Guardian Beast Spirit

Bali island was regarded by Henry as the cradle of certain exotic dances belong to Indonesian archipelago ever since classical age. It was the Bali island firstly mentioned internationally for its really exotic art cultures amongst others provinces in Indonesian archipelago.

Compared to his Medan city and North Sumatra of which appeared merely cosmopolitan without globalized regard of traditional art cultures, because native Batak peoples from North Sumatra didn't have really sophisticated art cultures unlike the Balinese and Javanese. But still Henry praised much for Medan city's superb and diverse culinaries even after he left Medan city.

In Bali island, those were plenty of internationally famous traditional dances, besides the Balinese gamelan repertoires. One of it was Balinese Barong dance of which was already familiar for Henry even before he reached Bali island. Henry was also fascinated by the Barong dance itself of which reminiscent of traditional Chinese lion dance or known as Barongsai in Indonesian jargon.

Barong dance was also known as Made's utmost beloved dance and the Barong's spirit entity itself was considered as his most esteemed personal guardian beast spirit. There were even rare curios of Balinese Barong masks and sculptures gathered by Made himself and few of them were heirloom objects given by his sculptor masters prior. There was even a breathtaking chest ornament necklace jewelry in shape of whole Balinese Barong mask made out of gilt silver and decorated with various gemstones.

Henry turned agnostic ever since he left his prior faith in Buddhism before he reached Bali island. Thus he wasn't interested with spiritual matters like Made, though he appreciated what Made believed as his spiritual guardians whatever.

Henry did ever watched that so called Barong dance once his first days before he met Made and he was excited even if the Barong dance was just the mediocre one with only small Barong mask and brief choreography. Upon he watched the Barong dance show, he met few good peoples those became his friends therefore.

Made did never want to know who they're and he trusted Henry's convincing words about them as good peoples instead of bad ones like Henry encountered at Kuta Beach prior. At least Henry took care of himself and his dignity against any bad and shameful things around him, until he can establish his first job and start making money for his survival.

Henry had been prepared himself for the selection test after his proposal was accepted by the admins and wished that he could pass over the test and get his license as a tour guide. It was a risky thing to do because Henry was obliged to pay a sum of money for his test preparation and whatever else. If he failed, he would lose both his chance and his money.

Even sounded unfair and contained sort of dirty politic underneath, Henry tried hard to accept it without complaint since its his own decision since first. Henry could just apply his resume for other jobs if he failed the test and lost his chance to obtain his tour guide license eventually. But however Made who took pity for Henry's hard struggles since first time didn't want it happened.

Before the test, Made took Henry to his Pura temple and prayed for his success. Made even prepared a special offering to the deities in the Pura temple in the name of Henry's success and thus Henry should be presented there to receive blessings from the deities via the temple's priest.

Henry was so grateful and he hoped that he could pay for Made's sacrifice for him, though Made didn't want to mind it anymore. Just before Henry went for the test, Made borrowed him his utmost cherished Barong spirit amulet in shape of a large bronze medallion of which resembled old Chinese coin shape with an image of Barong dance figure carved on the both sides of the medallion which also has a square hole at middle like Chinese coin's.

Henry promised to return it after he did the test and Made didn't mind it. It was quite challenging test for Henry, though he answered the whole questionnaire sheets confidently. Henry didn't thought about Made's amulet did actually helped him and just returned it to its owner with a little reward from Henry as gratitude.

In one night, Henry got a very weird dream and he saw a barong dance under a very huge and towering tree in the middle of dimmy cold jungle. It was just like an actual barong dance in reality, unless the barong mask itself appeared like it was made out of flesh and blood rather than lacquered wood and inorganic stuffs, especially those huge popped eyes typical for barong mask looked so real and organic.

Shortly the barong stopped dancing and suddenly transformed into a huge standing ogre being typical in Balinese mythologies. The ogre being had shiny red skin and golden hairs, clad in celestial clothes and jewelries. The barong mask became the ogre's real face. Instead of being ferocious and attacking Henry physically, the ogre being just standing silently with melancholic expression before it vanished into the huge tree behind.

A piece of similar barong spirit amulet like Made's were found at the place the ogre being stood once. But before Henry could take it away, he was awoken abruptly from his dream and was breathless after woke up in the morning.

Henry told this to Made subsequently and Made seemed to apprehended the whole story already. Before Made started to lecture Henry, he gave back to Henry his prior barong spirit amulet right to Henry's palm. Actually Henry had been warned by the barong spirit for his audacity underestimating the barong spirit and denied the amulet which was given by Made prior.

Henry was very confused and didn't understand the meaning. Made tried to make Henry understand if actually his presence in this Bali island was never meaningless and futile. Actually the barong spirit itself had already chose Henry to accept the blessings and Made told Henry if the ogre being he saw under the tree in the middle of jungle was known as: Lord Banaspatiraja, god of natural world or wilderness and also a benign guardian spirit in its fearful manifestation according to Balinese religious belief.

Hence that, Henry was then admonished once more by Made to re-embrace his lost faith in Buddhism, thus the Lord Banaspatiraja would be pleased because inherently Henry had has a predestined fate to reach the Bali island and encountered so many things, including the barong spirit as his guardian beast spirit.

Henry with his shame finally accepted the amulet and promised to take care of it within his respect and foremost, he followed Made to sacrifice some offerings before the barong spirit's shrine as an apology also truce gesture between Henry and the barong spirit therefore.

Believed it or not, since Henry accepted the barong spirit as his guardian spirit, Henry's hardships were lifted gradually and such those bad scoundrels even dispelled from him and nobody dared to ridicule him anymore, even when at Kuta Beach.

Henry realized it and he told it to Made. But Made just asked Henry to always be grateful and the Lord Banaspatiraja still awaiting Henry to regain and relive his lost faith, thus Henry must always remember it anytime until he's ready.

Then the barong dancers with their barong mask and body costume came out from behind the stage to confront the antagonist evil witch queen Rangda as part of barong dance's story plot. There were also bare-chested male dancers performed mystical self persecution acts by stabbing their bodies with Keris daggers. But however neither of them all got stabbed nor even just injured despite of the the Keris daggers were actual weapons with killing potency.

The dance show was partly mystical as those guys wore kind of invisible armor charms to protect their body from any self persecution acts. Made watched the dance show with enthusiastically as Henry knew barong dance as Made's utmost beloved dance of his Balinese origin.