Travellers who venture to the Bali island sooner or later visit the lake of Batur at the foot of Mount Kintamani and climbs the stairs of the temple of Besakih for a panorama of Mt. Agung, the Bali’s holy mountain. Travellers who venture further may cross the Bali Strait to island of Madura, or take a ferryboat from island of Bali to the island of Lombok, where they may try to reach the summit of Mt. Rinjani, the Nusantara’s 2nd highest volcano.

How was the lake of Batur formed, and how did the Bali Strait come into being? Where did Mt. Rinjani get its name? who watered the beautiful terrasse rice fields of Bali and builts its many temples? Long years ago these questions and the answers to them became the myths and legends of of the people of Bali and Lombok, told and retold down to the present day.

Their fairytales and fables sound familiar to us, since folklores have always existed in many places, in many different versions. The characters are similar; only the names are different. The moral is the same too, expressed in a variety of ways. In the Balinese folklores we find the legendary giant Kbo Iwo and the wayward Manik Angkeran. We read how the Half-Child becomes whole again, and we find that the trickster Mhevrotain is in Balinese folklore too. Of course Gecko is there, and the holy man Nabi Ilir, and the Slippers of Buffaloskin. Orphan Child and his friends seem too, and Lo’Lombo the straight and Lo’Bengkok the crooked, all of them reflecting the attitudes, ideas, and humor of the people of Bali and Lombok.[email_link]