What is Barong and Keris Dance?

What is Barong and Keris Dance? - Bali mythology has a figure named Barong. In Bali's legendary beliefs, he is the king of the spirits, the commander of the forces of good, and Rangda's adversary. The fourth sibling or spirit kid that follows a child throughout life is called Banas Pati Rajah. The ghost that lives inside of Barong is called Banas Pati Rajah. He is a protective spirit who is frequently depicted as a lion. Traditional Balinese performances of his battles with Rangda are very well-liked. Two monkeys are frequently seen performing the Barong Dance.

The Barong is the enchanted guardian of Balinese settlements

He opposes Rangda the witch, who has control over the spirits of darkness, in the never-ending battle between good and evil as the lord of the forest with a spectacular fanged mask and long mane. The Barong (there are several varieties, including barong ket, barong macan, and barong bangkal) roams from door to door (nglawang) during the Galungan Kuningan festivities to purge the area of evi influences.

The Barong mithology and Kris dance is a conflict between good and bad spirits, similar to the Kecak dance. Barong can take on a variety of guises, but in this dance he adopts the dancing style of Barong Keket, the most revered of the Barongs. The Barong Keket is a peculiar animal that is played by two guys much like a circus clown horse. It is half shaggy dog and half lion. He is up against the witch Rangda.

The Barong and Keris Dance Performance's Narrative

There are other traditional legends about the conflict between Barong and Rangda, which are typically enacted in the temple of the dead. The most well-known is the tale of Calonarang, a Jirah-based widow who is enraged because she can't match her daughter Ratna Manggali with a spouse. She uses dark magic to terrorize all the available young men, so she exacts retribution by creating havoc on the Daha kingdom. Erlangga, the king, makes numerous attempts to punish her without success. He sends soldiers to kill her, but she kills them all. Then, Rangda decides to eliminate Daha. She gathers all of her followers, and they journey to the Setra Gendrainayu graveyard in the darkness of the night, to offer dead flesh as an offering to Durga, the goddess of death. While advising the witch not to enter the city of Daha, Durga consents to the destruction. However, the witch disregards Durga's counsel, and the kingdom soon becomes infected with the grubug (a plague), turning the villages into cemeteries as people start dying even before they can bury their dead. The smell is intolerable, and there are corpses lying about everywhere. The witch can only be vanquished by Mpu Bharadah.

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