PURI AGUNG KESIMAN ARCHITECTURE, UNLIMITED BETWEEN TIME

Puri Agung Kesiman addressing Jalan Surabi No.2 Denpasar is located in the direction Kaja Kangin of pempatan agung of Kesiman. Whoever crosses the street WR. Supratman will certainly witness the beauty of the royal palace architecture in ancient times. This castle can still leave the history of its power through the preservation of royal architectural styles. From Surabi Street and WR. Supratman, the wall buffer and the Candi Bentar still stand firm as before. Certainly not as fancy as the architectural works of today, but the historical value contained therein cannot be 'redesigned'.

It all started with a Webinar program entitled Indonesia Online Architecture Seminar or abbreviated Semadi which will be held on June 11 by the Architecture Study Program at Udayana University where I take shelter as a non-PNS permanent BLU lecturer. Since the existence of COVID-19 caused us who work in academia must be able to think and act creatively to stay productive. There are conservation themes, traditions and cultural heritage that caused me to be interested in participating in sending writing. Long enough thinking to take a decision object that I will take is Puri Agung Kesiman. At that time the first reason was to look for the nearest cultural heritage object because the pandemic period restricted us from traveling. Immediately remembered the existence of Puri Agung Kesiman which incidentally had been the object of cultural preservation by the government in 2010. The topic that I will raise is how the government attempts to conserve the Puri Agung Kesiman which is a cultural heritage.

On May 24, 2020, armed with a little knowledge of the history of Puri Agung Kesiman through several books entitled 'Historical Trace of Denpasar City' by Denpasar City Bappeda, and 'Cultural Heritage of the Representation of Heritage Diversity and Challenge to Conservation in Denpasar City, Bali' by I Nyoman Mardika, et al., I ventured to carry out direct observation. So, the night before I departed I first collected secondary data from a number of books and internet sources in order to be able to find out what questions I would raise when interviewing stakeholders.

Luckily, until there I met directly with Penglingsir Puri, who was a direct descendant of the last king, Anak Agung Ngurah Kusuma Wardana. I also explained the explanation related to this webinar until he allowed his mission to be appointed as an object of research. From some of the questions that were given, I was surprised by his statement which told that the status of cultural preservation by the government at that time was only an artificial fact. Until now, the maintenance and repair of Puri is done and financed by itself. Thankfully, he is a cultural observer and understands the importance of preserving the historical value of ancestors. Conservation activities in the form of Restoration were once carried out once by the government in 2010 at the Kori Agung at the Pelebahan Ancak Saji, after which it was not sustainable. However, he remained heartened, the awareness of preserving the legacy of his ancestors purely he will inherit to his children and grandchildren to remember how great the power of their ancestors.

With his statement, I have to shift the previous topic to a number of problem formulations as follows: (1) Knowing the architectural face of Puri Agung Kesiman, especially at Saren Kangin and Pemerajan, (2) Conservation Criteria, and (3) The type of conservation that is suitable to be applied. Why is it only Saren Kangin and Pemerajan that I discussed? Because based on the results of field studies, only two of these pelebahan have strong historical and traditional values ​​to fortify the physical changes in architecture that will occur. Out of the three pelebahan in Puri, only 2 of these can be maintained. Then I will describe the conservation criteria based on the value of cultural significance of the Burra Charter (feasible or not conserved) and what kind of conservation is appropriate to apply to Puri Agung Kesiman at this time. So, the title of my writing for the Webinar Semadi at the time was 'Conservation of Traditional Balinese Architecture at the Saren kangin and Pemerajan Puri Agung Kesiman Through Preservation of History and Tradition'.

The results of my analysis are: 1. The existence of historical value (as the center of government, was once the core of the Badung kingdom, and was involved in the Badung Puputan War) which covered and at the same time architecturally guarded the bale-bale found in Saren Kangin and Pemerajan; 2. The existence of traditional values ​​(Ceremony of Manusa and Pitra Yadnya) which requires the existence of Pelebahan Saren Kangin. The existence of Pemerajan is also required because of the tradition of the Petirtan Ceremony (Piodalan) which is carried out every time the pengelong Purnama Kadasa; 3. Puri Agung Kesiman deserves to be conserved because it has fulfilled the conservation criteria based on the values ​​of cultural significance, namely aesthetic values, historical values, scientific values, and social / spiritual values; 4. Conservation activities that are appropriate to be applied to the condition of Puri Agung Kesiman at present are Conservation, Maintenance, Preservation, Restoration, and Reconstruction. I presented this article about Puri Agung Kesiman directly through Webex at the Semadi event and the full discussion will be published in the related proceedings. Then there is an interesting quote when I look for the closing words at the end of the slide presentation at that time about the importance of preserving history and culture namely:

‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots’.

(Marcus Garvey)

We don't want to be trees without roots, do we? thanks.