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Feb 3, 2011

Selamat Tahun Baru Imlek!

Barongsai

Happy Lunar New Year to you readers! Gong xi fa cai, ang poh gun gun lai (恭喜发财,红包滚滚来). For those who finished attacking the reunion dinner few hours ago, I hope you had a wonderful time. I'm typing this before I go to sleep. In a few hours time, I will be leaving for another location for my usual "historical and heritage" research.

In lieu of firecrackers, new year couplets, dong dong chiang lions - in other words the usual stuffs - here is something you might not have seen before. This is the barongsai, the Balinese dancing lion. I took the picture in Bali. Incidentally the Chinese dancing lion familiar to us in Singapore is also called barongsai in Indonesia (I think sai is lion or 狮 in Hokkien, ba could come from Bali). But don't be mistaken, the Balinese lion does not take part in Lunar New Year celebrations!

*Selamat Tahun Baru Imlek: Happy Lunar New Year in Bahasa Indonesia.

2 comments:

me said...

in indonesia, the chinese dancing lion named barongsai...but this bali lion called barong only, without sai.

So barong is not bali language...i dunno where it can be called as barongsai or barong.

新年快乐!

Icemoon said...

The sai must be added by the Chinese to the barong already popular in Indonesia culture. If we go Pura Besakih next time, must ask the priest where did the word "barong" come from. One theory states that "rong" came from the Chinese word "long" (dragon).