Essentially an exorcism dance, the barong
features a benign monster rather like lion in the Chinese
lion dance, but with long white hair and fitted with leather
saddles. Its mount opens and shuts noisily. Its opponent is
the rangda, a witch with lng white hair, drooping breast,
bulging eyes and twisted fangs, and flourishing a magically
powerful white cloth.
The full version begins with
introductory dance unconnected to the main action – a
comic confrontation between the barong and three masked palm-wine
tappers, and a short legong dance.
 The
play proper’s essential feature is a battle between the
good-natured barong and the rangda, with the barong assisted,
not very effectively, by a group of men armed with kris (short
swords). What leads up to this is a plot involving a queen who
has to sacrifice the son to the goddess of death. The son is
saved, being given immortality by the god Siwa, but take on
a variety of heroic tasks which quickly prove to much for him.
Hel calls on the barong for help, and the barong in turn calls
on the armed warriors.
The rangda puts a spell on the
men so that they try to kill themselves. The barong, however,
renders their swords harmless and the impotent frenzy of the
entranced warrior is a big feature of the show.
The rangda is finally defeated,
but real magic is considered to have been brought forth by the performance
– and indeed the warriors are often in an actual trance by
this stage – and so a chicken is sacrificed and water sprinkled
on the warriors by a resident pemangku (holy man) as conclusion
to the dance.
Barong and Kris dance perform daily
start from 09:30 until 10:30 at Batubulan
village.
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