Rangda

Barong performance Mask portraying Rangda. The inhabitants of the Balinese island are mostly hindu. Hinduism coexists with the ancient local religion, Saghyang Acinta. The venerated deities are spiritual, without human form, beyond any representation other than symbolic. The barong represents the reincarnation of Vishnu into lion (Narashima), one of the gods of Hindu trimurti, the protector of life. The Barong Dance is performed in the festivities of local temples, where Barong masked dancers fight against the witch Rangda, the creator of Evil, a practitioner of black magic that haunts the cemeteries, against her assistants, the Jauk and her Rarung, her students of magic. Barong removes these evil entities without annihilating them because evil is necessary. Without evil good could not manifest itself and would have no meaning.