Queen of Demons - The Legend of Rangda

Evoking both fear and intrigue, the Balinese divinity known as Rangda represents a symbol of ultimate darkness and the eternal struggle between good and evil in her brutal battle against Barong, the guardian saint and symbol of all that is good. Derived from ancient Javanese scripts, Rangda translates as ‘the widow’.

In art, she is depicted as a repugnant, cannibalistic witch, a Queen of sorcery and the Mistress of the Leyaks. She is a hideous, naked old woman with tangled dredlocks, enormous fangs, a long protruding tongue and a vicious mouth of flames. She is adorned with the dripping jewels of entrails and is often shown desecrating tombs and devouring babies, intoxicated from the blood of her foes.

She is oftern depicted holding her favourite snack

Rangda’s loyal disciples are called Leyaks. They are malevolent shapeshifters who appear as human beings during the day but under the light of the moon, break loose from their bodies and haunt the night sky in the form of a decapitated head with dangling entrails. They feed on corpses and hunt pregnant women so they may suck the blood of the unborn.

A night time display at Pura Dalem in Ubud

It has been suggested that the evil goddess derives from an 11th century Javanese princess named Madhendratta, who was exiled by the king for practicing witchcraft against his second wife. In retaliation for this, she attempted to destroy the king and his people by summoning the Leyaks and spreading plague and death throughout the kingdom. After an epic battle, she was eventually overcome by the powers of a holy man. He killed her in her monstrous form, absolved her of her crimes, revived her in her human form and then slaughtered her again.

She is also depicted in ornate masks

It is also suggested that Rangda may also be closely associated with Durga, the Hindu warrior goddess, and Kali, the Indian goddess of destruction. The colours associated with her - white, black and red - are closely related with those other powerful feminine symbols in Hindu mythology.

Her likeness is often used during the annual Ogoh-Ogoh Parade, the night before Nyepi, the Day of Silence

While she is widely seen as the personification of evil, she nevertheless functions in a paradoxically protective way, a vessel for all that is monstrous and evil. In Balinese culture, she defuses the power of those who practice black magic and directly challenges human malefactors to match their own powers against hers.

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