Bali [antikvár]

1 . !* Boli - Island of Gods and Demons_ Rangda and Barong, the Balinese personifications of black and white magic, pit their individual strengths against each other. It is a desperate struggle, where each is fighting to gain (he upper hand. And yet, the Balinese know that neither of them will win. The ancient rivalry represented in this drama is more than just a competition or an absorbing form of entertainment. It represents a microcosm of the world at large where good maintains a shaky equilibrium with evil, each striving to outdo the other. Many visitors arrive with the notion that on Bali they will find one of the world's last paradises. Intoxicated by the lilting sounds of a gamelan orchestra and the heady scent of incense sticks, a good number are lulled into believing that they have. It is an image which survives despite the apocalypse of Kuta with its half-naked sun-worshippers, importunate traders, marauding massage women, fast-food restaurants and ear-splitting discotheques. With hordes of people visiting the 'Island of the Gods' every year, one might ask how long it will be before the rice farmers stop placing their faith in the power of Dewi Sri, the goddess of the rice harvest, and transfer their allegiance to artificial fertilisers. How much longer will the Balinese continue to devote more lime to their gods and demons than to their mortal resort hotel employers and the pursuit of financial gain? Bali has opened its doors to Western culture and is currently walking the tightrope between modernity and tradition. Today, the struggle between Rangda and Barong still ends in a draw, and the island's gods and demons and its rich cultural legacy, exist alongside high technology and mass tourism. For the moment at least, the Balinese cosmos still is in harmony with itself. An elaborate purification ceremony takes place on Kuta and other beaches each year, cleansing the island of the year's misdeeds and praying that Bali and its people may continue to resist the winds of change in the years to come. Even the presence of hundreds of gawking, camera-clicking tourists cannot defile this ancient cathartic ritual. And it is all loo easy lo believe that the power of the gods will prevail over that of mere mortals, at least in the coming year. Locafion and landscape Bali is the westernmost island in the chain that makes up the Lesser Sundas group. It covers 5,600sq km (2,02lsq miles), which makes it one of the smallest provinces of the Indonesian archipelago, the largest in the worid. Indonesia's 17,508 islands stretch from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, lying on both sides of the equator between the Malay Peninsula and New Guinea. Lying 8° south of the Opposite: Topeng mask (lance V Warding off evil Mainlaining traditions I 1 t 1 IÍI .V i Modern influences Í I ' 1