2011-04-15

Bali Dances and Performances

There are several other dances that could excite you. Dance and drama have historically played an important role in Balinese society. Balinese dances are famous all over the world and the Balinese themselves take them very seriously.

Birthdays, weddings, and temples festivals are all occasions for dramatic performances and dance is inextricably linked with the Balinese religion. Through this medium, people learnt about the tales of the Ramayana, Mahabrata and other epic stories from Balinese history.


Barong and Rangda dance

This is basically a story about the struggle between good and evil. Good is personified by the Barong Keket, a strange, fun-loving creature in the shape of a shaggy semi-lion. Evil is represented by Rangda, a witch. Ultimately, the two characters engage in battle, at which point the Barong's keris-bearingRata Kiri Kanan follower rush in to attack Rangda. The witch, however, uses her magical powers to turn the keris knives in upon their owners, who fall into a trance and start trying to stab themselves. The Barong uses magic to protect his followers from the knives. In the end, the Barong triumphs and Rangda retreats to recuperate her strength for the next encounter. All that remains is for a priest to help the keris dancers out of their trance, with the help of a little holy water. The Barong and Rangda dance is a very powerful performance and is not taken lightly by those involved.


Kecak Dance
The Kecak is an unusual Balinese dance for a couple of reasons. First, there is no musical accompaniment. The gamelan is not there. Rhythm is provided by a chanting 'monkey' chorus. The polyrhythmic sound of the chanting provides the name, 'Kecak'. The story line for the Kecak is taken from the Ramayana. Prince Rama goes hunting for a golden deer and his beautiful wife is kidnapped by the evil Rawana. Story is secondary in this performance, though. If you want to see the story of the Ramayana, you should see a Ramayana performance. The Kecak is a triumph of style and mood, rather than story. Watch the faces of audience members. More than any other Balinese dance, the Kecak turns every viewer into a child, wide-eyed and transfixed.


Legong Dance

The story derives from the history of East Java in the 1 2th and 1 3th centuries: when on a journey the King of Lasem finds the maiden Rangkesari lost in the forest. Rangkesari's brother. Prince Daha, gathers an army together to rescue his sister. Princess Rangkesari then tries to persuade Laksmi to let her go to avoid a war, but he denies her her freedom. On his way to battle, Daha is attacked by a raven, a bad omen, and is later killed in battle. The dance only takes the story up to the point where the king departs for battle, and it is performed by three people, two Legongs and their attendant, the "Condong". The Legong is a very classical and graceful dance, and is always performed by pre-pubescent girls, often as young as eight or nine years old.


Baris Dance
A warrior dance for a group of a dozen or middle age men, its purpose is to protect the visiting gods at temple festival from evil spirits. The dancers wear headdresses with a triangle of white clothe at the back. This dance requires great skill, with the artist having to display the whole range of inner emotions, mainly through facial expression.


Shanghyang Trance Dance

The Sanghyang is a divine force that enters the bodies of the entranced dancers. There are a number of dances, but the most common are the Sanghyang Dedari and the Snghyang Jaran. The Sanghyang Dedari is performed by two girls, and is very similar in style to the Legong; the main difference is that the Sanghyang Dedari girls are supposedly untrained and can keep in perfect time with each other, even though their eyes are firmly shut. The accompanying music is provided by a female choir and a male Kecak choir.
In the Sanghyang Jaran, a boy dances around and through a fire, riding a coconut palm hobbyhorse. This is a frequently called the "Fire Dance", for the sake of tourists. In both dances, a priest is always on hand to help bring the dancers out of their trance-state at the end of the performance.


Calon Arang
An exorcism drama aimed at the local village witches (leyak, celuluk) and performed when a new temple is dedicated.The part of rangda is taken by an experienced older aktor becouse the performance involves the witch going into an entrance rage, possessed so Balinese believe by the spirit of the actual Rangda. The end of this even id unpredictable and a Rangda can occasion run amok. The purpose of the performance is to placate the rangda by demonstrating her power, and thus gain her co-operation against the lesser witches in the village.


Mask Dance
In Bali, masks are considered sacred objects, and are revered as such. The best ones are traditionally carved on auspicious days, and the dancers who wear them are believed to be possessed by the spirits of the masks. Characters can be identified from the shape of the features; noble characters always wear full, refined masks; while evil is represented by bulging eyes and garish colours. The characters are silent, but communicate using complex gestures of the hand, head and body. The story lines usually follow popular myths, or episodes from history.


source:bali-travels.blogspot.com

Bali Scuba Diving Site: Secret Bay

Secret Bay is the more poetic name given by Bali's diving community to Gilimanuk Bay, adjacent to where the ferries to and from Java dock. It is about 20mins by road from Labuan Lalang/ Menjangan and located in West Bali National Park. The bay is about 2km wide, very shallow (3-12M), contains two small islands, and has some areas of mangrove. Being the only bay off the narrow Bali Strait, where currents can reach 7knots, means that Gilimanuk acts as a catch tank (a big underwater nursery!) for many larval fish. A reef lying just outside the mouth of the bay creates a channel through which these waters are swept; this is what makes Gilimanuk an extremely interesting dive site. These strong tidal currents mean that the fish and invertebrates are extremely healthy, colourful and well-fed (also that the water is colder than generally found in Bali, around 25C).


Entering the bay, as these macro critters do, from the channel, the bottom is fine black and grey volcanic sand. The channel contains no coral although the sides are scattered with bommies full of angelfish, butterflyfish, schools of razorfish and tiny reef fish that include cardinalfish and multitudes of damselfish.

Secret Bay is muck-diving (ie: diving with a mud bottom) in shallow water with no water movement. Therefore, too much fin movement and/or less than perfect buoyancy control will stir up the bottom, leaving you with low visibility in that area.

The best time to dive is on the incoming tide or around high tide, it doesn't matter if it's early or late in the day, as the bay will have filled with clear water from the Bali Strait. At this time, visibility can be 30M+ although there's a fair amount of rubbish floating around.

Mandarinfish, Secret Bay, Bali Gilimanuk Bay contains many rare macro-photography subjects that include nudibranches, gobies, crustaceans, dragonets, abundant seahorse/pipefish, juvenile Batavia batfish, large areas of long-spined sea urchins with clingfish, and many, many other organisms. At other sites it's difficult to see juveniles as they hide to avoid predators. However, as the bay is shallow there are very few large fish, therefore juveniles have very little to fear, to hide from.

Night-diving at Secret Bay is a unique experience! Cephalopods of all shapes and sizes, crustaceans wandering in search of dinner, other weird and wonderful creatures.

While Bali offers great diversity of dive sites, Gilimanuk Bay is unique within Bali. It is the very definition of muck-diving. No rich coral reefs, no depth to speak of, it is in basically a site for macro-photographers, not wide-angle, and maybe for the occasional recreational diver looking for something different from the norm.


source:bali-travels.blogspot.com

2011-04-11

About Batukaru Temple

Pura Luhur Batukaru, a unique sacred mountain sanctuary and royal temple of Tabanan dynasty, situated on the foot of mount Batukaru, 23 km north of Tabanan, built to venerate deities of mountains and lake.

pura_batukaru_temple_bocave
flickr.com/photos/bocavermelha/


Based on the scripture, the temple was founded in 11th century by Empu Kuturan, a great Hindu sage who established six main temple of Bali. At that time, this temple was a sanctuary for hermits. In 1604, the temple was attacked and partially destroyed by the king of Buleleng, Anglurah Panji Sakti, but his troops were beaten back by millions of bees unleashed by the protective spirit of the temple. Pura Luhur Batukaru was not rebuilt until 1959, even though pilgrims had continued to worship in rubble.

pura batukaru temple
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The Pura Luhur Batukaru lies in solitary clearing 1,300 m above the sea level, set amidst a garden of flowering frangipani and hibiscus, with a gigantic, inhabited, humid tropical forest all around it. The site is often cool and has highest rainfall on Bali. the temple complex consists of a main enclosure to the north and two smaller complexes tucked away in the forest.

pura batukaru temple
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Within the complex are a number of symbolically distinct shrines, each representing a different Tabanan dynasty. Due to the cool climate and high rainfall, the shrines in this temple are covered by moss. The Pura Luhur is also known as Pura Taman that means it has a bathing place and maintained by a king. The most magnificent shrine in this temple is seven-tiered meru, dedicated to the God Mahadewa who presides over mount Batukaru.

meru at pura batukaru temple
flickr.com/photos/conceptworker/


A few meters east of the temple are steps leading down to a square artificial pool with a miniature of island in the middle. On the isle, there are two shrines, one dedicated to Mount Batukaru and other for the deities of the lake. Nearby are a small temple and a sacred spring, bubbling up from a riverbank.

pura batukaru temple
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The temple anniversary falls on Manis Galungan, a day after Galungan holyday. On that day thousand of pilgrims from all over the island will flock to the temple to pay homage to the deities in this sacred temple.

pura batukaru temple
flickr.com/photos/conceptworker/


Source:blog.baliwww.com