Barong Dance

Batubulan Village, Bali

Rangda, an incarnation of Kali, stretches out her claws, her swollen tongue hanging down to her navel below the fangs of her skull-like upper jaw. In her hands she holds a white sash that represents a sling for carrying babies - in her case, carrying them off - and is also a weapon, which she launches against the forces of Good. The witch is costumed in honorific cloth, however odd this may seem to Westerners; although evil, she is still a divinity to whom respect must be paid.