The Opera Story: (Barong Landung Performance)

This performance uses a mixture of styles. While it is encased in the Balinese operatic style - Arja - it includes a little of the Legong Kraton style from the Semar Pegulingan ensemble, the topeng style, and culminates in the performance of Kidung - sung poetry - by the Barong Landung. The orchestra is a Gong Guntangan, or chamber ensemble, usually associated with Arja.

The story is set in the olden times before there were Rajas in Bali.

A beautiful young Chinese woman Kan Ching Wee is trading in the holy coins which are the major currency in the area. She plies the coasts of the Indonesian islands. One day her ship flounders and is wrecked on the north coast of Bali. Alone on the beach, she cries because of her fate and asks for guidance from her Buddhist protectors.

She is seen by a young Balinese girl (the condong character in the Arja) who offers to show Kan Ching Wee some of the sights of this strange land on which she finds herself stranded. They walk a little way and observe the exertions of a young Balinese girl learning to dance the Condong part in the Legong Kraton dance. This is the most exacting process. Her teachers are young performers who are already skilled in this dance.

After a moment of watching, the two women move on. They next come across an old holy man, Empu Siwa Gama. He is approached by Kan Ching Wee and tells her that his religion is the worship of Siwa. He then dances an excerpt from the Topeng Tua dance.

Moving along further, they talk a little and Kan Ching Wee wonders what will become of her in this strange land. She has lost everything except her beauty. They are suddenly confronted by a young and handsome Balinese man named Sri Jaya Pangus. He is enchanted by the beauty of Kan Ching Wee and offers to marry her. She accepts and he builds her a beautiful house on the coast in a place called Balingkan. They live there happily.

After a year - Jaya Pangus is sad because Kan Ching Wee has not yet become pregnant. Having a son and heir is of vital importance to him.

He travels to the mountains where he comes to the Batur temple and meets the princess of the lake, Dewi Danau. They fall in love. The protective spirits of the princess, the bhatari of the lake ask Jaya Pangus if he is free to marry their ward. He replies that he is. They are married and Dewi Danau becomes pregnant with a child.

Meanwhile, back in Balingkan, Kan Ching Wee decides to look for her husband who went out to buy a packet of cigarettes a year ago and has not yet returned. She follows his tracks to the Batur lake. Jaya Pangus is overjoyed to see Kan Ching Wee and greets her affectionately. Kan Ching Wee asks who the woman is that he is with. He explains that he has added to the family and he knows that the two women will be happy together as they can share their good fortune in having him as a husband.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the women is not as Jaya Pangus might have hoped. They begin by fighting each other and when he tries to come between them and separate them they attack him.

Finally the bhatari - the protective spirits of the lake intervene. These spirits are not pleased as they now know that Jaya Pangus lied when he said there was no impediment to the marriage.

As a punishment, they turn to Jaya Pangus and change his shape. He becomes a creature of enormous height that will have eternal life. The creature will be known by the name of Jero Gede.

His first wife, Kan Ching Wee is then told that she also will be changed into such a creature in order that he does not have to live for eternity alone. She will be known as Jero Luh. Kan Ching Wee has a request. As she is Buddhist she asks that a shrine for her religion can be erected in that place. To this day the Batur temple holds the only Bhuddist shrine in a Balinese Hindu temple. The Bhatari now turn their attention to Dewi Danau. It is her task to make sure that these two ungainly creatures perambulate during the Galungan holiday period and tell their story to others as a warning.

While Jero Gede and Jero Luh grow old in their newly acquired shapes they remain young at heart because of the strength of their love.They sing to each other to celebrate the beauty of their love:

glow worms light the graveyard
the yellow bamboo branch is broken
the yellow bamboo branch is broken

the bamboo is ripe
her body is supple
like an over-ripe vegetable
her body moves with the wind
supple from side to side