Negara Buffalo Races

I had spent the previous day walking 10 miles along the coastline of southeast Bali. I walked by kite-flying boys, drying jellyfish, and fishermen. Towards the end I was feeling rather dehydrated and exhausted. I came upon the most ridiculous sight: 2 nude middle-aged men baking in the black sand by the ocean. A strange sight to behold as they rubbed their bodies in the sand and stretched out before me. They ran into the ocean to bathe and offered a place to stay, told me of the buffalo races and drove me into town....

Next day: three by three, men in chariots raced around the rice paddies. Whipping buffalo, they cut fast turns as they stood up in their chariots goading their animals on. 
Ngaben and Baru Belajar

Walking down the road I saw a big crowd dressed in white. In the center, a group of men hoisting what appeared to be a raft with a paper mache cow riding on top. I asked what was going on. Apparently it was a ngaben... a Balinese funeral. Usually the cow is black, but for this Ngaben, the cow was white because the funeral was for a priest. The priest had apparently died after getting hit by a motorcycle. I saw the men stop and open the cow, and put the priest’s body inside. Then with much effort the men swung the cow raft around helping to ‘release the soul from the body’. Gamelan musicians followed the spectacle with gongs... and then the cow was set on fire cremating the body.

Later that night I was invited to stay at the Tirtanganga springs caretaker’s house, Wayan. At night, Wayan brought me on a footpath through the forest to a temple in the hills where a stage was set for dancers. The dancers were baru  belajar... new dancers. The full moon cast a gray silver light that reflected on the large banana tree leaves. There were no outsiders besides me to see this performance. The performance was tied to their beliefs and their way of life.  I thought of my friend’s aunt, Julie Taymor, who had traveled to Indonesia to study Indonesian puppetry before becoming famous for producing the lion king musical.  I felt the power of her words at that moment.... “In Bali, seeing a ritual performed in the woods, without an official audience, affected me deeply.. This is what it means to perform for God!”