Most of your holiday relaxing and enjoy tropical weather, sunbathing with chill drinks for escape from busy daily life? Bali offers many activities and rich cultures, get up and let’s make some plans for a day or couple of days to do something about. It will be a good memories for your vacation too. Here is common activities available in Bali.
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Almost every day, there are ceremonies somewhere in Bali. This island is full of culture and Balinese conserve it till today.
Bali is so different than other Islands and places in Indonesia often called Island of the God’s beautiful landscape rich and lush rice terraces, volcanic hillsides, and spectacular beaches combined with its friendly, hospitable people and magnificently visual culture infused with spirituality make the little island a special kind of paradise.
Art is everywhere in Bali. From the intricate flower decorations in a Barong dancer’s headdress, to elaborately carved temple facades and beautiful oil paintings. Bali’s performing arts are also an integral part of Balinese culture. Music and dance play a huge part in significant rituals and religious ceremonies. Known as ” the Island of the Gods” hardly a day goes by without a ceremony or festival taking place. Traditional dances with full gamelan orchestras are performed for tourists daily in addition to the day to day religious ceremonies. Definitely worth seeing.
The Barong is triumphant display of graceful movement and vibrant colour. The dance is basically a contest between the opposing forces of Rangda – chaos and destruction, and Barong – order. (Basically good and evil.)
The kecak is a ritual dance which was created in the early 1930’s for the movie “Island of the Demons” by the German painter and intellectual Walter Spies. The dance combines the chorus of the “Sanghyang” trance dance with a dance story from the epic “Ramayana.”
The Legong is a very difficult dance requiring great dexterity and is generally performed by young girls. The dance is choreographed to the finest detail, to a set pattern with no improvisation allowed.
Wayang Kulit, is an Indonesian shadow puppet play, which uses intricately made and beautifully painted, gilded leather puppets. Although only the puppets’ shadows are seen by the audience, the performances are fascinating. The stories told by shadows are often from the spirit world and are full of symbolism and mysticism. A single, highly skilled puppeteer controls hundreds of puppets; plays out the roles of different characters with a different voice for each character; and leads the traditional musicians. Wayang kulit plays can play for several hours or be several days long.
There’s probably more Bali temples than homes on the island. Many temples in Bali are actually shrines. However, the number of religious compounds might well be over 10,000. The number is spread throughout the far-flung corners of the island, from mountain and hilltops to low-lying coastal areas. Bali temples are normally peaceful and desolate. They transform into scenes of great activity during festivals or temple anniversaries. Traditional dance performances, cockfighting and even gambling often takes place during such events. You’ll find that each of Bali’s temples is unique. They may either face towards the mountains, the sea or towards sunrise.
Nearly everything in Bali carries a religious significance from creating stone and wood carvings, cremation ceremonies, trance dances and gamelan music, are intended to please and appease the gods. As most pleasing and appeasing rituals take place in a temple, temples are, undisputedly, the most important structure in Balinese culture, providing a pleasant resting place for the gods during their stay on the island. Every house on the island has its own shrine, a resting place for ancestral spirits. Even the paddy fields have a shrine for Dewi Sri, the Rice Goddess. Each village has three temples, the Pura Puseh, dedicated to the villagers’ ancestors, the Pura Desa, used for official celebrations, and the Pura Dalem or the temple of death, specially dedicated to the deities of death and of cremation.
The Ngaben or Cremation Ceremony is a very important part of Balinese culture. The ceremony is performed to send the dead from death to the next life. When death descends on a Balinese, the village kul kul will sound, hanging in the village temple tower to announce the departure of the deceased. The body will then be placed at the Bale Delod, and the deceased treated as if sleeping. No tears are shed as the Balinese believe that the deceased will return shortly to be reincarnated into the family. The Priest will then consult the Dewasa for the day of the ngaben ceremony. On the appointed day, the body of the deceased is placed inside a coffin, which is then placed inside a wadah, or sarcophagus shaped in the form of a buffalo. It is actually a temple structure made of paper and light wood. The funeral procession then leaves for the cremation site, carrying the wadah. The most important part of the ngaben is the burning of the wadah, with fire taken from a holy source, thus sending the deceased to the afterlife,to prepare for a future reincarnation.
The original Balinese or Bali Aga, are a unique ethnic group that still live and practise a way of life that pre-dates modern civilisation. The Bali Aga are thought to be the original inhabitants of Bali who fled imperialistic invaders, eventually finding refuge in the solitude of Bali’s remote mountains. Only two villages remain – which until recently, were firmly shut away from the rest of the world, hidden in the hills of East Bali. Located just west of Candi Dasa lie the villages of Tenganan and Trunyan, isolated across the vast Lake Kintamani.The villages, home to the Bali Aga, are shut off by a solid wall surrounding the entire village. The wall is only broken by means of four gates, each facing north, south, east and west. Within these walls lies a massive Banyan tree surrounded by a low wall of uncut stones, making up a small enclosure for a very sacred temple. Tenganan has only recently opened up to outsiders although strict rules still apply, especially concerning marriage to outsiders. Tenganan has wonderful fabrics, including the renowned double weave ikat cloth. The villagers of Tenganan are tall and slender with very pale complexions and refined manners. The man folk still wear their hair long and have a communistic system which does not recognise individual ownership of property. Every house in Tenganan looks exactly alike, with a flight of steps leading to a small gate opening into a courtyard with sleeping quarters, kitchen, and a long house for storage. A small empty shrine, signifies a place where spirits may rest when they visit their descendants. Tenganan owns huge tracts of fertile and well cultivated lands capable of satisfying the needs of the village; and also making Tenganan one of the richest in Bail. A people town for their filed and blackened teeth, the Bali Aga are said to bring the spirits of their ancestors down to Earth for protection through sacrifices. The Bali Aga leave the bodies of their dead in the jungle to be carried away by the spirits, and they are believed to have possibly eaten parts of their headman’s bodies to absorb magic powers. Family clans are ruled by a council of elders who are also religious priests. The Bali Aga revere the forces of nature and the spirits of their ancestors, with whom they continue to live as great family of both the living and the dead.