Bali Seasonal Culture Tour

Perang Pandan
Tenganan is one of Bali’s original pre-Hindu settlements; a unique, 700-year-old village, hidden in the hills three kilometres north of Candi Dasa in East Bali. Here, the 300 residents – the Bali Aga people – practise a time-honoured lifestyle based around ritual and ceremony, bound by strict ‘adat’ (customary law) practices to maintain purity. The mekare-kare is an annual theatrical fight between the young men of the village, utilising prickly pandanus leaf whips! Each dual is staged to the intense martial sounds of ‘gamelan selonding’

music, and lasts only a few seconds, accompanied by much merriment and laughter. The attacks are warded off with tightly woven ‘ata’ vine shields; there are no winners and no losers because the objective is to draw blood as an offering to the gods. After the battles, the combatants’ wounds are treated with a stinging mixture of alcohol and turmeric, leaving no scars.

During festivals such as this, the women of the village wear the famous hand-woven double ikat textiles, known as ‘Geringsing’. Tenganan is the only place in Indonesia where this double weaving technique is practised and the ritually significant, magic cloth haas the power to protect the wearer from sickness and evil vibrations. On the first day of the mekare-kare, the unmarried maidens of the village ride creaky wooden ferris wheels, which are manually operated by the men. The turning symbolises the descent of the sun to the earth. Mekare-kare takes place in Tenganan every year in June or July as part of the Usaba Sambah festival. Visitors, however, are welcomed to the fortress-like village at anytime of year during daylight hours; many of the houses function as shops and workshops where expert craftsmen and women perform their centuries-old skills. This living museum is well worth a visit!

Ngaben
Ngaben or the Cremation Ceremony is the ritual performed to send the dead through the transition to his next life. The village Kul Kul, hanging in the tower of the village temple, will sound a certain beat to announce the departure of the deceased. The body of the deceased will be placed at Bale Delod, as if he were sleeping, and the family will continue to treat him as if he were still alive yet sleeping. No tears are shed, for he is only gone temporarily and he will reincarnate into the family.

The Priest consults the Dewasa to determine the proper day for the ceremony. On the day of the ceremony, the body of the deceased is placed inside a coffin which is then placed inside a sarcophagus in the form of a buffalo (called Lembu) or a temple structure called Wadah made of paper and light wood. The Wadah will be carried to the village cremation site in a procession.The climax of Ngaben is the burning of the Wadah, using fire originating from a holy source. The deceased is sent to his afterlife, to be reincarnated in the future.