Trance in Bali

Jane Belo's Trance in Bali, published by Columbia University Press in 1960, is an ethnographic study of Balinese trance practice, including the ritual confrontation between the Barong and the witch figure Rangda and the self stabbing kris dancers who fall into trance during it, based on fieldwork Belo conducted in Bali during the 1930s. Its strength is that direct, detailed firsthand observation of trance performance from within the community practicing it, recorded before later mass tourism reshaped how and for whom such performances were staged. Its limit is exactly that gap in time, the book describes trance practice as it was roughly ninety years ago, and Balinese performance has been substantially reshaped since by tourism, turning some rituals partly into staged entertainment, so a claim about contemporary Balinese trance practice needs later scholarship examining that transformation alongside Belo's earlier, pre-tourism account.