Barong

In the cool dark of the village death temple, behind a curtain almost no one is permitted to draw back, a lion sleeps. Its face is carved from sacred pule wood and painted deep red, its eyes bulge gold, its mane falls in white hanks of real hair, and its long body is a tunnel of gilded leather sewn with hundreds of tiny mirrors. For most of the year it hangs there in incense and shadow, fed offerings, watched over the way you watch over something that might wake. When the village needs defending, two men climb inside it, and it does.

This is Barong, the king of the spirits and the leader of everything good in the Balinese world. The spirit that gives him life is Banaspati Raja, the King of the Forest, and in the local understanding he is no distant god on a mountain but something far closer. Banaspati Raja is reckoned the fourth of the four spirit-siblings born alongside every person, a guardian that walks with you from cradle to grave. The name itself seems to reach back to an older word, bahruang, the bear, the good animal who keeps the woods. Barong wears beasts the way other gods wear robes.

He does not wear only the lion. There is Barong Bangkal, the wild boar, tusked and low to the ground. There is Barong Macan, the tiger, and Barong Asu the dog, Barong Gajah the elephant, and the towering Barong Landung, a pair of giant ancestral puppets, one male and one female, who stalk through festival crowds on the shoulders of the men inside them. But the lion is the one most villages keep. Barong Ket is a hybrid that borrows from lion, tiger and ox at once, the most elaborate of the forms and the one with the fullest repertoire of movement, and it is his red mask that hangs in the temples of Bali.

On the days around Galungan, when the ancestors are said to return to the island, the Barong comes out and goes walking. Two dancers fit themselves under the frame, one working the snapping jaw and the front legs, one bent low for the haunches, and the beast moves house to house through the lanes with a clatter of gamelan behind it. This is ngelawang. Children scatter and chase, the jaw clacks, the mirrors throw the morning back in fragments, and at each doorway the family receives a blessing and the illnesses and ill luck of the household are nudged out into the road. The boar form is the usual traveller for this. It is slow, patient work, and it is the whole point of him.

His enemy is never far. Rangda is the widow-witch, queen of the leyak, with her mane of matted hair, her hanging breasts, her tongue of fire and her fangs, and she is the dark to his light. The stories trace her to Calon Arang and to Mahendradatta, a real eleventh-century queen and mother of King Airlangga, cast out and humiliated until she turned her grief into plague and sorcery. Rangda in the old tongue means widow. When Barong and Rangda meet in the dance, they meet as opposites that cannot live without each other, and the encounter never resolves. She cannot be killed. He cannot be beaten. Neither one ever wins.

The most unsettling moment belongs to his followers. In the climax of the drama the men who serve Barong rush at Rangda with their kris drawn, and she throws a spell that turns the blades back on the hands that hold them. The men press the points hard against their own bare chests, faces slack, deep in trance, and the steel does not go in. Barong’s power has made flesh proof against iron. A priest moves among them with holy water and brings them back, sometimes shaking, often with no memory of it. People still cut themselves on those daggers when the protection slips, which is part of why the masks are treated as living things and not as props.

Up close the lion is gaudy and strange and a little frightening. The gilded jaw hinges and snaps, the beard is hung with frangipani, brass bells ride the leather, and the whole hide glitters with mirror-glass so that he is hard to look at directly in sunlight. Every detail is consecrated. The pule wood is cut with ceremony, the finished mask is blessed and given its spirit, and from then on it is fed, dressed and housed in the temple of the dead rather than stored like a costume.

What Barong can do follows from what he is. He purifies. He shields a village from sickness and from the appetites of witches. He restores the balance that Rangda is forever tipping, and he lends his own invulnerability to the bodies of the faithful. What he cannot do follows just as plainly. He cannot end the war, only fight it again next year, because evil here is not a thing to be destroyed but a thing to be held off. His strength runs through the mask and the trance and the priest’s holy water, which means it depends on care, on belief, and on people willing to climb inside him and dance. Evil is never beaten on this island. It is only kept at bay one more season.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Barong in Balinese mythology?

Barong is the king of the spirits and the leader of the forces of good in Balinese mythology, a protective guardian who defends villages from evil. He most often appears as a shaggy, lion-like beast animated by the forest spirit Banaspati Raja, and he is the eternal opponent of the demon-witch Rangda.

What does Barong do?

Barong protects Balinese communities by warding off sickness, misfortune, and the black magic of witches called leyak. His consecrated mask is kept in the village temple and brought out to bless homes during festivals such as Galungan, and in ritual dance he battles Rangda to keep good and evil in balance.

What is the difference between Barong and Rangda?

Barong is the benevolent spirit-king of good, while Rangda is the fearsome widow-witch who rules the leyak and embodies evil. They are cosmic opposites locked in an endless struggle, and in every telling neither can defeat the other, because their conflict represents the permanent balance of light and dark.

Why do dancers stab themselves in the Barong dance?

In the climax of the Barong dance, Rangda casts a spell that turns the followers’ kris daggers back on themselves, and they press the blades to their own chests while in a trance. Barong’s protective power makes them invulnerable, so the steel does not pierce them, and a priest revives them afterward with holy water.

What are the different types of Barong?

The most common is Barong Ket, a hybrid lion form that is the most ornate and is kept in most villages. Other types include Barong Bangkal (wild boar), Barong Macan (tiger), Barong Asu (dog), Barong Gajah (elephant), and Barong Landung, a pair of towering male and female ancestral puppet figures.

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