Barong Dance Performance, Bali
On Monday I had a full day tour to Mount Batur. My guide, Kana, picked me up from the hotel reception at 8:40 a.m. Some pictures of the trip are here. We drove north for about half an hour until we came to a large building marked "Sahadewa", where I was to see the nine-thirty performance of the Barong Dance. The large building with raked seating provided accommodation for a few hundred people but it was only only partly filled. The seating faced an open stage with a typical Balinese brick-built entrance. An open-sided pavilion on the right housed a Balinese orchestra. The musicians played an introductory tune and then the Barong Dance commenced.
I don't know why its called a dance because its really a play, with dialogue in Balinese, albeit with a fair bit of dancing and stylised movements. A single-sheet programme gave a description of the story and I will paraphrase that, although some of the English is not too clear. All the action was accompanied by loud but not unpleasant music from the Balinese orchestra.
Overture
The tiger appears – two men in an elaborate costume a little like a pantomome horse but with a rather frightening mask for a face. The mouth parts work and go 'clack-clack' in a threatening way. The tiger is joined by his friend the monkey – a young man in a grey monkey suit. Three masked dancers appear, get angry and attack the tiger. The men are apparently seeking vengeance for the death of a child previously killed by the tiger. With the aid of the monkey, the tiger sees off the men, one of whom loses his nose in the fighting.
First Act
Two girl dancers appear. They are servants of the Rangda looking for servants of Dewi Kunti on their way to meet the prime minister
Second Act
The two servants appear but are made angry by one of the servants of the Rangda who has turned into a witch. The prime minister appears and they all go to meet Dewi Kunti.
Third Act
Dewi Kunti and her son Sahedewa arrive. Dewi Kunti has promised the Rangda that Sahadewa will be sacrificed. A witch appears and takes over Dewi kunti who becomes angry and orders the prime minister to bring Sahedewa to the forest. A witch also enters the prime minister so that he does not take pity on Sahedewa who is tied to a tree in the forest
Fourth Act
Unknown to the Rangda, the God Siwa appears and gives Sahadewa immortality. The Rangda appears, intending to kill Sahadewa and eat him, but Sahadewa cannot be killed. Dewi Kunti asks for forgiveness and Sahadewa agrees, killing the Rangda who goes to heaven
Fifth Act
One of the female servants of the Rangda, Kalika, comes before Sahadewa asking for foregiveness but Sahadewa refuses. Kalika becomes angry, changes into a boar to fight Sahadewa but is defeated. Kalika then changes into a bird to fight Sahadewa but again is defeated. Finally, she changes into the Rangda whom Sahadewa cannot kill. After meditation, Sahadewa changes himself into a Barong. The fight between the Barong and the Rangda appears unending until followers of the Barong join the fray.
Confused? – I still am but it was jolly good fun. At the end of the performance, which lasted about one hour, the audience were allowed onto the stage to be photographed with the actors still in costume. I thought that was a nice touch. Pictures of the Barong Dance.
We continued north to Celuk where there is a gold and silver works – natch! The crudity of the equipment used to make the product is in stark contrast to the craftsmanship apparent in the end product. Once again, the production on site is token and you are then ushered into a huge showroom with a remarkable range of jewellery on display.
A short drive took us to Mas, famous for its woodcarving. At the large showroom where we stopped, just one carver was on display. There are normally two but the other had gone home for Nyepi – the Balinese Hindu New Year. Again, there was a large showroom and some of the larger carvings – up to six feet tall – were very impressive.
Bali has been called the land of a thousand temples but that’s a severe underestimate. Each village normally has at least three temples and prosperous families have private temples so that they can honour their ancestors. The woodcarving showroom had just such a family temple and I was allowed to visit it. It was built on the roof of a domestic building, approached by steps and contained a number of shrines dedicated to various deities and the family ancestors. Pictures of the Family Shrine.
We stopped briefly in one village we passed through to take pictures of some impressive Ogoh-Ogoh (Pictures). Each village had a number of Ogoh-Ogoh being made ready at the side of the road, some of them protected by a temporary shelter but my attempts to capture shots on the fly weren't very successful.
I was told that we would stop to see some beautiful rice fields but what was actually involved was a brief photo stop in a village with a steep hill covered with rice terraces on one side of the road. It's clearly a regular stopping point because there were a number of postcard sellers harrassing the dozen tourists who were already there. Our route took us through a number of villages now devoted to foreign visitors with woodcarvers, restaurants, massage. I found it rather depressing.
The Temple at Tampak Siring
We descended into a valley and parked at the Holy Spring Temple at Tampak Siring. The water here is reputed to have healing properties and it was certainly a beautiful and spiritual site. Kana bought a small packet of biscuits to feed the fishes in the various ornamental ponds and we were soon joined by local children who, I was relieved to find, were content to share the fun of feeding the biscuits to the fish and were not begging. There was a small compound with some beautiful, rare deer. Kana seemed to think that they'd been brought in to encourage the tourists. This is a very old temple and I'm glad it's not yet been ruined by tourists. Pictures of Tampak Siring.
Our route took us out of the valley and we continued to climb until we reached the road around the south side of a volcanic crater rim. The huge crater was formed some thirty thousand years ago and now the villages of Penelokan, Batur and Kintamani straggle along the crate rim. Rising from the floor of the crater is the active volcano of Gunung Batur with lake Batur alongside. We stopped for lunch at the massive Kintamani restaurant. This can seat five hundred diners but there were just seven including me. The service was prompt and friendly and the buffet lunch on offer had a wide choice so I was happy to take lunch, looking across to the active volcano.
After lunch, we set off to return south by a different route but we hadn't gone far when the traffic stopped. A procession of Ogoh-Ogoh was coming towards us. So I was able to watch the high-spirited youngsters carrying the heavy statues, along with a crowd of locals. My pictures of the procession are here. Once the procession had passed, we were able to continue south.
Elephant Cave, Goa Gajah
We had one more stop, at the Bedulu Elephant Cave and temple – Goa Gajah. Normally, you would have to run the gauntlet of rows of souvenir shops but, so close to Nyepi, they were already closed for the holiday and only a couple of postcard sellers remained. My pictures are here.
We then made our way back to Sanur and the Bali Pavilions - an excellent but tiring day!
