They say there is a sense of the wonder of creation when you view the kecak fire dance at the spectacular Uluwatu temple in Bali, Indonesia.
Let's see – there's a clifftop spectacle, at dusk, no less – with the gathering darkness contrasting with the fires that give the kecak (pronounced ker-chuk) its name. The backdrop of the sea and the sky means the performance takes place amid changing colours as day turns to night.
There are usually about 50-100 performers, most of them bare-chested men chanting the kecak in a powerful, hypnotic rhythm. The dancers come on to perform the ancient story of the Ramayana.
If you are unfamiliar with the Ramayana, it dates back as far as 7BC and is an epic to top all epics – consisting of about 500 chapters and over 24,000 verses. It tells the story of the journey of Prince Rama, the love of his life, Princess Sinta, the evil king Rahwana who kidnaps Sinta and the intervention of the monkey king Hanuman and his army.
There are twists and turns along the way and the story ends with a bitter battle between Hanuman's monkey army and Rahwana's demon army. The Ramayana is basically a tale of the triumph of good over evil – but has permeated many Asian civilisations with values far beyond that.
It sets the values for relationships, for being the ideal father, the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal husband and the ideal king – influencing Hindu life, culture and ethics and those of other faiths and cultures too.
The power of the kecak fire dance is in the fact there is no music, no dialogue, just the chanting and the elemental forces of the sea, the sky, the clifftop and the fire – and the performance ends when a dancer walks over the fire and kicks the red-hot coals without being burned. The performer is in a trance and the pinnacle of the kecak fire dance has often transfixed spectators.
The origins of this dramatic performance are not always clear. One version has it originating from a sacred Balinese dance called the Sanghyang. It was believed that a hyang or spirit entered the body of a dancer and forces her into a state of trance, with the chants of the Sanghyang choir persuading her to dance.
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Another version has the story like this: A village called Bona was affected by a deadly disease and many died. Villagers took to noise-making to ward off evil spirits, banging buckets, kettles and cymbals. Nothing worked until a man became possessed by the rhythm and broke into a dance. The disease started to ease and the spiritual dance of kecak was born.
Whichever version you believe, it is certain that kecak took its modern form when a German painter called Walter Spies and a Balinese dancer called Wayan Limbak incorporated aspects of the Ramayana into the kecak.
However, Uluwatu is not the only place of significance to view the Ramayana. Prambanan, in Yogjakarta, is a striking 9th century Hindu temple at which Ramayana ballets are held.
Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple in South East Asia, originally home to 240 separate temple structures and a masterpiece of Siva art. It is a bit like standing in a forest of temples. The walls of each building are carved with intricate reliefs, the details of which are still visible today – and the craftsmanship from 7th and 8th century stone helped UNESCO to decide to name Prambanan as a world heritage site.
The ballet is performed on an open air stage (weather permitting), with Prambanan itself as backdrop, by over 200 dancers in traditional costume. Again, there is no dialogue though a gamelan orchestra accompanies the ballet.
A full gamelan orchestra consists of about 60-80 musical instruments, including a large percussion section–complete with bronze kettle drums, xylophones, and gongs–as well as spike fiddles and bamboo flutes.
And fire once again plays a spectacular role – when Hanuman burns down Rahwana's "golden city", again representing the triumph of good over evil.