The Barong Dance

Basicly the story of Barong dance is a fighting between good and evil. Good represent by Barong and evil represent by Rangda. According to Balinese mythology, the story goes that Rangda, a legendary queen who killed her husband because she was condemned for practicing black magic. After became a widow, she summoned all the evil spirit to come after Erlangga, son of her husband. Rangda and her evil troops were too strong for Erlangga. She casted a spell that made Erlangga’s soldier wanted to kill themselves. They are forced to stab their own keris (traditional Balinese sword) into their own stomachs and chests. To neutralized Rangda’s spell, Erlangga had to ask Barong’s help. Barong casted a spell that made Erlangga’s soldier resistant to the keris. In a Barong dance, somebody can die or seriously injured when performing this scene. Because the dancer are trully stab their own stomach and chess when performing this scene. They went into a trance by Rangda’s spell which casted by a priest. But the priest are also casted a Barong’s spell to made the body of the dancer resistant to the keris. But sometimes the Rangda’s spell are too strong. They may end up hurting themselves with their own keris.

Picture from Royal Ngaben 2008

This picture taken from the royal ngaben 2008 which considered as the greatest Ngaben ceremony ever in Bali. This ceremony held for two royal Ubud family. They are Tjokorda Agung Suyasa and Tjokorda Gde Raka. As we know Ngaben is a cremation ceremony in Bali. The Balinese believe that the death must be dissolved to let the spirit reincarnate.

Ngaben : The Cremation Ceremony

The Hindus Balinese believe that the body after the death must be dissolved to let the spirit reincarnate. Ngaben, the Balinese ceremony for cremation are held to frees the spirit from its temporary earthly body and facilities its journey to its next life. Before the cremation ceremony, the family will treat the deceased as sleeping. The nigth before the cremation, holy water will be collected from some main temple and used to prepare the deceased during the ceremony.

On the ceremony day, the body of the deceased is placed inside a coffin made of paper and wood. This coffin resemble a buffalo or a temple structure. This coffin will be carried to the cremation site in a procession. To confuse bad spirit and keep them away from the deceased the procession is not walking in a straight line. The ultimate procession of Ngaben is to burn the coffin by fire from a holy source. After the burning procces is over, the family of the deceased will collect the ashes and bones from the body. This ashes will placed in the sea.

The Legong Dance

The word “Legong” is from the word “leg” mean elastic or elegance and the word “gong” mean the music, so the Legong is a dance which represent the epitomy of grace and feminity. Originally, music for legong accompaniment is Gamelan Pelegongan. It’s a kind of percussion instruments with bronze keys, cymbals, and drums, although it can also accompanied by gamelan gong kebyar, the modern version of Balinese gamelan. The Legong Dance has a very complex movement. The most memerizing movement is the hands. As the arms move up and about, the fingers are doing a dance of their own. At the same time, they can make individual pairs of fingers flutter simultaneously and their eyes are darting left to right.

The Legong Dancer are selected among little girls in the village for their suppleness and beauty. The dancers start performing for public at a very early age. They will go on performing legong until the age of puberty. Exellent legong dancers are respected as master dancers at older age.

The Legong dance are performed in a stage called Kalangan, just like other Balinese dance and dramas. Kalangan is an open space stage with a kind of half circle tribune for spectators. Completed with a big tree, usually an enormous banyan tree which overshadow the stage. The backdrops are an elevated beautiful carved Candi Bentar gate, where the dancers emerge.

Some village in Central and Southern Bali such as Peliatan, Ubud, Saba, Bedulu, Sukawati, Binoh and Karambitan are popular as the home of the Legong. These villages posses long Legong traditions, and most of them still own high quality legong groups today.