Bali: Art, Ritual, and Performance

Before the San Francisco ballet last Thursday night, my sister Sarah indulged me into going to the new exhibit at the Asian Museum of Art entitled "Bali: Art, Ritual, and Performance". I have a very limited knowledge of Bali- the only things I know about it are the song "Bali High" and the section in the book Eat, Pray, Love. The exhibit is only $10 and it was well worth it to see the BEAUTIFUL objects. I was impressed by the dolls made out of coins threaded together and the elaborate carvings surrounding their temples and shrines.The most fascinating part was learning about their cremation ceremonies- we watched a video of this ritual where they take the body and parade it through the streets- literally housed inside of a pagoda-eque temple and then is placed inside of a giant animal casket that is then lit on fire. This is so important that people spend thousands of dollars on this ceremony. I saw several photos of Bali and it looks so beautiful- my sister said that the terraced rice paddies were similar to the ones she saw in rural China. Yet, another place to add onto the ever growing list of places that I want to travel to . . .