Bali Temple Feast – April 26th

Bali is a resort island of 5 star hotels and white sandy beaches in the Indonesian Archipelago, the largest in the world with over 14,000 islands. Although Indonesia is 80% Muslim, Bali was settled by Indian traders and is 80% Hindu, giving it a completely different character than the rest of Indonesia.

We attended a “Bali Temple Feast,” which more accurately would be described as a “Bali Tourist Dinner Theater.” The event took place in one of Bali’s 40,000 temples, but we saw no evidence of any actual religious activity, such as incense burning, meditation, or prayer. However, beer and wine flowed freely; the Balinese food was excellent, and the costumes, dancing and singing quite colorful as the troupe re-enacted the love story of the Hindu God Rama, the most important incarnation of Vishnu. Yes, this is the Ramayana, the same story depicted in the 280 wall murals of the royal palace in Bangkok. No, we still do not understand it.

 Entrance to the Temple/Dinner Theater complex

 This Temple façade was the Dinner Theater stage backdrop 

Indonesian Bintang beer was the libation of choice

 The plot seemed to involve a lot of dancing girls:

Towards the end there was a fairly badly done sword fight:

But this Balinese-Indian version of Romeo and Juliet has a happy ending: the bad guy gets vanquished, Rama gets the girl, and they live happily ever after, including future incarnations.

Tomorrow: Bali Day2