June 7th we start the day by going to a traditional dance in the village of Batubulan.

The performance is the Barong and Keris Dance, which describes the story of the eternal battle between good and evil. The dance depicts the central spiritual concept of Bali.

The good character being Ratu Barong the faithful guardian of the community which looks like a combination lion, Pekinese dog and the evil character Rangda the demonic mistress of the graveyard.

The height of the drama occurs when Barong’s acolytes go into a trance state and plunge themselves with their serpentine bladed krises to no ill effect.

It seems there is rarely a winner in these battles since good and evil will always exist, in order for the other to be experienced.






Ratu Barong and his faithful monkey.