Ceremony for Abundance: Barong Dance

          A few days ago we were invited by the driver that works for Bali Purnati, Wayan,  to an all night ceremony in his village about 45 minutes from here. What a gift it was. He first took us to his family compound where we met his two brothers who are both painters, and we were able to see how the Balinese compounds are arranged. When you first walk in, there is a stone statue of Ganesh, the protector, with his own little altar area. As I walked in further, the beauty of the compound struck me immediately. This family is not super well off, but there place still has intricately carved doors, and the edges f the roofs are carved into beautiful intricate designs and figures. In a Balinese family compound, there is always the family temple in the center, where they do all the family prayer and ceremonies. They have a daily ceremony in the morning and others throughout the year. Then all the buildings are carefully placed in the different directions, and the separate parts of the family live in the corresponding direction. Wayan’s entire family lived there including his father, his three brother’s and their wives, and all his little nieces and nephews. It was really an honor to be invited into his home.    

            We then went to his village’s temple where there was the third day of a four-day ceremony for abundance happening. We got there around 9pm and had to wait at least 45 minutes before the dance began. It was pretty funny how the Balinese children were reacting to us blond hair green eyed foreigners. They would all just start hysterically laughing at us if we went near them. But it wasn’t just the children that found us so amusing, even teenagers and adults would point and giggle. We were the only six westerners in a crowd of a few hundred Balinese, so needless to say we stood out.

             The ceremony began with the traditional Barong dance, which was amazing to watch. I had never seen anything like it. They had these intricately carved masks that had a cloth body attached to it so that two dancers could fit inside. The way they moved brought the beasts alive! Here is a video….