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Barong dance portrays a story from Mahabharata where Sahadeva achieved immortality, a story less known to many Indians. What you see in here is Devi Kunti (Balinese refer to Kunti as Devi Kunti without fail!) at the center and Sahadeva to the right of her. Kunti had promised Rangda, an evil witch to sacrifice Sahadeva so Rangda would stop troubling innocent people.
It was difficult to judge the acting skills of these actors because they acted through theor dance based movements. Besides that all the females for some reason spoke in a sqeuaky pitch which was very distracting. Had it not been for the melodious Gambulan, I would have started focusing on other things in the auditorium than the characters. But thanks to the handouts about the show we received at the beginning, we could figure out the characters and the story. Balinese dialogs would have been a simple bouncer otherwise.
The Barong dance starts not with the Barong act but with these two beautiful ladies in their traditional best instead. The silk robes with intricate golden embroidery made those pretty ladies shine in the morning sunlight. The best part of their ensemble was the Plumeria crowns which were so delicate but suited the ladies with ultimate precision. That was the first time I also realized that I already need a telephoto lens as I could not zoom my 18-55 mm enough to capture only those crowns.
I am not a great admirer of the dances but their performance quite fine with movements similar to those in Bharatanatyam along with the melody of the Gambulan. This dance act gets the play started, after which the Barong enters. And fortunately it lasted only till the time after which I would’ve started yawning.
When we reached the main auditorium, of course the play was yet to start. But what had already started was the orchestra - the Gambulan.
Some 15-20 players in their traditional outfits had already taken their seats and were playing their instruments some of which resembled their Indian counterparts. The flower that you notice on the left ear of every player is a part of Balinese culture. They put flowers on the left ear of the guests a part of welcoming ceremony.
Although an aseembly of a little strange looking instruments, the players were good enough to create a melodious harmony out of it.
Barong dance is a very traditional play based on a story from Mahabharata. I was very impressed by the traditional stage on which this play is performed.
As you see here, keeping in mind all the necessary symmetries, elevations from the audience stand, the stage built in the stone has a very authentic touch of the Balinese culture. Even more impressive were the trees on the stage itself which had grown to full heights. Someone really thought through the design while building this open air auditorium some hundred years ago!
The character you see here is the Barong! He is a mythological character, supposed to be powerful and with magical powers. He helps Sahadeva, the youngest of the Pandavas, to defeat an evil witch.
Every nook and corner of Bali is decorated with beautiful sculptures like the ones you see in this picture. On the very first day of our stay there, our guide took us for a local play based on a story from Mahabharata. The way to the open air auditorium was adorned with nicely manicured lawn. What you see in the picture made one of the boundaries of that lush green lawn. I couldn’t resist capturing these some 300-400 years old statues neatly carved in the sand colored stones.
These sculptures are usually organized perfectly against a backdrop of light orange colored brick walls. The effect is not just pious but also endearing. If you notice carefully, even the expressions on the face of the stone dude who is meditating are perfect. Symmetry of the whole sculpture, no need to say, but was flawless.
The more I read about Bali, more convinced I was that a trip to this Indonesian island will be a memorable one. Pictures available on different portals about Bali even made me buy a digital SLR camera, something I was planning to buy for a very long time. And the best part about whole thing was it was going to be my honeymoon destination!
We landed on Denpasar airport in Bali admiring the glimpses of the greenery of this tropical island. Beautiful sight of some nice structures on both sides of the airport corridors was so refreshing that we kind of enjoyed filling out the forms to declare not being the victims of swine flue. I hoped that all of Bali would be as pretty and nice. The next few days we spent there made us endorse the fact that Bali is indeed an amazing place.
Bali is all about nature, arts, culture and history. You can experience summer, monsoon and winter in a single day at various exotic locations. Ninety five percent of Balinese are Hindus (and they don’t feel shy saying so!). The ambience everywhere, the temples, the gardens, scenic locations, the people and the things they do remind you of India in some way or the other.
