Essentially an exorcism dance, the barong features a benign monster rather like lion in the Chinese lion dance, but with long white hair and fitted with leather saddles. Its mount opens and shuts noisily. Its opponent is the rangda, a witch with long white hair, drooping breast, bulging eyes and twisted fangs, and flourishing a magically powerful white cloth.

The full version begins with introductory dance unconnected to the main action – a comic confrontation between the barong and three masked palm-wine tappers, and a short legong dance.

The play proper’s essential feature is a battle between the good-natured barong and the rangda, with the barong assisted, not very effectively, by a group of men armed with kris (short swords). What leads up to this is a plot involving a queen who has to sacrifice the son to the goddess of death. The son is saved, being given immortality by the god Siwa, but take on a variety of heroic tasks which quickly prove to much for him. Hel calls on the barong for help, and the barong in turn calls on the armed warriors.

The rangda puts a spell on the men so that they try to kill themselves. The barong, however, renders their swords harmless and the impotent frenzy of the entranced warrior is a big feature of the show.

The rangda is finally defeated, but real magic is considered to have been brought forth by the performance – and indeed the warriors are often in an actual trance by this stage – and so a chicken is sacrificed and water sprinkled on the warriors by a resident pemangku (holy man) as conclusion to the dance.

Barong and Kris dance perform daily start from 09:30 until 10:30 at Batubulan village. If you would like to see the Barong and Keris Dance, we gladly offer Kintamani Bali Tour, the itinerary will be watching Barong and Keris Dance in Batubulan Village then visiting other tourist destination with highlight Kintamani, where we can enjoy exotic panorama ot Mount and Lake Batur while having lunch.