Bali Aga Sacred Ways – Karangasem Kingdom
Karangasem regency is an area of intense beauty. Mount Agung towers in all its glory at 3,142 metres and creates a stunning landscape over East Bali. The dramatic foothills and crevices created by centuries of lava flows from the peak of Bali’s most sacred and highest volcano, provides a wondrous landscape of beauty unrivalled anywhere in Bali. The great mother temple of Besakih sits perched against this backdrop and small traditional villages, which make up the rich tapestry of Balinese history spreads out under its protective aura.
Hidden amongst the hills and valleys is an ancient culture which still practices their age-old beliefs. I visited one of these small traditional villages, Tenganan Dauh Tukad, and met with Wayan Togia who told me his village was only made accessible to the outside world in 1985. “I remember hauling rocks and working tirelessly as a 15 year old road worker. Together with the men from my village, we made a new road and this was the first time I came to know about motorbikes,” he explained.
Wayan lives in a Bali Aga village. Bali Aga means original Balinese and the people who inhabit this 11th century village (the most ancient village in Bali), hold true to their age-old, ritualistic practices. Historically, most Balinese people are descendants of the Majapahit Empire, which is essentially ethnically Indian, however the Bali Aga culture, tucked away in a few small villages in East Bali are the original, pre-Majapahit aboriginal people of Bali. They celebrate their culture with unique temple ceremonies and festivals that have remained intact since time immemorial.
Wandering through the village with a population of only 759, who are all direct descendants of the original people of Bali, I couldn’t help but notice how modern the houses were. Even the temple entrances looked new and Wayan explained to me that the major eruption of Mt Agung in 1963 destroyed much of the village. Again, in 1979 another eruption caused further damage and now only a few houses remain made of the original clay. Most of the houses have been replaced with stronger building materials, but the feel of the village is as old as the hills.
Inside the village, the neat tidy road that connects the house compounds and temples is a wide durable dirt path and the village council voted to keep it this way. “The Government came here in 1990,” Wayan explained, “and after much village discussion the two Banjars (councils) refused the Government’s offer to modernise the road within the village. We simply refused to pave the roads with asphalt. We like it this way and besides asphalt is too hot.”
The ordered society that exists in this Bali Aga village comprises of four associations. There is one for married men, one for married women, an association for boys and one for girls. Many rites of passage exist within these groups and for the youth association, at around 7 years of age the children are taught about their responsibilities and requirements for the duties they must perform and karma desa is learned.
Dances of Bali Aga
The yearly calendar of temple ceremonies and festivals is full, with an event appearing every month, involving unique arts. Classical dancing like the Abuang dance for young boys, the sacred Rejang dance and the solo Baris dance are performed with elaborate ceremonial dress and headgear, not seen in other parts of Bali. Their dances embrace a proud history. The crowd favourite is always the Baris dance, which is performed with men splitting into opposing armies carrying sacred artefacts and symbolic weapons for magical strength. The century-old unique versions of these dances can be only be witnessed in these Bali Aga villages in East Bali.
The Battle Ground
Ritual battles take place in a number of old Bali villages in Karangasem accompanied by the pounding of the ancient gamelan. A special event on the fifth month of the Tenganan year is that of the festival of the swings, Usaba Sambah Festival.
Usaba Sambah Festival
The main festival, Usaba Sambah starts on the 9th of July and concludes on the 25th of July in 2014. There is an opening and closing ceremony and many neighbouring villages converge on Tenganan Dauh Tukad village to witness the colourful, vibrant events of the month. Wayan told me his village welcomes the increasing number of guests visiting the village. He eagerly showed me his collection of photos from past events. He took tremendous pride in showing me the coconut event, in which young boys have to balance heavily laden coconuts on a shoulder pole, some with up to 40 coconuts, and dodge a hail of flying bananas. If the boys get distracted and drop a coconut they get fined. Of course the bananas hit them, left, right and centre and a great raucous is created, but this event is about strength and focus and concentration, which is tested in this unique way.
Swinging in the Wind
The swing ceremony resembles the old Vedic rites and boys and girls climb onto a tall wooden structure and through a manual motion technique, a turning platform propels a series of wooden swings and the girls swing high above the ground. The symbolism unifies the sun and the earth. This is a highlight of the Usaba Sambah Festival.
Ikat
The sacred geringsing cloth is produced in the village and as I wandered the quiet streets, the lilting sounds of the soft clack, clack, clack of the loom could be heard through weathered doorframes. The double ikat cloths produced in this village are said to have protective powers. It takes one year to make one of these ikats, which is a masterwork of textile traditional art. The cloth is believed to be the inspiration of Batara Indra, the Creator who, when contemplating the moon and stars and heavens, was called upon to teach the women of Tenganan the intricate ikat patterning.
This practice is centuries old.
I stood and watched one of the younger women of the village weave a bright yellow threaded sarong on the loom and she told me, in single thread, this would take only one week to complete.
Cremation
Collective cremations are held in Tenganan Dauh Tukad village and the last one was in 2005. Ten bodies were exhumed from their temporary resting place in the ground and cremated together. Wayan explained a mass cremation is just for economical reasons, because cremations are very expensive affairs and it takes many years to save for one.
In the nearby Bali Aga village of Tenganan Pegringsingan, the larger of the two villages (over 1,000 people), burial is quite different and bodies are simply wrapped and placed under a tree, which is said to have magical powers, in that the bodies that lay under this tree and subsequently decompose, do not smell. By some magical, unexplained phenomena they rest and slowly rot, without animals coming near them or infestation of any sort. After some time, Wayan explained to me, “You are simply left with the skeleton. It is a mystery and no one can explain it. It is the way it has always been.”
The arts and customs of old Bali Aga and its traditions are very much alive today, as they were thousands of years ago. With the village law in place decreeing that no land can be sold, we can be safe in knowing that this will remain a living history well into the future.
Photos by David Metcalf – David runs specialist photography and cultural tours in Bali, Java, Kalimantan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and India. Please visit his website www.davidmetcalfphotography.com
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