Backstage - Barong Dance & Legong Dance Before The Show

Barong Dance

Still taken from my photos collection took in a backstage of a "Barong Dance" performance in the village of Batu Bulan, in "Gianyar regency", "Bali". These two dancer were making up and puting some "flowers" as the decortion on their head. I took the photo of their reflection in an old big mirror.. 'Enjoy'..

Legong Dancer

This is the end of my serial photo "BACKSTAGE".. Abd I'd like to share with all of you how she looked like after making up and prepared with a limitted facilities behind the curtain.. She is a 'Legong Dancer', and she performed as an opening part of the Barong dance performance, in the village of Batu Bulan, Bali. I hope you like it.


Cheers,
Yoga

Kusamba Beach

 Kusamba

Two days ago, I went to the village of "Kusamba", near "Klungkung", east of "Bali", to take photo of salt farmer.. I saw a salt farmer walking down the Beach to bring some sea water, while he was near the beach, he looked back at me. I love how he did it.. so I took the shot and share it with all of you.

Cheers,
Yoga

Bali

 Bali is a masterpiece of nature formed by an east to west range of volcanics, dominated by two towering peak, Batur and Agung. Its volcanic soil are exceptionally fertile and the reliable northwest monsoon brings abundant rainfall. The Balinese people have done much to turn such natural blessings to their advantage. All but the steepest land has been painstakingly terraced with rice paddies. Each watery patch is efficiently irrigated through an elaborate system of aqueducts, dams, sluices regulated since ancient times by village agricultural cooperatives called subak. The land repays these efforts with abundant harvests, which in turn give the people extra time and energy to devote to their renamed cultural pursuits. As the focus for Bali’s tourism, commerce and government, the south is by far the island’s busiest region. Denpasar is the provincial capital has experienced unprecedented economic and population growth during past decade. Most of the foreign visitors seek paradise in the island’s three beach resorts ie Sanur, Kuta and Nusa Dua.

Samur, ten kilometers southeast of Denpasar have captivated the most foreign visitors was once an enclave of fishermen and holy Brahman priests, more famous for its demons and magic than its scenic delights. During the 1930s, however, Sanur spectacular beaches attracted a colony of western intelectuals and artists that included anthropologist Margaret Mead and painter Walter Spies. Mass tourism began in the early 1960s, but real boom got under way only during the 1970s, with the development of luxury bungalows along the waterfront and secluded hotels with lush gardens.

 

Kuta at the top of the isthumus leading to Bukit Peninsula has blossomed into Bali’s greatest beach party. First discovered by Aussie surfers in the early 1970s, Kuta chief natural attractions are a broad sloping beach, pounding surf and technicolor sunsets. Accomodation ranges from informal to luxury and beautiful resort hotels with gorgeous well manicured tropical gardens facing the setting sun. The streets of Kuta is lined with a staggering array of restaurants, discos, pub, restaurant, cafes, art shops, boutiques, and tour agencies. The result is a kind od tinseltown with a cosmopolitan feel, especially during July to August and December to January when Kuat hots up and roars into the fast lane.



The western and southern shoreline of Bali, is rimmed with sharp, jutting cliffs. The site most illustrious temple, Pura Uluwatu is chosen by Balinese saint Pedenda Sakti Waru Rauh as the "stage" for his moksa reunion with the godhead, Uluwatu. It is unrivaled for sheer grandeur of site and elegance of architecture. Gaint sea turtles swim in the ocean 300 m below the temple’s clifftop perch.

Nusa Dua, south of Sanur has been developed into a massive tourist project over the last decade. There are luxury hotels, shopping center and huge convertion centre. Roving merchant, hawkers and masseuses are banned from Nusa Dua’s streets and beaches. But not far away, Buala village, is crammed with souvenir shops and hawkers stalls.


Bali Museum in Denpasar, houses fin collection of archaeological artifacts and example of Balinese craftmanships.






Pura Taman Ayun, a magnificent garden temple built in 1634 by Raja of Melawi, I Gusti Agung Anon. It has spacious compound surrounded by a moat and is adjacent to a lotus lake. In the surrounding pavilions, priests recite their vedic incantations.


 
Tanah Lot is founded by the proselytizing Hindu saint, Naratha during his wandering. Like many temples in Bali, it has animal guardians, in this case snake who lives in caves nearby. At high tide, waves lash the islet but at other times, it is possible to cross over the rock and ascend the temple, which at sunset is strikingly silhouetted against cliffs west of the temple and splash through natural arches carved by the relentless sea.

Ubud has been a mecca for foreign and local artists who enjoy the creative atmosphere in this area of Bali. Artist have thrived in Ubud since the 1930s when a local anstocrat named Cokorda Sukawati formed the Pita Maha Art Society together with German painters. Ubud’s main intersection for breathtaking ride to Pujung, from where you can walk to Sebatu village with its split-bamboo, spirit boxes and carved temple plinths. Whitewater rafting through the lush Agung River Valley is like a trip back in time through a Bali untouched by the 20th century .

 
Goa Gajah (Elephant Caves) is located on central Bali. The cave’s gaping mouth is fantastically carved with leaves, rocks, animals, waves and demons and when it was discovered in 1923, these carving were apparently mistaken for an elephant, hence the cave’s name. Adjacent baths were discovered and excavated in 1954. The site was probably a hermitage used by early Hindu-Buddhist holy men, as the cave contains three joined lingga (Shivaitic fertility symbols). Two Buddha statues have been found too, just a short distance away from the baths.

 
Gunung Kawi is one of the holiest spot in Bali. It is a spectacular and ancient royal tomb reached by descending a long, steep stairway through a stone arch into a watery canyon. On the far wall, ghostly shrines are hewn out of solid rock, probably memorials to the deified 11th century Balinese ruler, Anak Wungsu. A complex of monks cell also line the canyon walls.

Gunung Batur located to the north of Bali, is an active volcano that reaches 1,700m above sea level. A village called Penelokan perches on the lip of the immerse caldera, 10 km across as the mythical garuda flies. From Penelokan, it leads down to lava fields and a large crater lake at the bottom of the basin. Across the lake, lies Trungan village, one of the few pre-Hindu Bali Aga enclaves on the island. The people here still maintain many ancient customs, the most famous of which is the practice of exposing their dead to the elements in a skeleton - filled graveyard by the lake.

Pura Besakih is the island’s holiest place. With massive peak of Gunung Agung, the Balinese Olympus, as a backdrop, the broad, stepped granite terraces and slender, pointed black pagodas of this 60 temple complex are a fitting residence for the gods. Regarded as a holy place since pre-historic times, the first record of Besakih’s existance is an inscription dating from 1007 AD. From at least the 15th century, when Besakih was designated as the sanctuary of the deified ancestors of the Gelgel god-kings and their very extended family, this has been the "mother" temple for the entire island.