Barong & Kris Dance

Batubulan to see Barong ans Kris dance. Batubulan others great claim to fame is trance - every morning at 9.30 sharp. Here you can witness the eternal conflict between Ratu Barong, the faithful guardian of community, who looks like an overdressed cross between a lion and a Pekinese dog, and the pendulous-breasted Rangda, denomic mistress of the graveyard. At the height of the drama, Barong’s entranced acolytes turn their serpentine-bladed krises upon themselves, ussully with no ill effect. Even the Balinese, who find a trance state easy to slip into, draw the line at trancing every day, so they have invented more mundane tricks to avoid being wounded by their sharp blades. The Barong dance, as the perfomance has recently been renamed for accuracy, is nonetheless an impressive spectacle, and it is not unusual for one or teo of the players to unexpectedly drop into a gunuine trance. Three very professional groups perform the Barong Dance each morning. Barong and kris dance is included in the bali nature holiday package that we offered to you.

Puseh Batuan Temple

Batuan Village as Trinity temple. Our bali nature holiday package will visit this temple because there is a healthy population here of every religious sect and caste, each requiring its own complete set of temples, Batuan boasts more iteresting temples than many far larger villages. Probably the most impressive among these is the Pura Puseh Batuan ( the Temple of origin, literally the “Navel Temple” ), a short distance down a secondary road heading west from the crossroad, where the main road takes a sharp right-angle turn to the north. Directly opposite a large meeting hall, the temple is difficult to miss as a pair of six-foot stone raksasa ( guardian giants ), standing either side of the road, guard the approach from both directions. Almost all the sculpture on this temple, whether dating from past centuries or made for the 1992 restoration, combine superb technical craftsmanship with imaginative personality. The newly rebuilt gedong rum, a three-tiered rectangular shrine on east side of the inner courtyard, and the meru alit, the shrine next to it, both with traditional murals of the gods beneath their eaves, are fine example of what is still possible in sacred Balinese architecture. The lively stone faces growing out of a floral scroll at the base of the meru alit are particularly striking. The earnest scholar can profit from the small signs which name each of the temple’s shrines in both Balinese and modern Indonesia text for benefit of worshipers who do not wish to misplace their offerings. A doorway through the west wall, flanked by two reclining rams, leads to an unusual water garden whose massive gate, reminiscent of Javanese Hindu temple, and pond have been freshly restored for the first time since their collapes in the eartquake of 1917. At the center of the pond is Bedawang, the cosmic turtle upon whom the universe rests. In a peaceful corner, an orderly array of broken statues and architectural details, casualities of the earthquake, await their turn to be incorporated in future restorations of the pavilions.