Kecak Fire Dance

We were in Ubud, Bali last week for a few days, with our friends Martha, Ben, and Sam. Ubud is a mixed bag these days in that it certainly still remains a place where Balinese art making of all kinds is abundant, and accessible to tourists. And so, understandably it is full of tourists and with that has also become a paradise food and accommodation destination. But the traffic jam! Way different than our first time there in 1987 and even more so than mine in 1982. I've heard it said though that people have been saying such things since the 1930s. It does seem pretty saturated and encrusted these days though - at least along the main streets.

But it remains a dependable place to experience a variety of Balinese dance and music every night of the week. And music and dance was certainly our gateway and and enduring fascination for Balinese art and culture. So, besides offering a tinge of memory lane, that is the reason we came back to Ubud and will likely return again later in this trip. So, we want to share with you a smattering of what we're seeing. Starting with...

The Kecak Fire Dance - Sanghyang Jaran

I'm certainly not an authority on Balinese art and culture but find it fundamental to understand that what we in the West relegate to the "spiritual", and perhaps conversely experience as "worldly", in Bali are never so far apart. Indeed they're not apart at all. Indeed art allows us in very sophisticated ways to mark the the way of the spirit in the material world. Perhaps the most obvious and direct demonstration of this the trance induced ritual dance over burning coals which is Sanghyang Jaran.

I apologize that these photos aren't great. We didn't have great seats so these were taken from some distance and then cropped to focus on the ritual performers. I didn’t take video for that reason this time, but I hope to see this show when we’re back in Ubud and sit in front.

Just for a little context, here is a snippet of the audio. It is from the large group of men sitting around the perimeter who are portraying Hanuman’s monkey army. Kecak in English is called the Monkey Chant Dance.

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The dancer enters a trance state and is protected from injury by spiritual energies and entities as he rides a "hobby horse" over hot coals of burning coconuts. I'm not sure that "dancer" is the right characterization - it kind of obscures the ritual act of this event - but I'll use it here for lack of a better term.

To begin, the dancer enters trance aided by spiritual leaders or priest. The dance comes to this part, chosen for their spiritual purity and closeness to the spitirual energies required for the ritual. We have heard that men who perform this part must be virgins as part of their purity. For women, it must be before menstruation. I don't know how often women perform this. That requirement would have them be children, I would think.

Below, we see part of the spiritual preparation for trance.

During the ritual the trance dancer repeatedly enters and kicks around the burning coals. This represents a scene from the Ramayana where Hanuman has set fire and destroyed Ravana's palace, spreadeding flames with his tail.

As the dancer spreads coals with his feet, his assistants (wearing shoes) regather the coals and keep them from spreading too far - into the audience in this case.

At the end of the performance, the assistants must help bring the dancer out of trance by first restraining him.

Then a priest performs prayers and ritual to bring the dancer out of trance safely back into his normal worldly state.

Afterwards, in this tourist context at least, the dancer is available for questions, inspection, and tips.

The setting at Pura Dalem Ubud is pretty striking as well

I hope to get good video and learn more at our next time in Ubud, probably in a couple weeks. Goodnight.