Traditional Balinese Dance::: Legong & Barong

Dance is very important to the Balinese culture as it is too many asian groups. Legong is one of the most popular traditional dances, mainly danced by women. The eyes, fingers, & hand movements are the most important elements as they are used to express much of the story being told.

We watched three stories/dances at the palace in Ubud. they were fanciful strories about kings, queens, monsters, gods, and of course love and rivalry.

These were very strange characters, seemingly playing the parts of the bad guys imps & village idiots-- they were seduced by the queens nymphs as seen below




The barong dance is a dance of animals. Traditionally two people dancing as this giant dog creature and another as a monkey. The two plays tricks on each other and the setting is very light hearted and playful

Tawur Kesanga & Nyepi:: (Hindu New Years) ogoh-ogohs & day of silence

Hari Raya Nyepi (nyepi day) is the hindu new years. It is on a 210 day cycle and happened to fall on March 19th this year. Nyepi day is a day of silence where no one is allowed to use leave their home, use electricity or other lamps, etc...if you are a tourist you are allowed a few more luxuries, but you still cannot leave the hotel (we made sure we had a nice pool and and were on right on the beach!!)

the day before nyepi is Tawur Kesanga, a cleansing & excorsing day. All the male teenagers in the village spend weeks creating giant paper mache monsters. On the day of kids parade them through the streets at sun down run wildly and doing crazy dances with them. Afterwards they burn them in giant bonfires.

all the little villages were decorated with all sorts of palm weavings & other crafts
some of the ogoh-ogohs





these boys were very,very proud of their sculpture (it was very good) and were extremely rowdy as well (many of the boys are drinking the local fire water, arak,---and some even took swigs which they lit on fire during the parade!!)



a young group of boys with an amature but admirable effort of ogoh-ogoh insisted that joe take the head (which they dont burn) home with him... unfortunately it didnt fit in his back pack.