BARONG DANCE

BARONG DANCE

The barong dance describes the battle of justice against wickedness. Barong is a pre-historic animal which symbolizes justice, while Rangda is a horrible pre-historic animal and symbolize wickedness. The opening Gamelan melody of the baring dance begins with the barong and monkey in a dense forest. At that moment three masked persons appear, representing three villagers who are making tuwak or palm wine. They are sad because their child has been eaten with extraordinary courage fight against the tiger that in this case is the barong. Also the monkey appears and during the battle against the tiger, on of the three villagers is bitten on his nose by a monkey. This form is the introduction which is a prologue to the first act. Then two dancers who are followers of rangda looking for their friend. They meet other dancer’s followers of Dewi (Goddess) Kunti, who are on their way to meet their regent. The second act begins at the moment that the followers of Dewi Kunti arrive, and suddenly a follower of said Dewi Kunti suddenly transforms into a devil in the form of Rangda. Then he enters his evil spirit into the followers of Dewi Kunti causing them to become high tempered. Both met the regent together and report to Dewi Kunti, then in the third act Dwei Kunti appears together with her child sadewa. Dwei Kunti Promises Rangda she will render he child Sadewa, to him as an offering. Actually Dewi Kunti Does not have the heart to deliver her child as an offering but the devil in the form of Rangda has already entered her with his evil sprint and suddenly Dewi Kunti becomes in ill tempered person and with relief she turns over her child, Sadewa, to the regent to be thrown away in forest and ties him in front of Rangda’s place. The god Siwa arrives afterwards and gives eternal life to Sadewa unknown to Rangda. After learning of this Rangda becomes furious and tries to kill Sadewa, though it proves that he is invulnerable by the grace of god Siwa.
The consequence is that Rangda surrenders to Sadewa and even request to be saved so that he many enter heaven, his request is grainted by Sadewa and Rangda goes to heaven. Then another person comes to Sadewa, namely Kelika, followers of Rangda, who also reguests to be saved. But, Sadewa refused this. This refusal is the cause of a furious battle and Kelika is transformed into a wild boar.

In the battle between Sadewa and the wild boar, Sadewa wins, and the wild boar is attacked by villager. It seems very funny how its stomach is opened with a blunt knife and there is a commotion among the spectators when they see that the wild boar is carried into the forest and suddenly changes into a bird. Although he changes into a bird he is also defeated by sadewa. Unexpecctedly, some moment later the defeated bird becomes Rangda and, due to its magic power, Sadewa in unable to beat him. Sadewa transforms himself into a Barong. Both are equal in magic strength and the battle is very violent, no one wins, the war continues for ever, an eternal struggle between justice and wickedness. At that moment the followers of Barong appear, everybody armed with his Kris, to help Barong against Rangda. But they are not successful in subduing Rangda’s magic power until they voluntary use their krises to attempt suicide. Then the performance is ended. If you see the famous Barong performance in the village of Singapadu, about nine km from denpasar to Gianyar, not one person will wink an eye, because the war program is very interesting from beginning to end.