When a grand ceremony is held, the performance of Wayang Lemah is obligatory. As its name suggest Wayang Lemah is always performed in the daylight (“wayang” means “puppet” and “lemah” means “day”) and is usually performed as long as the high priest officiates the ceremony. Wayang Lemah is an exorcistic play, it is performed primarily for invisible audiences: the spirit, divinities and the demons, it is a part of ceremony which functions to ensure the success of a ceremony and obviously not an entertainment for mortals.

The stage for Wayang Lemah is simpler than the spectacular Wayang Peteng (Night Shadow Puppet) since it does not need a screen and wick lamp and there will be no shadow. Wayang Lemah stage consists of three young, cut banana trunks for placing the puppet during the play (the pointed handle of the puppet can easily stuck into soft banana trunks), on either side of long banana trunk, which runs across and forms the actual stage, two big branches of evergreen dapdap tree had been pushed vertically through the banana trunk into the ground; at top they branched out in three directions symbolizing Hindu trinity.

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Out of hundreds Balinese dances maybe the dance of Rangda is the only dance that does not need a great technical ability of dancing, it needs only a courage and high confidence on the spirit of the deity who resides in the sacred mask of Rangda. Few of the men who dare to wear the great head and padded Rangda costume have had any knowledge on dance technique, since Rangda does not need to keep time to the music which is essential in Balinese dance.

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The world of Balinese is the equilibrium of two forces of nature, positive and negative force. The positive force is represented by the God and negative forces represented by the Bhuta Kala, But what exactly is, or are, bhuta kala? The average Balinese would reply that bhutas and kalas, or bhuta kala, are evil spirits that cause a great many of the small and large problems of mankind, from a lost watch to a crippling disease. To them, the bhutas kalas have no other mission on earth than to annoy and persecute humans, making people ill, disturbing and polluting anything. They can go into people’s bodies and make them insane or turn them into idiots.

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