children at play or by adults to lull a baby to sleep. Children learn these play songs long before they read.
The lyrics use everyday Balinese, and their messages are often simple. Many of the songs have no title. They are built like a Malay pantun, where the first lines set up a sound and the last lines carry the meaning.
The Banyuasri account lists these among them:
- Meong-Meong
- Juru Pencar
- Ratu Anom
- Made Cenik
- Guak Maling Taluh
Two related song traditions belong to this broader tradition. The gending janger are cheerful songs for the janger dance, among them Don Dapdape, Bungan Seruni and Galang Bulan.
The gending sanghyang, such as Kukus Arum and Sekar Gadung, are sung to bring down the spirits of the sanghyang trance dances. They are among the most sacred songs in Bali.
Sekar alit: pupuh and macapat
With sekar alit the rules begin. Each pupuh fixes three things: the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in a line, and the vowel each line ends on.
A song sung with the wrong syllable count is called ngelung. One sung with the wrong final vowel is ngandang.
The palm-leaf treatise Gitasancaya lists forty-two pupuh. Ten are in common use:
- Sinom
- Semarandana
- Mijil
- Maskumambang
- Pangkur
- Pucung
- Ginada
- Ginanti
- Dangdang Gula
- Durma
A long story told in pupuh is a geguritan. The form grew at the Klungkung court from around the seventeenth century. The north's own tragedy, the story of Jayaprana and Layonsari, is sung as the Geguritan Jayaprana, in pupuh Ginada.
Learners start with the plain melody, paca paliring. Only later do they add the ornaments and turns called nyengkok wilet.
Sekar madya: kidung
Kidung are songs of praise, sung during ceremonies. Most are in Middle Javanese and refined Balinese.
Each kind of rite has its own kidung, matching the five kinds of yadnya:
- for the gods
- for sages and priests
- for the passages of human life
- for the dead
- for the spirits below
Kidung Wargasari is often sung as a prayer procession begins (detikBali). Kidung singers do not pause at the end of a line, so the verse flows on.
Sekar agung: kakawin
Kakawin are the grandest form, Old Javanese poetry sung to metres drawn from Sanskrit poetry. In Bali the metres are called wirama, with names such as Sronca and Basantilaka.
A verse usually has four lines, each with its own name. The pattern of long and short syllables, guru and laghu, is fixed.
The Banyuasri account names the classics. They are the Bharatayuddha of Mpu Sedah and Mpu Panuluh, the Siwaratrikalpa of Mpu Tanakung and the Negarakertagama of Prapanca.
Leaves of a lontar of the Kakawin Bharata Yuda, kept in Sukawati. Photo: Eka343 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Well-Known Balinese Songs and What They Mean
Three of these are children's songs, one is a dance tradition and one is pop Bali.
Meong-Meong: the cat-and-mouse game song
Meong is the cat, and the song goes with a children's game, meong-meongan. The players form a circle with the mouse inside it and the cat outside. The ring walks round the mouse singing until the song gives the cat its cue to catch it (detikBali).
Buleleng's culture and tourism office notes that the game is played differently from one part of Bali to another.
Putri Cening Ayu: a mother and her daughter
A mother and her little daughter talk before the mother goes to market. She asks the child to stay home and wait patiently until she comes back (detikBali).
The song is about the love running both ways between them.
Ratu Anom: advice for the young
Ratu Anom is a children's song with advice for the young. Face life with confidence and do not give in to laziness, in detikBali's reading. Banyuasri's account lists it among the classic children's songs.
The janger songs: girls and boys sing to each other
Janger is a social dance for young people. Rows of girls, the janger, sit facing rows of boys, the kecak, and sing to each other.
A lead singer begins each song, and the two rows respond in turn. The singers then replace the lyrics with rhythmic syllables on the same melody, the girls singing jangi janger and the boys answering tecak.
The songs belong to the children's song family and grew out of the songs of the sanghyang rituals (Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, ISI Denpasar).
Janger dates to the late 1920s and was at its height in the 1940s and 1950s. Its lyrics praise beauty and unity, and they bend easily to a message.
In the mid-1960s rival political parties used janger to rally supporters. It later carried messages on family planning and legal awareness.
Where it began is disputed. Laksmi's paper records claims for the north, the south and Nusa Penida.
The north's claim centres on Menyali, a village in Buleleng. Its village head told Antara that janger became known there as a performance in 1921. In the village it is held as sacred, a form of sanghyang called Sang Hyang Janger. Menyali's janger was at its height in the 1930s and faded after 1972, until the village revived it for the Bali Arts Festival in 2017. The Buleleng regency runs a schools' contest in the Menyali style to keep it alive.
Bungan Sandat and pop Bali
Bali has its own pop music, sung in Balinese. Its first recorded star was Anak Agung Made Cakra (1929 to 1999). He cut the first pop Bali recording in 1976 for the Bali Record label (NusaBali).
His songs took ordinary lives as their subjects. Kusir Dokar is about a horse-cart driver, and the dokar still waits by Singaraja's Pasar Anyar. Sopir Bemo is about a minibus driver.
He wrote them in the Balinese pelog and slendro scales, slow at the start, quick in the refrain, then slow again.
His Bungan Sandat is about the sandat flower, which keeps its scent even after it wilts. Luh Putu Sendratari, a professor of cultural studies at Undiksha in Singaraja, reads the song as advice to young women to guard their honour, and to all young people to care for one another (tatkala.co).
Singing Is One of the Five Sounds of a Ceremony
A Balinese ceremony is made of five sounds, the panca gita (I Wayan Mudana, Undiksha):
- the priest's bell
- the wooden slit drum called kulkul
- the gamelan
- the mantra
- the kidung
Sanghyang dedari dancers between the women's and men's choirs. Photo: casey yancey / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
In the sanghyang dances, the choirs sing the sanghyang songs that call the spirits down.
On the stage, the sung drama called arja is accompanied by a soft gamelan, the geguntangan. It is kept quiet so that every word of the singing can be heard (ISI Denpasar notes).
The gamelan side of Balinese music is covered in Balinese gamelan.
In North Bali, Village Clubs Sing the Old Texts and Explain Them
In north Bali, rituals are generally accompanied by song. The singers are usually a sekaa santi, a club of people who love the old literature and meet to sing it. Santi means calm and peace.
The practice was once called mabebasan or mapepaosan, and since the 1980s it has been known as pesantian. Members sing a passage of an old text and then give its meaning (Mudana, Undiksha). They work through these texts:
- the Ramayana
- the Mahabharata
- the Arjuna Wiwaha
- the Sutasoma
- the Bhagavad Gita
Sekaa santi sing at rites in these villages:
- Tajun
- Penarukan
- Baktiseraga
- Busungbiu
- Kubutambahan
- Sawan
- Bontihing
They sing for the customary village, for the subak and for the wider community. They perform this service as ngayah, voluntary service offered to the community.
Buleleng's culture office holds a pesantian contest for young people each year, as part of Singaraja's anniversary. Children learn the songs at the pasraman, the religious schools each customary village runs in the school holidays.
Beyond the regency, the Ministry of Religious Affairs holds the Utsawa Dharma Gita. This festival and contest of sacred song began as Bali's own kakawin and kidung competitions.
The north has been singing a long time. The inscription of 896 from Bebetin, in the Sawan district, lists pagending, singers, beside the village's gamelan players and puppeteers (Sawan district).
Palm-leaf manuscripts of Balinese literature are kept and recopied at Gedong Kirtya, the lontar library in Singaraja.
Where to Hear Balinese Songs
- At a temple ceremony. Kidung are sung during the prayers. Stay at the back in temple dress and follow Bali temple etiquette.
- At a cremation or a life rite. Kidung and kakawin go with the rites of the dead and the living. The guide to Balinese ceremonies explains them.
- In the village. Sekaa santi belong to the banjar and the customary village, and your host will know when one is singing. The banjar guide explains how a village is organised.
- On stage. Janger and arja are performed by village troupes. Ask your host whether one is playing nearby.
FAQ
What are traditional Balinese songs called? They are called tembang, and they are traditionally divided into four kinds: sekar rare (children's and folk songs), sekar alit (pupuh or macapat), sekar madya (kidung) and sekar agung (kakawin). Folk and children's songs are also called gending or gegendingan.
What are the most famous Balinese songs? Among children's and folk songs, the best known are Meong-Meong, Putri Cening Ayu, Ratu Anom and the janger songs such as Galang Bulan. In pop Bali, they are Anak Agung Made Cakra's Bungan Sandat and Kusir Dokar. At ceremonies, Kidung Wargasari often opens the prayers.
What is the song Putri Cening Ayu about? A mother tells her young daughter to stay home and wait patiently while she goes to the market. It is a song about the love between mother and child.
What is the difference between kidung and kakawin? Kidung are songs of praise, mostly in Middle Javanese and refined Balinese, matched to each kind of ceremony. Kakawin are poems in Old Javanese, sung to strict classical metres of long and short syllables, such as the Bharatayuddha and the Ramayana.
What is pupuh? Pupuh is a Balinese verse form, also called macapat or sekar alit. It has fixed rules for the number of lines in a verse, the syllables in a line and the vowel each line ends on. Ten pupuh are in common use, among them Sinom, Ginada and Durma.
Who sings at Balinese ceremonies? Members of the community sing, often organised as a sekaa santi, a club that sings kidung and kakawin and explains their meaning. Singing is one of the five sounds that complete a ceremony, with the priest's bell, the kulkul, the gamelan and the mantra.
Sources
- detikBali, Mengenal sekar rare, sekar alit, sekar madia, dan sekar agung, for the four kinds and Kidung Wargasari, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Kelurahan Banyuasri, Buleleng Regency, Ajah-ajahan budi pekerti ring sajeroning gending rare, for the children's, janger and sanghyang songs, the pupuh rules, geguritan and the kakawin classics, read September 2026 (in Balinese)
- I Wayan Mudana, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Peranan sekaa santi dalam pengembangan budaya literasi masyarakat Bali Utara, 2025, for sekaa santi in north Bali, the panca gita and pesantian, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, Janger Bali: sejarah dan popularitasnya, Journal of Music Science, Technology, and Industry, ISI Denpasar, 2022, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Wikipedia, Kakawin, for the Sanskrit metres, read September 2026 (in English)
- Antara, Janger Menyali dihidupkan dalam Pesta Kesenian Bali, June 2017, for janger in Menyali, read October 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Buleleng Regency, Pemkab Buleleng gelar lomba janger khas Menyali, April 2019, for the Menyali-style contest, read October 2026 (in Indonesian)
- detikBali, Lirik lagu Putri Cening Ayu, for the song's story, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- NusaBali, Melegenda, AA Made Cakra rekam persoalan masyarakat dalam lagunya, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Ministry of Religious Affairs, Directorate General of Hindu Community Guidance, Sejarah pelaksanaan Utsawa Dharma Gita, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- ISI Denpasar student blog, Nada dan laras karawitan Bali, for arja and its geguntangan, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Sawan District, Buleleng Regency, Sejarah Desa Bebetin, for the inscription of 896, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- detikBali, Lirik dan makna lagu Meong-meong dari Bali, for the meong-meongan game, and Lirik lagu Ratu Anom, for the song's meaning, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata Kabupaten Buleleng, Lagu daerah Meong Meong, for the game's regional variations, read September 2026 (in Indonesian)
- tatkala.co, Luh Putu Sendratari, Lagu Bungan Sandat: menebar kata, mengkonstruksi gender, December 2022, for the song's meaning, read October 2026 (in Indonesian)
Read next: Balinese gamelan, Jayaprana and Layonsari and Balinese dance and gong kebyar.