Barong at Batubulan

Pictured here, the front view of Barong.

Most well known dance. A story telling dance, narrating the fight between the good and evil. The followings are the variation we watched in Batubulan.

Opening Act
The Barong, a symbol of good, elegance & simplicity is an illustration of the lion. It's danced by 2 people. In the opening act, the barong showed off it's elegance. The barong was later seen leisuring in the forest, with a monkey, which is a character of friendship to the barong. The monkey entertains and annoys the barong, and creates the atmosphere of entertainment to the audience.

3 masked men then appreared, representing men making palmwine in the forest, whose child was killed by the barong. The men got angry and attacked the barong, which is helped by the monkey. During the fight, one of the men's nose was chopped off by the monkey.

Act 1
2 girl dancers appeared, representing the servants of the Rangda, looking for the servants of Dewi Kunti who were on their way to meet the Patih (prime minister).

Act 2
Dewi Kunti controlled by her sadness was influenced by a witch and later ordered her Patih to take Sahadewa to jungle to be sacrificed to Rangda. The Patih was later controlled and influenced by the witch. He captured Sahadewa and tied him up to the tree, to be eaten by Rangda.

Act 3
Unknown to Rangda, the God Siwa appeared & gave Sahadewa immortality. Rangda appeared & was ready to kill Sahadewa.

Act 4
However, Sahadewa couldn't be killed. Rangda then surrendered and asked Sahadewa to redeem herself. He agreed and killed Rangda.

Act 5
One of Rangda's servant, called Kalika came up before Sahadewa & asked him to redeem her too but he refused. Kalika got angry, changed herself into a boar and fought Sahadewa but the boar was defeated. She then changed herself into a bird but got defeated too. She finally changed herself into Rangda.

Closing act
The eternal fight continues. Only the pure heart of Barong can overcome the bad spirited Rangda. The dance was later followed by "Kris dancers", men armed with kris daggers who had come to help Barong to fight the evil Rangda. The witch spell reversed their fury back to themselves & they plunged their kris against their own body. Barong, with it's powerful charm, protects the men against the self inflicting harm.