Tenget is a Bali language for eerie (angker). That was exactly the situation on ITB last night, when Maha Gotra Ganesha (MGG), Bali Culture Unit of ITB, and some Bali Artist in Bandung, performed Calon Arang Show. Calon Arang is a horrible figure. Balinese believed that this is a sacred tale and must be performed carefully, because many spirits will be around.
This is the story of Calon Arang:
Once upon a time, in Kediri Kingdom lived a wise king who loves his citizenry so much named Airlangga. One day, the King wanted to propose a marriage to Diah Ratna Megali, but Kediri people disagreed, because mother of Diah Ratna is a witch named Walu Nata Dira or commonly called Calon Arang. When he knew about that, the King directly canceled his propose. He sent Patih Madri to deliver his message.
So, Patih Madri left. But, before he arrived, Calon Arang had known about this cancellation. She got mad and killed Kediri people using her black power. Then, when Patih Madri had arrived, he was ambushed by Calon Arang’s man named Rarung. They fight and Patih Madri got killed. Airlangga King got angry and attacked Calon Arang.
At first I wondered, where is the horror? The story is so simple, just like usual fairytales. They performed dances (I love Bali dance, my second favourite dance after Aceh dance) and jokes into a drama. But suddenly, the laugh went. Some persons who carried a ‘corpse’ came in to Campus Center square, put it in front of the stage. All people suddenly were quiet. There were 3 soul chasers (not performer) who held incense burner (dupa) around the corpse case. It seems that they deemed the artificial corpse just like a real corpse. The air was so cold.
After got prayed, the ‘corpse’ was carried out again, and the show on the stage started again. I thought Bali dance is always beautiful, but after had brought in the ‘corpse’, they performed a terrified dance. The dancers were just like kuntilanak, huhuhuhu willing to go home ~_~;
Well…I don’t know how the story ends, because I went home at 23.30 WIB and the show hadn’t been finished yet. Actually, this is a story about the victory of Dharma (kindness) againts Adharma (badness)…that’s what MCs said :p
Although the weather is so cold because of raining in the afternoon, there were so many audiences, especially not ITB people, who came to see this Bali Tenget show. It seems that many people likes Bali culture…and fortunately, there wasn’t any possessed (kesurupan) person along the show.