The real keris dance in Bali

Keris

Today is Nyepi Day in Bali, a day of silence: no cars, nobody on the road, all stay in the house and speak softly. An excellent day for storytelling.

Wayan just told me the following conversation with his late grandfather.

Grandfather: In the 10th century, there was a king in Bali with the name of Erlangga. He was a good king, and he had a strong army. The father of Erlangga was also a good man.
However, the mother of Erlangga, Rangda, was doing dark magic, and the father of Erlangga condemned her for that. 

When the father of Erlangga passed away, Rangda wanted to take the place of Erlangga, and she went to the forest and summoned all the dark spirits there to help her fight Erlangga. Since she was so powerful in dark magic, all the dark spirits came to help here, from all over the forest, her army was huge and although the warriors of Erlangga were brave and strong, they could not win the battle against the dark spirits from Rangda. So Erlangga called for help to the Barong, and the Barong came to assist the soldiers of Erlangga in the fight.

Rangda saw that her chances had changed, and cursed a spell on the soldiers of Erlangga: they had to put their swords (keris) against themselves  and kill themself. The Barong saw that happen, and immediately put a new spell upon the soldiers of Erlangga, that they could not hurt themselves.

Once the spell from Rangda was neutralized, the Barong and the army of Erlangga won the war. Rangda was chased away.

Wayan: grandfather, I see you perform the story and you put your keris on your body and you push hard so that the keris bends. Howcome there is no blood?

Grandfather: when I perform the story, you see my body but it's not me, a spirit comes over me and makes sure that there is no harm to me. And after the performance, the priests heal me and make sure that I come back in my body. When I dance, I feel an itch on a certain spot of my body and that is where I have to put the keris and push hard. But the spell from the Barong makes sure that I have no wounds.  

Bali: a nation of warriors

Read in the tourist guide:

the Mengwi kingdom survived until 1891, when it was conquered by the neighbouring kingdoms of Tabanan and Badung.

I didn't think much of it: the history of Bali is a history of warriors, where kingdoms fight with each other and conquer and are conquered. Pretty much like the Middle Ages in Europe.

But history unveiled itself a bit today: we visited the prince (he can no longer be called "king" obviously) of Tabanan, who resides in Kerambitan. A really lovely man, aged 84, witty and sharp.

We visited the public space of his compound, and he called us in, he wanted to chat with us. We accepted the invitation.

After the usual introductory chat, we reached the topic of the fight between his kingdom and the kingdom of Mengwi. He told us why this fight started: the kingdom of Mengwi refused the inhabitants of the kingdom of Tabanan to travel over their land to reach Denpasar. So every person from Tabanan who wanted to go to Denpasar was forced to go by sea, at that time a dangerous enterprise, with small canoes on an often wild sea. He recalled that his (great?)grandfather one day came in trouble on sea, and was rescued by the VOC of the dutch.
Anyway, because of the passage to Denpasar, the war between the kingdoms started, and ended with a defeat of the King of Mengwi and a free passage for all over land to Denpasar!

We felt so privileged to receive that information from the first hand, although some generations after the facts. Until now we haven't experienced the warrior nature of the Balinese, only their soft and gentle and welcoming aspects. I wonder when we'll witness a fight here!
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