Ketut Sunaka - the legend of the silver village on the island of Bali
It was 2010. Our Balinese friend Agung Putra said one day:
- "If you want to buy silver jewelry made here in Bali, we have to go to the village of Celuk".
The next day we had an interesting trip on scooters to the village of Celuk. Agung showed us the shortest way from Ubud and took us to the house of his friend from university in Denpasar - the jeweler Made Mustika.
Ketut Sunaka in Celuk in the 1970s.
Between Ubud and Celuk
Over the years, I often visited Celuk, meeting several local families who had been making jewellery for four generations. Among others, I met Kadek, who was then approaching his 30th birthday and taking over the jewellery and tourism businesses from his father Ketut.
During my annual visits to Bali, Kadek would visit me in Ubud, and I would often visit his shop in Celuk. One day in 2014, Kadek offered me hospitality in one of his houses on the extensive family estate. I happily accepted the invitation.
My closest neighbors and hosts were Kadek’s parents, Ketut and Sri.
Since then, I have stopped being stationed in Ubud and have settled in Kadek’s family home for good. Over the past decade, I have had the opportunity to take part in numerous family ceremonies in Celuk and learn fascinating family stories.
Kadek's parents
During numerous conversations in Celuk, I discovered that the driving force of the family business and the person who made the right decisions was Sri.
As is often the case, behind a man's success there is a woman, a mother, a wife. And so it was in the case of Ketut.
Ketut - born in 1951, learned his craft from his parents. The 1960s were a dramatic decade in Indonesian history, full of fierce political struggle, which contributed to the economic collapse also in Bali. Foreigners did not appear on the island of the Gods for several years. The few jewelers operating in Celuk since independence did not have many orders.
The situation changed in the early 1970s, after the stabilization of the power of the second president of the Republic of Indonesia - Suharto. Tourists returned to Bali and their numbers began to increase each year.
Bracelets on the Beach
Ketut started working at the five-star Hyatt Regency in Sanur, the first luxury hotel to open in Bali in 1973, which adopted a Balinese-style décor throughout its interior.
At the time, Sanur was the showcase of Bali, a place where wealthy people from all over the world would vacation on the exotic island of the Gods.
After hours, Ketut would become a traveling salesman on the beach, selling silver jewelry made by his parents or neighbors.
As he improved his English, he was promoted to driver and began driving tourists around the island.
As a driver, he often visited Padang Bai, where tourists disembarked from cruise ships. In the mid-1970s, the majority of guests were from the Netherlands and the United States, with deep pockets, the perfect customers. Ketut set up a makeshift stall selling souvenirs and jewelry in Padang Bai and travelled to the southern beaches as far as Legian.
Birth of the legend
In the 1950s, the first souvenir shop was opened in Celuk. The difficult 1960s were a lost decade for local craftsmen and the main occupation of the local population was still agriculture.
An increasing wave of foreign guests arrived not only by ship to Padang Bai, but also by plane to the expanded airport in Denpasar. Exotic holidays on the southern beaches around Sanur and Kuta became popular among wealthy Westerners.
Tourists craving not only tropical sun under palm trees, but also fascinated by Balinese culture, went to Ubud to admire the rice terraces and dance performances. One of the shortest routes between Sanur and Ubud led through the village of Celuk.
Ketut Sunaka opened a business on the edge of his parents' land, on Jaga Raga Street. On the sign of an abandoned fibreboard he wrote: Ketut Sunaka Silversmith. It was 1978. Ketut didn't have enough stock to fill his art shop. He borrowed wooden statues and figurines from friends in the village of Mas. He got Balinese paintings and masks from Batuan. His grandmother filled one shelf of jewelry. The interior of the shop must have looked modest, but the first tourists, seeing the sign saying "Ketut Sunaka Jeweller", stopped and went inside. At that time Ketut was driving tourists as a hotel driver and his young wife Sri, who was pregnant, spent time in the shop. As with most things in life, business requires a bit of luck. One day an American walked into the store wanting to place an order. Sri arranged for him to meet Ketut the next day.
Sri with Australian clients in the shop in Celuk ( late 1970's)
First orders to America
The next day, the American asked him to make a ring, according to his own design. Ketut had a ready silver ring after only two days. The test was very positive.
During his next visit, the American brought silver, semi-precious stones and placed his first large order. Thus began a very fruitful cooperation with Mr. Cody that lasted a dozen or so years.
Mr. Cody is still remembered by the oldest jewelers. He was the first foreigner to provide indirect work to dozens of jewelers in Celuk.
After him, other customers began to appear. They brought silver and precious stones. At that time, none of the families involved in jewelry production had enough capital to buy kilograms of precious metals.
At the turn of the seventies and eighties, new designs were born in Celuk, which were a fusion of older Balinese products and simple ornamentation of Western models. New silver designs dominated, often combined with additions of 18-karat gold. Black onyx, red carnelian and purple amethyst were also used for decoration. At the beginning of the 1980s, jewelry with Indonesian pearls was not yet made.
The 1980's
Any Balinese jeweler will tell you that the eighties were the best decade. In 1980, Ketut bought his first scooter, a white 1964 Vespa. He was very proud of his first machine. Many of his peers were buying their first motorbikes at the time. That same year, Ketut bought his first car, a Colt pickup truck. Two years later, he became the owner of a passenger car, a new Toyota Corolla. This was just the beginning of prosperity in the silver village of Celuk.
Celuk became the epicenter of the handicraft business on the entire island. Every local family was involved in the production of jewelry.
Young people came from all over the island and even from neighboring Lombok to work in jewelry. To meet orders from America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, a large army of craftsmen was needed. At that time, Ketut employed over 60 people. Each worker specialized in the production of just a few designs. Earrings, rings, bracelets are made entirely by hand.
Sri often goes to clients in Ubud and brings them finished products.
He sees how American clients live in rented villas with swimming pools. "Maybe we can build a house like that in Ubud too?" - asks Ketuta one day.
This is how the idea of a two-story house with four rooms with a swimming pool surrounded by a garden was born. It was 1987. They buy a large piece of land on the outskirts of the former Ubud and the Sri Ratih Cottages hotel is built.
Asian crisis
Ketut and Sri go to jewelry exhibitions in Japan, and in Bali they invest their earnings in land and houses with shops on the main street in Celuk and Sanur.
Keeping money in the bank never made sense in Indonesia, says Sri. These investments in new properties will save them years later.
The Asian crisis in the late nineties was deadly to the silver business. It's like a right hook landing on your face out of the blue.
Local factories investing in the first casting machines and expanding production stations at that time are caught in a rut. Bank loans become a heavy anchor around their feet with interest rates suddenly reaching 50% per year.
The first bankruptcies appeared in Celuk. Ketut was forced to sell his house and shop in Sanur, but he saved the integrity of his two businesses: jewelry and hotel. The year 2002 arrived and the October terrorist attack in a Kuta resort had a huge impact on the whole island . Assassins linked to the Indonesian Al-Qaeda cell killed 202 people and injured over two hundred. The aftermath of this attack was like a second punch in the jaw. For the tourism industry and for the residents of Celuk came a miserable 2003. Foreign tourists avoid Bali from afar. Orders from all shops and markets in Bali stop suddenly. The wave of bankruptcies in the silver village intensifies.
Leonard Szuszkiewicz
(The history of Ketut Sunaka and the silver village of Celuk in the first decades of the 21st century - to be continued)