The Barong Wants to go out Again: Krisis moneter and the Resurgence of Rituals in Indonesia

Abstract

The economic and monetary crisis (krismo) at the end of the nineties has changed Indonesia inmany respects. While the political transformations in the wake of Suharto’s step back seem alltoo obvious, changes in religious activities are seldom taken into account. This paper refers to theimpact of krismo on ritual performances connected with the famous Barong fi gures in Bali. Theseimpacts are twofold: the democratization of Indonesia led not only to a revival of cultural activitiesof ethnic Chinese of which the reappearance of Barongsai dance troupes after more than 30 yearsof oppression is only one feature; the economic crises also raised the demand for new Barong maskson the side of the local Balinese people and finally caused a boom of ritual activities connectedwith these sacred figures. Against this background it will be demonstrated that krismo led not onlyto a revitalisation of the Barong cult in Bali, but also became itself a topic of particular Barongperformances. Therefore it is argued that economic events have religious impacts and vice versa.But how is krismo as a topic taken up by ritual discourse and what kinds of message do the localactors disseminate through the medium of Barong?

Keywords

• Religion
• Bali
• Masks
• Chinese
• Representation