What Indonesia - Bali is all about ?

We were present once when Rangda returned to the Poera Dalem after the ceremony in the graveyard. The gamelan was playing just inside the temple gate and presently the sound of people running and the hoarse incoherent cries of some one in trance came up the path from the sea. Soon two Rangdas burst into the courtyard with wild cries, their pallid masks and white disheveled manes terrifying in the dim light. Immediately a number of men and boys rushed forward to the attack, and in one swift movement, as though on slippery ice, slid down under Rangda's feet in trance. A third Rangda was carried in, already in deep trance. The other two advanced towards the inner temple, were gradually overpowered, and disappeared, leaving half a dozen prostrate figures on the ground, some motionless as they fell, in various attitudes of abandon, some moaning and stirring uneasily. Soon a splendid Barong came trotting towards them from the darkness of the inner temple, with tossing mane and the homely comforting clack of his great jaws. When he pawed them some responded, others were dragged along to the main shrine where he stood dispensing benediction and revival from his beard. By now the Rangda masks had been ranged on their shelves and covered with a white cloth. Then began a dance of offering to the Barong, accompanied by exquisite melodies on the gamelan. Little girls brought offerings to Rangda and all the shrines; the Barong was back in his stall. The people melted away, leaving the temple alone with its masks.

The following rather complicated story introduces a number of characters who, under various disguises, haunt that curious graveyard country which is the scene of so many important happenings in Bali.
Civa and his wife Devi Cri were walking once in the mountain Waralaoe. And moved by the lonely beauty of the place Civa wanted to enjoy his wife. But she would not, because it seemed to her too solemn and godlike a place for such a thing. And while he strove with her two drops of sperma fell into a hollow of the mountain. Civa was vexed with his wife because she had caused them to be wasted, and he said mantras over them, and they became twins, a boy and a girl. Then he went away with Devi Cri and left the children alone. And in heaven he heard them crying for food; and he went down to them and told them who their father was, and gave them names: Kalawenara and Kalekek, and told them to find their food in the graveyard. Kalekek was to eat, but after midday only, the offerings for the dead; Kalawenara was to live beside the magic spring, on the titi-gonggan, and serve the god of the spring, whose name was Sanghyang Poettradjaja. And his food was to be the coins which accompany the offerings, and one of the cremation offerings.

Please access this web site for more Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and all Indonesia Hotels bali lombok yogyakarta jakartahotels- and Indonesian Holidays Information, hotels and travel reservation indonesia hotels travel holidays