''Arja'' ( ban, ᬅᬃᬚ), also known as Balinese opera, is a popular form of

Balinese theatre Balinese theatre and dramas include Janger dance, pendet dance performances and masked performances of Topèng. Performances are also part of funeral rituals involving a procession, war dance, and other rituals before the cremation of the patu ...

which combines elements of opera, dance, and drama. It was created in 1825 for the funeral of a Balinese prince. In the beginning it had an all-male cast; since the 20th century all performers (including those playing men) have been women. The

Panji tales The Panji tales (formerly spelled Pandji) are a cycle of Javanese stories, centred around the legendary prince of the same name from East Java, Indonesia. Along with the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the tales are the basis of various poems and a ge ...

are the most important plot material. Since the 20th century, ''Arja'' performances have also enacted

Balinese mythology Balinese mythology is the traditional mythology of the people of the Indonesian island of Bali, before the majority adoption of Hinduism. Balinese mythology is mainly a kind of animism with some widely known characters and deities. Many themes ...

and legends as well as Indian (''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'' and ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

''), Chinese, Arabic, and more recently, western and contemporary Indonesian stories. Singing and stylized dance movements are accompanied by ''

gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

'' music played with two bamboo zithers called '' guntang''.

See also

References

Further reading