Opening night at the temple!

The opening night was last Wednesday. We went on Tuesday night as well, to wait for all the barongs from neighboring villages. They came slowly in long processions and then had to go way up on the hill behind the temple (along a very narrow, slippery path) to a place of holy water (a spring maybe?) to be blessed before entering the temple. Then once back in the temple they processed up to their respective pedestals - where they stayed for the duration of the ceremony. That was a long night - and hard for Elsa to sit through - not much happening - but the temple was beautiful and relatively quiet. We met a lovely family from Australia with an 8 year old girl, Sophia. She and Elsa really hit it off and so we all chatted away happily together. The next night was the opening night and there was plenty of action! Lots of wonderful dancing (good for Elsa to see since she'd been studying some dance) - lots of girls of all ages and then after that was the traditional Baris dance (a sort of war dance) - high drama! Elsa and Sophia were in the front row which was thrilling! It was a late night for all. We also went back for the final night on Saturday which was extremely crowded! We couldn't even get to see the performances, but the gamelan was wonderful as always and prayed twice - in the inner temple and also one of the outer areas as well. D'Ayu had a tray for us with flowers, incense and some offerings (k'wangen). It was so crowded she had to pass it back to us through the crowd - all very amused! Some pics of the night temple aglow and some of dancers!