TRAVEL NOTES
It was at the gong shop that we learned two things. The first was that if we were really serious about buying good gamelan instruments, including best quality gongs, we should go to Magetan. The other exciting news was that a reog performance was at that very moment going on in Ponorogo. Without delay, therefore, we hastily piled the gongs on top of our increasing baggage and sped off in the direction of the town.
We arrived as the procession, which included two Singa barong masks, was coming down the main street, accompanied by a wild and noisy crowd. Traffic was diverted as the dancers stopped in the middle of the road to perform. We got out of the car and were immediately welcomed by the onlookers, who insisted that we join in the spirit of the occasion by offering us opened bottles of local arak, a powerful liquor with a flavour not unlike schnapps. Arak, we were told, is an essential ingredient in a traditional reog performance, since it gives strength and daring (keberanian) to the performers as well as increases the frenzy of the audience.

According to local belief, the reog of Ponorogo dates back to the pre-Islamic Javanese kingdom of Kediri, specifically to the reign of King Jayabhaya, who is said to have created the dance during the first half of the 12th century. The reog performance re-enacts a battle between Pujangga Anom, a minister from the court of Ponorogo, and Singa barong, ruler of the forest of Lodaya. A legend recounts how a king of Ponorogo wished to marry a princess from Kediri. As a dowry, he ordered one of his ministers, Pujangga Anom, to take 150 tigers from the forest of Lodaya and present them to the king of Kediri. The theft of so many tigers, however, aroused the anger of Singha barong, guardian spirit of Lodaya, who confronted Pujangga Anom in a terrific form, accompanied by his two assistants and sources of spiritual strength, the tiger and the peacock.
A typical reog troupe, then, usually consists of the two principal characters; Singa barong, wearing the enormous tiger head and peacock feather mask, and his masked adversary Pujangga Anom. They are accompanied by one or more masked clowns/acrobats, as well as a number of hobby horse (jaran kepang) dancers, who are said to represent the troops of Pujangga Anom. The reog dance has been compared with the barong of Bali as well as the Chinese Lion Dance, in attempts to trace its origins. Wherever these may lie, the reog, to the Javanese, is immediately associated with Ponorogo. The people here have a reputation for being tough, both physically and mentally, a quality inherited from centuries of living in a harsh environment, where it was often difficult to obtainwater and where the surrounding forests were full of dangerous animals. This toughness, the qualities of bravery and daring, are fully displayed in a reog performance, where the focus of attention is on a trance dancer supporting a giant mask, often weighing more than 40 kgs, between his teeth. The mask is a ferocious, snarling tiger's head, covered in real tiger skin and crowned with a gigantic three metre fan of peacock feathers. The success of a performance, including the ability of the principal dancer to bear the weight of the mask, is said to depend upon the magical power of the leader of the troupe of dancers and musicians.

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