KARANGASEM, Indonesia (AP) — Ketut Alit Widiantari, along with more than 30 of her female friends, walked barefoot to the temple courtyard in her village, carefully balancing her movements while wearing traditional clothes and headdress made of colorful leaves and flowers.
The 14-year-old girl and her peers in Tista village performed the sacred Rejang Kuningan dance on Saturday during the Kuningan holiday at Bali’s Puseh temple, which serves as the spiritual center for the Balinese Hindu community in the area.
For Balinese Hindus, Kuningan marks the close of the 10-day Galungan festival, a period celebrating the triumph of good over evil. It is believed to be the day when deities and ancestral spirits, after descending to earth to bless their families and communities, return to the heavens.
Rejang, the sacred dance performed by young women in traditional dress moving slowly around a temple, is an offering for an audience of the unseen: the God and the ancestors of the residents in the village.
Before the dance begins, the girls are blessed by the temple priest, and their costumes and headdress are examined.
Rejang dance takes many forms across Bali, each shaped by the occasion, the ritual and the community that keeps it alive.
In the district of Karangasem, where villages preserve distinct traditions reflected even in the design of their temples, the dance becomes more than a sacred offering.
Through their costumes, music and dance formations, Widiantari and other Rejang Kuningan dancers carry the identity of their village, closing this year’s Galungan and Kuningan rituals not only through prayer, but also through the traditions that their community continues to preserve.