Just as the Legong is essentially feminine, the Baris, a traditional war dance, glorifies the manhood of the triumphant Balinese warrior. The word baris means 'line' or 'file' and refers to the warriors who fought for the kings of Bali. There are numerous kinds of Baris, distinguished by the arms borne by the dancers.
Originally, the dance was a religious ritual: the dedication of warriors and their weapons during a temple feast. From the ritualistic Baris Gede grew the dramatic Baris, a story prefaced by a series of exhibition solo dances that show prowess in battle. It is from these that the present Baris solo takes its form. A good Baris dancer must undergo rigorous training to obtain the skill and flexibility that typifies the chivalrous elegance of the dance.
A Baris dancer must convey fierceness, disdain, pride, alertness, compassion, and regret -- the characteristics of a warlike noble. The Baris is accompanied by gamelan orchestra, and the relationship between dancer and orchestra is an intimate one; the gamelan must be entirely attuned to the changing moods of the warrior's will.
At first, the dancer's movements are studied and careful, as if he were seeking out foes in an unfamiliar place. When he reaches the middle of the stage, however, hesitation gives way to self-assurance. He rises on his toes to his full stature, his body motionless with quivering limbs. In a flash, he whirls on one leg and his face renders the storm of passions of a quick-tempered warrior.
Barong Dance
The natural world of the Balinese is one held in balance by two opposing forces: the benign, beneficial to man, and the malign, inimical to humanity. The destructive power of sickness and death is associated with the latter force and the evil influence of black magic.
If black magic prevails, a village fails into danger, and extensive purification ceremonies become necessary to restore a proper equilibrium for the health of the community. Dramatic art is also a means of cleansing the village by strengthening its resistance to harmful forces through offerings, prayers and acts of exorcism.
Such is the symbolic play of the Barong and Rangda. Barong, a mystical creature with a curved tail, represents the affirmative, the protector of mankind, the glory of the high sun, and the spirits associated with white magic.
The widow witch Rangda is the complement. She rules the evil spirits and witches who haunt the graveyards late at night. Her habitat is darkness, and she practices black magic.
Both figures possess strong magical prowess. Somewhere in a mythical past, the Barong was won over to the side of humanity and, in the play, fights on behalf of the people against the intruding death force of Rangda.
Yet the essence of the Barong and Rangda play remains the eternal conflict of two cosmic forces symbolized in the two protagonists. Because the play is charged with sorcery and magic charms, extensive offerings are made beforehand to protect the players during the performance. Usually the Barong enters first, cleverly danced by two men who form the forelegs and hindlegs, the first man manipulating the mask. A Barong's appearance varies with the kind of mask it wears, which may be a stylized version of a wild boar, a tiger, a lion, or an elephant. The most holy mask is that of the Barong Keket, "The Sovereign Lord of the Forest", a beast representing no known animal. In the extreme coordination of the lively Barong, one forgets the fantastic creature isn't acting on its own accord, as it mischievously sidesteps and whirls around, snapping its jaws at the gamelan and swishing flies with its tail.
After the Barong's dance, everyone falls silent. From behind the temple gate appear the splintery fingernails that foreshadow the dreadful vision of Rangda. From her mouth hangs a flaming tongue signifying her consuming fire; around her neck a necklace of human entrails falls over her pendulous breasts. She stalks the Barong while waving a white cloth from which issues her overwhelming magic. They collide in a desperate clash of witchcraft. In the protection of the Barong is the community, represented by men armed with kris daggers.
At one point in the fight, when the victory of the Barong is threatened, the kris dancers rush to the Barong's assistance by violently attacking Rangda. The witch's spell reverses their fury back into themselves, and they begin to plunge the blades of their krisses inward against their own bodies. But the Barong, with its own powerful charm, protects the crazed men from inflicting self-harm.
At the end of the play, the kris dancers are revived with water that has been dipped in the beard of the Barong, which is made of human hair and is considered to be the most sacred part of the Barong. A final offering is made to the evil spirits by spilling the blood of a live chicken.
Beliefs
In practicing their faith, Hindu communities try to achieve a spiritual balance of worship between Tattwa (philosophy), Susila (morals), and Upacara (rituals). These three areas are subdivided into various tenets.
The Tattwa has five principal beliefs: Brahman, the belief in the existence of one almighty god head; Atman, the belief in the soul and the spirit; Samsara, the belief in reincarnation; Karma, the belief in the law of reciprocal actions; and Moksha, the belief in the possibility of unity with the divine (Nirwana).
The Susila places emphasis on three major rules for behavior: to think good thoughts, to be honest, and to do good deeds.
The Upacara are divided into five areas of holy sacrifice: Dewa Yadnya, holy rituals for the gods; Pitra Yadnya, holy rituals for the higher spirits; Rsi Yadnya, holy rituals for the holy Hindu prophets; Manusa Yadnya, rituals for and on behalf of humans; and Bhuta Yadnya, sacrifices for neutralizing the negative influences from the natural and supernatural worlds.
In Bali, the high priest, selected from the Brahman caste, officiates at large ceremonies. The village temple priest, who may be from any caste, looks after the temple and leads certain holy rituals included in the Panca Yadnya.
The holy books of the Hindu religion are the Vedas, which origined in India. Those which reached Bali are the Catur and the Veda Cirah, which are still used by priests in carrying out their religious duties.
The religion is taught in other forms as well. The most popular of these are the Purana, or morality plays, and the Itihasa, or epic poems, such as the Ramayana and Mahabarata epics. Shadow puppet plays, operas, ballets, and other forms of drama are also vehicles of religious teaching in Bali.
Carving |
| Stone Carving Stone carvings are mainly used to decorate temples and palaces. There is little difference between the iconography decorating temples (pura) and that of private buildings. Gateways represent the dividing line between the inner and outer worlds and, as such, are the recipients of some of the most fantastic carvings. As well as portraying deities and demons, carvers include many scenes from public life, and there are many temple surfaces enriched with the antics of the Dutch colonists; scenes of bicycles, drunken parties, car breakdowns, and airplanes can be found. Bali's modern-day centre of stone carving is the village of Batubulan, situated halfway between the cities of Denpasar and Ubud. Although you can see excellent examples of Balinese stone carving all over the island, the temples in the North tend to be much more creative. If you plan to tour northern Bali, it is worth taking the time to visit Pura Meduwe Karang in Kubutambahan, Pura Dalem in Jagaraja, and Pura Beji near Singaraja. In order to see the work of Bali's most famous stone-carver, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, visit Pura Sagen Agung in Ubud. Wood Carving Wood carving, like stone carving, has traditionally featured largely in temple and palace architecture with little free standing 'sculpture' work produced commercially. Immaculately carved demons and mythical beings decorate pillars, door panels, and window shutters with the aim of protecting the buildings from evil intruders. Scenes of legendary figures placed within floral d?cor are also found and reflect a more pleasant and educational tone. With the arrival of European influences, wood carving started to develop along more innovative and commercial lines. Although there have been noteworthy carvers, artistic integrity has suffered as a result of the commercial boom in the tourism industry. These days whole villages specialize in producing certain styles of work. The village of Mas, for example, is probably best known for its carvings of female figures, characters from Hindu epics, and traditional masks. |
Most of Bali's people live in villages of 2,000 to 4,000 people on the fertile southern slopes of the island. It is usually only a few minutes? walk from one village to the next by road or through open rice fields. On the northern coastal strip, the villages are spread along the Java Sea.
Traditionally, the social organization of the island was based on the village unit, with each village providing all needs and functions from birth through cremation. The social organization of the village is one of the most unique aspects of Bali. The layout of a Balinese village and the lives of its members, for example, are closely tied to religion. The center of a village is usually an ancient and gnarled banyan tree, banyan trees being regarded as sacred and believed to be the first trees on earth.
A village may have several banjars, with each banjar having separate allegiances to certain temples, palaces, and holidays. Even the city of Denpasar is still rigidly divided into its constituent banjars. All decisions concerning the walfare and future of its people are made by a consensus of all married men in the banjar, and each family has some communal duties to perform for the banjar from time to time.
Almost every Balinese village has its own major temples. The ?Pura Desa? ("Village Temple") stands near the center of the village. Its functions are concerned with everyday village matters and ritually prescribed village gatherings. At the end of the village nearest the sacred mountains is the ?Pura Puseh.? This is a temple dedicated to the spirits of the land and of ancient ancestors. (In Bali, the direction of the mountains is considered heavenly and good while the direction of the sea is earthly and evil.) The lowest part of a village or that end nearest the sea contains the ?Pura Dalem? (?Temple of the Dead?) and the burial grounds.
In the center of every banjar is the Bale Banjar, or community center. The banjar is the core of village life. Meetings are held here, village feasts are prepared, and people gather to play games or just talk. The communal work is administered from the Bale Banjar. This work consists of repairing roads, bridges, irrigation canals, and temples and preparing for cockfights and celebrations. The Balinese do everything in groups, and bamboo platforms in the banjar, for example, often become places for villagers to sleep, sardine-like, with their friends.
In contrast to the egalitarian nature of the village political and economic organization is the caste system, a mainly social convention based on the Indian ideal. Outside the banjar system, the three higher castes are held in respect and are spoken to in a different language. The three higher castes represent the descendants of the Javanese aristocrats of the 14th century. There is a caste of priests (Brahmana), a caste of rulers (Ksatria), and a caste of warriors (Wesia). Ideally the members of these castes should only marry within their own caste, but this convention is no longer strictly observed.
Language is a complex matter in Bali. Basically there are two different Balinese languages. The common or 'low' language is of Malayopolynesian derivation while the 'high' language of the higher castes is a Javanese court language largely derived from Sanskrit. A commoner uses the high language when speaking to a member of a higher caste, but he may be replied to in low language. A polite, ?middle? language has also emerged. In addition, the official state language of Indonesian is taught in school.
Cremation
Cremation of the dead is perhaps the most important -- and often the most colorful -- ritual of Balinese Hinduism. A cremation is necessary to liberate the soul of the deceased for the passage into heaven and reincarnation. Due to the cost and the complicated preparations, cremations often occur long after the death of the person. Group cremations are sometimes held in order to share the expenses. Between death and cremation the body is buried in the cemetery. During this time, the soul of the deceased is thought to be agitated and longing for release.
An auspicious day for the cremation is chosen by a priest after conculting the Balinese calendar. Preparations begin long before the appointed day. A large tower of bamboo and paper, extravagantly painted according to the caste and wealth of the deceased, is constructed. On the morning of the cremation, relatives and friends of the deceased visit and pay their last respects. At midday the body is carried in the tower to the graveyard by members of the dead man?s banjar. This becomes a loud, noisy, and boisterous procession designed to confuse the soul of the deceased so that it wiil lose its way and not be able to return to the family compound.
At the cremation site a priest officiates and the fires are lit. Another raucous procession carries the ashes to the nearest body of water for disposal. This represents the cleansing and disposal of the material body and is cause for singing and laughing.
Later, there are private ceremonies for the care of the soul. The status of reborn soul relates to the person?s karma, or his conduct in previous lives. In general, the Balinese feel that the soul is reborn within the same circle of blood relations.
Galungan and Kuningan
Galungan is, literally, a celebration of the creation of the universe in which the creator of the universe is worshipped and all ancestral spirits are called to come down to earth and dwell again in the homes of their descendants. Welcoming offerings are placed in the family shrines and elaborate decorations placed at the gate of each home.
Ten days after Galungan, the ancestors are bidden farewell with more offerings during Kuningan.
This pair of holidays takes place once every Balinese year and is the most major celebration of the Balinese calendar.
Gamelan |
| Balinese music is based on the gamelan orchestra, unique in the world. Gamelan music is almost completely percussion. Though it sounds strange at first with its noisy percussion, most listeners find that it soon becomes exciting and enjoyable. Many villages throughout Bali have gamelan groups whose performances can be heard in venues ranging from village community centers to luxury hotels. |
Jangger Dance
The flute begins an eerie tune, and faraway voices chant a strange song that flows from a loud melody to a nearly inaudible high pitch. Two girl singers appear wearing splendid, floral crowns with multi-coiored spikes. They advance, allowing another pair to enter, until twelve girls have filed on stage.
Slowly they kneel opposite each other, cocking their heads and darting their eyes to accent the rhythm of the orchestra. As the chanting continues, young men silently repeat the girls' entrance. In contrast to feminine delicacy, their movements are deliberate and strong. All wear painted moustaches.
Suddenly, the male formation breaks into frenzied activity of twists, jerks and lunges. Instantly, the shock wave ceases, the men freeze in their positions, and the lonely flute carries the dance back to the soft sways and chanting of the girls.
A folk dance introduced to the island in the thirties, the origin is in the Sanghyang trance ceremony in which the women chant the Sanghyang song and the men alternate with the gruff sounds of the Kecak.
Kebyar Dance |
| The Kebyar Dance is a male solo dance like the Baris. There are various forms of Kebyar including the Kebyar Duduk and Kebyar Trompong. In Kebyar, the accent is upon the dancer himself, who interprets every nuance of the music in powerful facial expressions and movement. The most popular form of Kebyar in South Bali is Kebyar Duduk, the "seated" Kebyar, where the dancer sits cross-legged throughout most of the dance. By de-empasizing the legs and decreasing the space to a small sphere, the relation between dancer and gamelan is intensified. The dance is concentrated in the flexibility of the wrist and elbow, the magnetic power of the face, and the suppleness of the torso. The music seems infused in the dancer's body. The fingers bend with singular beauty to catch the light melodies, while the body sways back and forth to the resounding beat of the gong. As the dance progresses, the dancer crosses the floor on the outer edges of his feet and approaches a member of the orchestra, usually the lead drummer. He woos the musician with side glances and smiles, but the drummer is too absorbed in the music to respond. Insulted, the Kebyar dancer leaves him and sets out for a new conquest. The Kebyar is the most strenuous and subtle of Balinese dances. It is said that no one can become a great Kebyar dancer unless he can play every instrument of the orchestra. In Kebyar Trompong, in fact, the dancer actually joins the orchestra by playing a long instrument called the trompong while he continues to dance. Kecak Dance A serpentine stream of bodies coils itself, circle within circle, around a large, branching torch. The half-seen multitude waits in silence. A priest enters with offerings and blessings of holy water. One piercing voice cracks the suspense; the circle electrifies. No other dance is so unnerving as the amazing Kecak: dozens to hundreds of men who, by a regimented counterplay of sounds, simulate the orchestration of the gamelan. The now-famous Kecak dance was created in the early 20th century by the famous German painter, Walter Spies, who was resident in Bali at the time. It represents Spies' reincarnation of the male chorus of the ritual Sanghyang trance ceremony. Choreography transforms the ingeniously simple chorus into ecstasy. The cries, the erratic pulses of sound, and the sublimated violence of the kecak are perfectly contained in the precise use of a few basic motions of heads, arms, and torsos. Various parts of the dance merge in a startling continuum of grouped motion and voice. Many words and gestures have no meaning except as incantations to drive out evil, as was the original purpose of the Sanghyang chorus. Kecak includes a play amidst a periphery of men -- a virtual living theatre. Accompanied by the bizarre music of human instruments, the storyteller relates the episode enacted within the performance. When demon-king Rawana leaps to the center, for example, the chorus simulates his flight with a long hissing sound. When monkey-man Hanuman enters the mystic circle, the men become an army of chattering monkeys. |
Legong Dance
In legends, Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.
The most popular of Legongs is the Legong Kraton -- 'Legong of the Palace'. Formerly, the dance was patronized by local kings and held in a residence of the royal family of the village. Dancers were recruited from the aptest and prettiest children. Today, the trained dancers are still very young; a girl of fourteen approaches retirement as a Legong performer.
The highly stylized Legong Kraton enacts a drama of a most purified and abstract kind. The story is performed by three dancers: a female attendant of the court and two identically dressed legongs who adopt the roles of royal persons. The suggestive themes of the magnificent gamelan orchestra and the minds of the audience conjure up imaginary changes of scene.
The story derives from the history of East Java in the 12th and 13th centuries. A king finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in the forest. He takes her home and locks her in a house of stone. Rangkesari's brother, the Prince of Daha, learns of her captivity and threatens war unless she is set free.
Rangkesari begs her captor to avoid war by giving her liberty, but the king prefers to fight. On his way to battle, he is met by a bird of ill omen that predicts his death. In the fight that ensues he is killed. The dance dramatizes the farewells of the King as he departs for the battlefield and his ominous encounter with the bird.
The tiny dancers glitter and dazzle. Bound from head to foot in gold brocade, it is a wonder the legongs can move with such fervent agitation. The dancers flow from one identity into the next without disrupting the harmony of the dance. They may enter as the double image of one character, their movements marked by tight synchronization. Then they may split, each enacting a separate role, and come together again. In a love scene in which they rub noses, for example, the King takes leave of Rangkesari. She repels his advances by beating him with her fan, and he departs in anger, soon to perish on the battlefield.
Nyepi
Nyepi is the Balinese New Year?s Day according to their calendar and is honored through obligatory fasting, inactivity, prayer, and silence throughout the island for 24 hours. Great purification offerings are made in every village on the day before to appease the evil spirits, and lively exorcisms are held. Large gangs of youth and children roam the villages bearing burning torches, various noisemaking devices, and giant monsters of bamboo, wood, and paper to scare evil spirits away.
Pendet Dance
Pendet is the presentation of an offering in the form of a ritual dance. Unlike the exhibition dances that demand arduous training, Pendet may be danced by anyone. It is taught simply by imitation.
Younger girls follow the movements of the elder women, who recognize their responsibility in setting a good example. Proficiency comes with age. As a religious dance, Pendet is usually performed during temple ceremonies.
All dancers carry in their right hand a small offering of incense, cakes, water vessels, or flower formations. With these they dance from shrine to shrine within the temple. Pendet may be performed intermittently throughout the day and late into the night during temple feasts.
Ramayana Ballet | ||
| Basically, the Ramayana Ballet tells the same story of Rama and Sita as told in the Kecak (see Kecak Dance) but without the monkey ensemble and with a normal gamelan orchestra. Rites of Passage The Balinese believe that the individual soul is reincarnated into many lifetimes until, through numerous struggles and stages, it achieves union with the divine. It is the duty of every Balinese to have children as vessels for ancestors' spirits to be reincarnated. A man does not become a full member of his banjar until he is a father. Children are loved and highly prized in Bali, especially male children, as they carry the blood line of the family and also look after the burial and cremation of their parents.As each lifetime is regarded as a passage from one state to another, so also there are critical stages during life where an important passage occurs leading toward adulthood. It is the duty of family and friends to help each child through these passages. The rites of passage begin while the baby is still in the womb. After a safe delivery, the afterbirth is ritually buried under a stone in the family compound. At 210 days (one Balinese year), the child is given its name. A Balinese child is never allowed to crawl, as this is regarded as animalistic. He is carried everywhere until he learns to stand and walk. The passage into puberty is celebrated for both males and females. A girl's first menstruation is celebrated, and there is a rite of tooth filing for both girl and boys. The canine teeth, which the Balinese regard as animalistic fangs, are filed flat. This represents the 'leveling' of the more extreme aspects of one?s personality as one enters adulthood. After the tooth-filing, a father?s duties to his daughters are complete. For a son, the father must finance and conduct the marriage ceremony, welcoming the bride as a new daughter into the family. The new bride leaves her old ties behind and takes her place in her new family.
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