Ulu Watu, Bali: Our First Introduction to Balinese Culture

The sundown view from the Ulu Watu temple, set right on the top of a tall cliff overlooking the ocean
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Upon arriving in Bali we knew that we wanted to take in some Balinese culture.  As it turns out, the day we arrived was the last day of a week long religious festival in the village of Ulu Watu.  When our driver from our guesthouse(whom we became very good friends with during our stay) told us this and invited us to go we thought, "Why not?" and after just a few short hours rest we were at our first Balinese Hindu temple.

We decided to check out a dance performance known as the "Kecak Dance" (sounded like "ketchup dance" at first to us).  This performance was our favourite thing that we saw during our whole stay in Bali.

While we got away from them unscathed, we did see a little Japanese girl in tears after a monkey grabbed the bow right out of her hair!

One of the many grabby monkeys that were everywhere around the temple
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The Kecak is used to depict an old traditional Hindu story about good defeating evil.  Without getting into all the details (even with an English information sheet describing what was going on, we still didn't really know what was going on), there's basically performers representing different good and evil characters.  A white monkey was one of the main dancers.  As the story is being played out, the "stage" (ground really) is filled with 70 men who all chant in unison.  They chant the entire time.  This was our favourite part.  It was both eerie and exciting all at the same time.  The chanters are there to defend the area from evil spirits.  Quite regularly the chanting would rise up in speed, pitch and volume, as would the audiences heart rates.  The chanting sounded mostly like, "chaka chaka chaka", but really fast.  Both of us were totally enthralled.  Towards the end of the story the monkey character finds himself surrounded by flames and literally stomps through them.  All very dramatic as you can see from our pictures!

Another cliff view, looking the opposite direction from the first picture
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After the dance we wandered around the grounds of the temple with our new friend and guide, Nyoman.  We learned about the Hindu practice of taking food offerings to the temple, to be given to the gods.  The gods don't eat the food, but instead they feed on the "essence" of the food, leaving behind the physical food stuffs which are then taken home by the worshippers and eaten.  Nyoman told us that during this festival the temple is open 24 hours a day and people come from all over Indonesia by the busloads to take part.  We thought it a little strange that such an important and sombre religious festival would have a carnival like atmosphere in the parking lot, complete with cotton candy!

The Kecak Dance took part right along side the cliff, which added to the dramatic feel of the place
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Another thing we learned was to watch out for the monkeys.  The primates at this temple in particular are notorious for snatching anything they can get their paws on.  Hats, scarfs, sunglasses, earrings, food...nothing is safe.  While we got away from them unscathed, we did see a little Japanese girl in tears after a monkey grabbed the bow right out of her hair!

Michael and Heather