Opening

Some photos from the official opening ceremony of the festival held at the Royal Palace, Ubud. (Right) The gateway.








(Left) Roswidiana, greeting guests. She works at Indus and also met us at the airport.










(Right) The guests arrive. Anita Desai chats to Ziauddin Sardar.











(Left) Gamelan - of course. There was a really magical moment when the orchestra launched in Ravel's Bolero!








(Right) After the speeches, there was an excellent dance performance.







(Left) A tribute to Pramoedya was held at the Lotus Stage, Puri Saraswati. This was the first tribute for Pak Pram held since his death last year. There were film excerpts, readings and a keynote address by Goenawan Mohamad. There was a pretty big crowd crammed into a very small area, most standing and we happened to be at the back. We had to leave before the end but I heard that it got pretty emotional when Pramoedya's editor and publisher Joesoef Isak got to the concluding remarks.

Postscript:

This in Sunday's Jakarta Post :

Malaysia editor and writer Dina Zaman was one of the first to take her seat and enjoy the ambiance of gurgling water and an amphibian orchestra croaking and chirping from among the lotus fronds surrounding the stage.

Poetic, huh? But it doesn't mention the wonderful Sharon Bakar sitting next to her! We were only early because we got the time wrong, and then wandered off again, got delayed by a restaurant order that took an age to come and came back too late to get a seat.