Bali - The Barong and Kris Dance

A visit to the island of Bali would not be complete without taking in a traditional Balinese dance performance.  At the suggestion of our tour guide/driver, we attended a morning performance of The Barong and Kris Dance, a popular Balinese mythological tale of good versus evil.  The costumes and masks were absolutely beautiful and the dancing and storytelling were fantastic.  The performance lasted about an hour and I enjoyed every minute of it.  The company that put on the performance offered a written translation of the story in several different languages, which helped out tremendously.  Below is the text from that translation along with photos and videos that I took during the performance.

I don't know if we just lucked out or what, but I was worried this would be a "cheesy, touristy thing" and it ended up being my favorite during our entire six day stay in Bali!

...and now for the story of ....

THE BARONG AND KRIS DANCE

The Barong play represents as eternal fight between good and evil.  Barong (a mythological animal) represents the good spirit and Rangda (a mythological monster) represents an evil one.

THE DANCE STARTS WITH MUSIC OVER TONE

Video - Music Overture

Followed by his friend the monkey, the tiger comes up.  Three masked dancers appear, representing men making palm wine in the forest, whose child is killed by the Barong.  The three men get angry and attack the Barong which is helped by the monkey.  During the fight, the nose of one of the three men is bitten off.

Video - Dance of the Barong

FIRST ACT
Two girl dancers appear, representing the servants of the Rangda, looking for the servants of Dewi Kunti who are on the way to meet their Patih (Prime Minister).

      

 

Video - Balinese Dancers

SECOND ACT
The servants of Dewi Kunti come.  One of the servants of the Rangda changes into a witch.  The witch enters and makes both servants angry.  They meet their Patih and go together to Dewi Kunti.

Video - The Witch Chases the King

THIRD ACT
Dewi Kunti and her son, Sadewa come up.  Dewi Kunti has promised the Rangda to sacrifice Sadewa.  A witch appears and enters Dewi Kunti.  She becomes angry and orders the Patih to bring Sadewa into the forest.  The Patih also enters and does not have pity on Sadewa.  Sadewa is then taken to into a forest and tied to a tree.

 

 

Video - Sadewa gets tied to a tree

FOURTH ACT
Unknown by Rangda, Siwa God appears and gives Sadewa immortality.  The Rangda appears, ready to kill Sadewa, and eat him up but Sadewa is still alive.  She then surrenders and asks him to redeem herself.  Sadewa agrees and kills the Randga.  The Rangda goes into Heaven.

    

FIFTH ACT
One of the servants of the Rangda called Kalika comes up before Sadewa and asks him to redeem herself, too.  Sadewa refuses.  Kalika gets angry and changes herself into a boar and fights Sadewa.  The boar can be defeated.  She then changes herself into a bird but is defeated again.  At last she changes herself into Rangda and Sadewa cannot kill her.  In such circumstances, Sadewa decides to then changes himself into a Barong.  Still the Rangda seems to be too powerful and the fight is unended.  Followers of the Barong appear and help him fight the Rangda.

Video - The Final Fight

Bali - around the island

Over winter break, Mike and I visited Bali, one of the islands of Indonesia.  Since the island is covered in a maze or roads that only locals could navigate, we hired a driver to help us get around.  We explored a number of temples, visited a volcano next to a giant lake, and (of course) the beaches.  We also attended a traditional Indonesian Barong Dance and visited a few art studios to learn more about wood carving and weaving.  Here are some pictures from around the island.  

(This is the first of three posts.  Posts on our temple visits and the Barong Dance soon to follow.)

Quiet stream flowing through the lush, green forest.

 

Terraced rice fields

A hut in the middle of a terraced field.

Many women walk around with large baskets of goods balanced on their heads.  Using no hands, they walk down stairs and across busy roads like it is no big deal.  Very Impressive!

 

Danau Batur Lake, to the east of the active volcano, Mount Batur.

Mount Batur, near the village of Kintamani, is an active volcano on the island of Bali.

Doorbell - You take a wooden mallet and hit the side of  it. 

I've never seen these flowers anywhere.  They look and feel as if they are plastic but are quite real!

 

Coffee plantations are commonly found throughout the Indonesian islands.  One particular type of coffee, called Luwak, is especially popular for the way in which it is processed.  Once the beans are grown and harvested, they are fed to Asian Palm Civet (a species of cat).  These animals consume the coffee beans but their body cannot digest the beans.  They are passed through their digestive system, undigested, and then pooped out.  The feces of these animals in then taken and cleaned, roasted and then proceed like regular coffee beans.  Apparently, the additional step of feeding these coffee beans to this particular animal adds a desirable quality to the coffee beans.  The end product, Luwak coffee, is considered some of the most expensive coffee in the world.  Being the coffee drinkers that we are, we had to check this out for ourselves.

Peaberry, undigested coffee beans.

An Asian Palm Civet

The peaberry coffee beans, after the Asian Palm Civet has "processed" them.

After the beans are "harvested" from the cat's feces, they are roasted over an open fire for about 45 minutes.

The final product!  Mike thoroughly enjoyed the coffee but I enjoy my coffee with some milk and sugar....

...so I tried all the other kinds of coffees and teas that they offered while Mike laid back with his "cat poop coffee"!  My coffee and tea sampling included 8 different favors from a lemon or ginseng tea to vanilla or mocha coffee.  

Terraced fields near where we stopped for coffee...simply beautiful.

A woman weaving a scarf on a traditional loom.  She was very sweet and eager to show us how she worked the loom, but became quite shy when I pulled out my camera to take a picture of her working.  She took much pride in her craft and produced beautiful work.

Another stop was at a local art gallery with resident artists working on their latest pieces. 

We also visited a wood carving shop.  I am so appreciative of all the artists who willing shared their craft and talent with us.  These people possess a talent that I can only dream of.  Their work is absolutely beautiful and their modesty about their talents just humbling.

We spent a few days at a beachfront resort.  During the early morning hours, I would go to the beach and read a book (before the sun got too hot and the beach too crowded).  During these earliest of hours, many fisherman would walk along the low tide areas in search of crab and other sea creatures.