Bali has a phenomenal variety of arts and culture, some of which are even widely known abroad. Well, one of the cultural arts from Bali which is quite famous is the Barong dance. So, what is the history of the Barong dance like? So what are the types of Barong dance? So that you don’t get curious, read the complete discussion in this article.

 

A Brief History of the Barong Dance

Barong dance is a culture that is often associated with spiritual things. If you look at its history, this dance depicts a classic battle between good and evil. In Balinese belief, Barong is a figure whose appearance resembles a lion. Barong is considered a spirit king who represents virtue or is also known as a guardian angel figure.

Well, this Barong has a mortal enemy named Rangda (in Javanese it means widow). Rangda is also known as the devil queen who leads an army of evil witches on earth. In the dance drama, you will see the story of Barong who tries to eliminate Rangda’s magic, because this creature is trying to rule the world through his black magic. Then, the men will fight each other using keris daggers, but when Barong appears the daggers suddenly change direction and instead stab themselves.

After that, the players started to fall into a trance. Seeing these conditions, Barong tried hard to defeat Rangda so that natural conditions would return to balance. In the end, in this story Barong succeeded in defeating Rangda. Then the players who were in a trance slowly began to wake up and seemed to be reborn (reincarnated) thanks to the splash of holy water.

 

The meaning of the Barong Dance

The meaning of the Barong dance itself is to maintain balance between two contradictory things, namely good and evil. As previously explained, goodness is symbolized by Barong while evil is depicted by Rangda. Therefore, Barong dance is not just an artistic performance. This dance has sacred elements and has its own philosophy, where the figure of Barong succeeds in defeating Rangda to create balance in the world, so that no evil can disrupt human survival.

 

barong dance batubulan bali

Source: traveloka.com

 

Types of Barong Dance

For each region in Bali, the Barong figure is depicted with a different animal. Quoted from the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Posspika website, the following are the types of Barong dance.

  1. Barong Ket or Barong Keket
    Barong Ket is a Barong figure whose appearance resembles a human but whose body size is quite tall, approximately twice the height of an adult. The male Barong is called Jero Gede, while the female Barong is called Jero Luh. It is said that this type of Barong was made to trick the spirits who often threaten humans. Barong Ket is the Barong dance that is most often performed on the Island of the Gods. Apart from that, the Barong Ket dance has the most complete dance movements among the other Barong dances.
  2. Barong Bangkal
    Barong Bangkal is a Barong figure whose appearance resembles a pig. For information, in Bali male pigs are called bangkal while female pigs are called benchung. Therefore, this Barong dance is called Barong Bangkal. Usually the Barong Bangkal dance is carried out by ngelawang, namely dancing from door to door while going around the village during the Galungan-Kuningan holiday. The Barong Bangkal dance is performed by two people accompanied by gamelan batel or tetamburan.
  3. Barong Landung (Giant Barong)
    Barong Landung is a Barong dance performed by a dancer. However, in a number of areas in Bali, Barong Landung is played by more than one dancer. Usually, Barong Landung dancers have other roles such as Mantri (king), Galuh (empress), Limbur (lady) and so on.
  4. Barong Macan
    Barong Macan is a Barong dance whose shape resembles a tiger. This type of Barong dance is quite popular among Balinese people. Similar to the Barong Bangkal dance, the Barong Macan dance is performed with ngelawang and accompanied by gamelan batel music.
  5. Barong Asu
    Barong Asu is a Barong dance whose shape is similar to a dog. However, the Barong Asu dance is not as popular as other Barong dances, in fact currently Barong Asu is quite rare and can only be seen in the Tabanan and Badung areas.
  6. Barong Gajah
    As the name suggests, the Barong dance resembles an elephant. However, because this dance is sacred to Balinese people, it is quite difficult to see the Barong Gajah dance performance. However, you can still see the Barong Gajah dance when visiting the Gianyar, Tabanan, Badung and Bangli areas.

 

Barong Dance Costume

Basically, the costumes used for the Barong dance are different. This depends on the type of Barong that will be performed, whether the Barong Ket, Barong Bangkal or Barong Asu dance is performed.

For example, in the Barong Ket dance, because its shape resembles a lion, tiger and ox, the Barong costume is certainly different from the Barong Gajah. For the Barong Ket dance, the upper part of the body is decorated with leather ornaments in the form of pieces of glass or mirrors and thick white feathers around the face.

Meanwhile, the Barong head wears a mask made of wood. A little information, the wood used to make masks cannot be done anywhere, so the wood is special wood taken from sacred trees.

 

barong dance batubulan wiki

Source: wikipedia.com

 

Barong Dance Performance Location

If you are planning to watch the Barong dance while on holiday to Bali, here we have summarized several locations for Barong dance performances on the Island of the Gods as reported by travel agent sites.

  1. Batubulan
    One of the most famous Barong dance performance locations is in Batubulan village, Gianyar Regency, Bali. Apart from watching the Barong dance, you can also see other typical Balinese dances such as the Kecak dance and the Lenggong dance.
  2. GWK Cultural Park
    Apart from Batubulan, you can also watch the Barong dance at the GWK (Garuda Wisnu Kencana) Cultural Park. Apart from being famous for its very large statue building, the GWK Cultural Park also displays dance arts such as Joged Bumbung, Kecak Dance, and Legong Dance.
  3. Kesiman
    The next list of Barong dance performance locations is in Kesiman, specifically at Sekaa Barong Eka Budhi. In this place you can watch phenomenal Barong and Keris dance performances.