Part 2 - Duality and Symbolism in Balinese Performance Art

[Full title: Sacred Dance, Magic and Transformation: Duality And Symbolism In Balinese Performance Art—Cian Kerrisk (2002)]

Balinese performance art is spectacular and colorful, while incorporating the fundamental religious, psychological and cultural principles of society. These fundamental principles permeate the underlying symbolic structure of dance or drama. By studying the replication and reflection of this structure in the dance of Barong and Rangda and in the broad vision of the Bali world, a greater understanding and a specific cultural symbolism of the Balinese people is possible.

The role of tourism in cultural performance, social change and transformation poses certain problems in relation to tradition and "authenticity", as well as the knowledge and inner / outer agency that are imperative in any anthropological or psychological research of the society. Balinese culture and art forms. These topics will be discussed in relation to the performance of the Barong and Rangda dance and the adaptations created by the interaction between Balinese "cultural bearers" and foreign tourists. Through this approach, the forms and symbolism of the art of cultural performance will be seen in the Balinese cultural context, while emphasizing local creative control and agency.

The Barong and Rangda dance is one of the most popular and well known performances in Bali. It embodies the rich cultural culture of theater, dance and music, as well as layers of religious and magical beliefs. The Barong is described as "a mythical monster with a long and flaccid body" which is covered by various types of material depending on the animal whose mask he uses (de Zoete & Spies, 1973: 90). Essentially, the dance / game consists of a magical rivalry between this bearded and dragon figure and the destructive widow-witch Rangda who is represented in a horrible demonic form (Belo, 1966).

At the presentation, the actors can "become" gods personifying and "spiritual power (Sakti) or soul (ROH) Barong and Rangda" could descend to their bodies (Lansing, 1974, quoted in Lansing, 1995). The culmination of the ritual performance is a group trance in which male performers attempt to attack the queen of the Rangda witches but are limited by their magic spells (Herbst, 1997). This discordant section of Barong and Rangda culminates in an altered and frantic state of consciousness in which the artists are stabbed with their Kris knives and remain unscathed from the blade. De Zoete and Spies (1973: 67) explain this state of trance when they say that "the personality of the dancer distanced to a certain extent during the dance, and the consciousness becomes other" (de Zoete and Spies, 1973: 67).

It has been stated that "when the movement and the gesture reach the point where they coincide with the rhythm, the construction of the melody and the counter, then, like wellconditioned reflexes, the dance has" entry "dancer" (Spencer, 1985: 10). De Zoete and Spies (1973) believe that, to a certain extent, all Balinese performance arts are associated with this state of trance. This altered state of consciousness experienced by the "kris dancers" shows a Balinese distinction between mind and body and can be seen as having important implications for understanding Balinese culture and its philosophical world view.

The Barong and Rangda dance ends with a non-beating character the other, but on a balance between good and evil forces in a form of synthesis or objective intrapsychic outer balance reminiscent of an individual in Jungian psychology. There are no winners in the battle, and it cannot be, since both forces are embodied are considered necessary parts of life that must be kept in balance (de Zoete and Spies, 1973). Rangda or "shadow" does not die but remains in balance with regard to the necessary and destructive side of the Goddess (Durga), "the wife of Shiva in her fearsome appearance" (Belo 1966: 18). It is said that the duel between the two characters represents the "daily and permanent conflict between good and evil and the overcoming of the latter by the balance of power" (Jensen and Suryani, 1992: 81). This is a reflection of Balinese conceptual frameworks to understand life where "all things have two sides (rua bineda): good and evil" (Jensen and Suryani, 1992: 80).

In acting, Rangda is assisted by leyaks, who are supposed to be able to "change shape" and turn into animals and birds, although apparently only at night because during the day local magicians "It's obvious who they are really "(Personal Notes, 1998).These leyaks who are considered" incarnations of black wizards ", but feared and dreaded seriously in everyday life, are often the cause of a lot of laughter and humor when they are represented to act (de Zoete and Spies, 1973: 69).

Therefore, it can be seen that cultural symbolic systems provide a "shield for terror" (Kertzer, 1988: 4). By embodying fear and death in the form of Rangda, the Balinese can exert some control over an abstract destructive force that would otherwise be uncontrollable. In this way, ritual performances place certain aspects of terror and fear under control and transform them into a manageable situation in which the emotional response is reversed. Belo (1966) reiterates this point by stating that the Barong / Rangda dance acts cathartically to allow an exit in which the forces of good and evil can act in a controlled manner. She declares that "after such an action, everyone goes home feeling perfectly well and at peace with the world" (Belo, 1966: 12).

Stutterheim (1935, cited in Belo, 1966: 29) tells how Rangda is also associated with the historical character of a Javanese princess of the eleventh century. Otherwise, Belo (1966) proposed that the Barong and Rangda rivalry in Balinese work could symbolically relate to a conflict between Hindu religious beliefs with (or perhaps animistic) Buddhist forms of belief and prior practice. The popular village priests (pemang koe) who will preside over such occasions instead of the Hindu priests (pedanda) may indicate some indications of the ancient animistic and magical practices preserved in the representations. However, in saying this, a certain amount of syncretism is active in this transfer of character, and as Belo (1966: 20) explains, "the influence is there, but it can only be accepted and understood by light.. and in terms of their own experience and the characteristic structure of the natural and supernatural worlds. "

"Rangda" in Balinese also means "widow" and the figure is associated with cemeteries and crossroads. The goddess / demon is considered the queen of witches (her disciples are the sons / daughters of the widow). In my opinion, the appearance of the goddess embodied in Rangda is not Durga in the standard sense, but the tantric personification of the goddess in the form of "Dhumavati", who is presented as a widow and "witch or witch". (Frawley, 1999) A description of the Rangda mask used in the pieces indicates that it has "huge projecting eyes and huge white teeth and fangs that curl upwards in the forehead" (by Zoete and Spies, 1973).: 96) In the likeness of Rangda, it is said that this form of Dhumavati has shaggy hair, drooping breasts, fangs and even long nails.

Bloch (1974) discusses the role of ritual as a "form of traditional authority" in which political and religious control is exercised through the act of formalized speech and movement. In the Balinese representation, this affirmation of power through dramatized ritual representations is obvious, but this restriction is balanced with the other extreme of the total absence of restraint by frenetic trance states. Neither open and formal control nor chaos is the normal existence of Bali's everyday life and the norm is somewhere in the middle. However, what is reflected is the constant balance between two extremes in all aspects of life and in particular in religion.

Through ritual, which Kertzer (1988: 9) defines as "action wrapped in a network of symbolism," people's understandings of existence and life are formed, established, and transformed into new conceptualizations. In this way, symbols are seen as a means of constructing cultural meanings and interpreting the inner and outer worlds of our existence. dyadic balance of the creative and destructive forces embodied in Barong and Rangda's characters, order and chaos, are reflected in the contrast / structured dance and the restricted action and unstructured and uncontrolled trance states in which the actors attack with knives. This view supports the idea that "for every good positive and constructive force, there is a negative counter-weight force, evil and destructive" (Dunbar-Hall, 2001: 177) and both are essential polarities in the order of the universe and the Balinese world.

Barong and Rangda, well personify the enemy forces, not assimilated to good and evil in the Judeo-Christian sense, since both are creatures of hell, barong is used for offers of protection and conquest (Belo, 1966; Lansing, 1995). This destructive force, although feared, is considered essential for the deceased ancestors to be reborn, usually in the same family lines, so that the perpetual cycle of life and death can continue. Belo (1966: 59) emphasizes by stating that "Rangda, in their relationship with death, destruction and sickness, is something other than the ugly counterpart of life, procreation and wellbeing".

Balinese culture is defined by Boon (1986: 239) as "a moving system of signs and symbols that establishes meanings of equivalence and contrast in various areas of experience." The reflection of a more orderly system is evident in the underlying frameworks of symbolism embodied in Balinese dance performances. These concepts reflect fundamental structural concepts, which are the basis of all aspects of life in Bali. Spencer (1985: 37) argues that when "a particular motif inherent in a particular dance shines through superficial changes in fashion as a dominant symbol and Balinese dance, this persistence invites a structuralist explanation."

From a structuralist point of view, it can be seen that the art of performance in Bali "provides a visual embodiment of the underlying cultural and spatial order" (Rubinstein, 1993: 71). The importance in many respects Barong and Rangda of the dances comes from "these underlying structural concepts, which are played on different surfaces and replicate in different artistic and cultural areas" (Rubinstein, 1993: 79). This reproduction of the structural frameworks underlying meaning in art and in society in general is also shown in other studies conducted on the Indonesian island of Sumba (Adams, 1975) and on the outer islands of Yap in Micronesia (Rubinstein, 1993).

Structuralist theoretical approaches (Levi-Strauss, 1987, 1993) assume that human constructions, such as dances and games, can show patterns of binary opposites in thought and myth. Under each set of binary oppositions, it is believed that there are deeper and deeper dualities, such as left and right, up and down, and nature and culture. Needham (1973) explains that this primary duality is also expressed in distinctions such as right hand and left hand, clockwise and counterclockwise, positive and negative, and black and white. It has been said that "because the whole universe is understood as a reflection of this structure, everything is for the Balinese part of this universal vision" (quoted in Napier, 1992: 50).

Boon says that "since the mid-nineteenth century, scholars have documented the religious organization of the Bali space, which links together the directional qualities," choreographic ritual processions and horizontal and vertical axes (Boon, 1986: 247-248). In Balinese cosmology, three domains of existence are perceived, the higher realm of the gods (swah); the plan of humanity and everyday life (Bwah), and the chthonic underworld of entities and inferior astral demons (bhur) (Lansing, 1995). The Balinese dance / theater performer is a mediator between these worlds of humanity, the gods and the forces of the underworld.

The Balinese also maintain a symbolic cosmology similar to that of other Hindus, since they see the whole creation as coming from a central mountain called Mahameru. In Bali, the mountain resembles the kingdom of gods and ancestors corresponding to the higher realm, while the sea is perceived as corresponding to the underworld and is the place of "witches, demons and tourists" (Napier, 1992: 49). This symbolic mountain of creation is, according to Napier, the Balinese "axis mundi", the auspicious mastery of all good (1992: 49).

Belo (1970, quoted in Lansing, 1995) explains that the inner and outer worlds of the Balinese are divided into Kaja (to the mountains, mostly to the north) and kelod (to the sea, usually to the south). It is explained that, in relation to the physical bodies of people, the head of an individual is associated with kaja and feet with kelod. Despite this perceived dichotomy, Lansing points out that "it would be wrong to conclude that upstream (Kaja) is good for the Balinese, and downstream (Kelod) is bad -Kaja and Kelod are seen as complementary opposites" (Lansing, 1995: 22) All performances in Bali are oriented towards these concepts and directions, and the dancers will usually face kaja (towards the mountain), while the tourist audience will face kelod (towards the ocean) (Herbst, 1997: 132).

The Balinese religious principles are reflected in the symbolic form through the performance which acts to accentuate the balance and the balance of the opposites. You can see that there is a significant correlation between these internal and external directional powers and the society thus works at all levels reflected in the Barong and Rangda dance (Lansing, 1995). These directional distinctions of north and south, good and bad, creation and destruction, are reflected in the roles of Barong and Rangda. Performance, these polarities are also indicated in the use of orderly and chaotic antistructure structure as a man and woman, and the emphasis on alternative systems of black and white. This duality was reinforced in the statement that the dance "a half-story that symbolizes the opposition of beneficial and destructive forces through music and dance" (Dunbar-Hall, 2001: 177).

This North / South duality, creation / destruction, life / death, spirit / matter shown in the symbolism of color through the white and black stripes on the Rangda costume. This color scheme also extends to three systems where the colors white, red and black are widely used in religious contexts in Bali. The three gods that make up the Hindu "Trisakti" are Brahma, Shiwa Wishnu and who, among others, are representative of creation, preservation and destruction and are also destined to relate to these colors (personal notes, 1998). In some ritual ceremonies in Bali, the four cardinal points are related to different godforms, colors, aspects, sounds, objects, etc., and the center covers all aspects and colors (Lansing, 1995, personal notes, 1998).

Nordholt explains how this symbolic universe manifests itself in the structure of the Balinese temple and the three kingdoms and directions Kaja (mountain) and kelod (the sea) are all represented in the design of the temple. Said that the temple is "surrounded by a moat with water (sea), the temple consists of a forecourt (ground) and on a higher level, artificially elevated, an inner courtyard (the mountain)" (1991: 151). Therefore, one can see that the Balinese aesthetic place exists in the temple, because it is the central point around which gravitate music, dance, theater, visual art, architecture and sculpture. Napier (1992: 69) insists that, although paradoxical dyadic oppositions and tantric reciprocity are at the heart of the Rangda and Barong conflict, they are "coded and expressed in the ritual representations that take place in the walls of the temple" and in effect all aspects of Balinese life (Napier, 1992: 69).

Herbst explains that the figures of Barong and Rangda and also included in the Calonarang exercise (or Calarong), described as "a magical and spiritual great power dance, including masks always considered sacred and magically loaded" (1997: 129), the mediation between opposites is also evident in this dance / game, which usually takes place in the temple precinct where tourists may be present (Dunbar-hall, 2001). The spatial distribution of the area of action shows that the area of the sacred and restricted courtyard of the temple is separated from the area of the profane pavilion of the lands where the tourists are seated. The intermediate action zone in which the game is produced mediates these two zones of opposites.

This arrangement reproduces in a physical and spatial context the role of performance in the restoration of the cosmic order between dualistic forces. A certain amount of liminality is evident in this temple of dance when explained that the dancer goes through the curtain or door to go and is said to "go" to the shade when he leaves the stage (Herbst, 1997). It is said that this act suggests that the performer comes from another field (as if the truth were a veil between the worlds) on the stage in this present reality. This liminality is represented by the character who stays in the bridge looking from one space to another, trying to decide whether to manifest (Herbst, 1997: 87).

It has been said that through ritual acts and dance, people can "revive, relive, recreate, tell, rebuild and reshape their culture" (Bruner, 1986: 11). This is true for the Balinese and the dance / culture game acts as a mediator not only between the creative gods and the destructive demons, but also between the Balinese past and the future. Changes in traditional Balinese performance are intimately linked to societal transformations (Herbst, 1997). As well as the underlying coding symbols in the dances are related to the central conceptual interpretations of the Balinese world also make changes in the way it is the dance reflects contemporary issues, power relations and Balinese life issues.

References (For History):

1. Belo, Jane, (1966). Bali: Rangda and Barong. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

2. Bloch, M., (1974). Symbols, Song, Dance and Features of Articulation: Is Religion an Extreme Form of Traditional Authority? European Journal of Sociology, 15: 55-71.

3. Boon, J. A., (1986). Symbols, Sylphs and Siwa: Allegorical Machineries of Balinese Culture. In V. W. Turner and E. M. Bruner (eds), The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

4. Bruner, E. M., (1986). Experience and its Expressions. In V. W. Turner and E. M. Bruner (eds), The Anthropology of Experience. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

5. Frawley, David, (1999). Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.

6. Herbst, Edward, (1997). Voices in Bali: Energies and Perceptions in Vocal Music and Dance Theatre. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.

7. Jensen, G and L. K. Suryani, (1992). The Balinese People: A reinvestigation of Character. Singapore: Oxford University Press.

8. Kertzer, D.I., (1988). Ritual, Politics and Power. New Haven: Yale University Press.

9. Levi-Strauss, Claude, (1993). Structural Anthropology. Harmondsworth: Penguin (1987). Anthropology and Myth: Lectures 1951-82. New York: Blackwell.

10. Morphy, Howard, (1991). Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

11. Napier, A.D., (1992). Foreign Bodies: Performance, Art and Symbolic Anthropology. Berkley: University of California Press.

12. Nordholt, H. S., (1991). Temple and Authority in South Bali 1900-1980. IN Geertz, H. (ed) State and Society in Bali. Leiden: KITLV Press.

13. Spencer, P., (1985). Society and the Dance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

14. Zoete, Beryl de, and Walter Spies, (1973). Dance and Drama in Bali. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.