pre Hindu customs through a strong code of non-fraternization with outsiders.
Tenganan Pegeringsingan is one of the most conservative villages of
the Bali Aga "original Balinese". Tenganan is also well known for its
geringsing cloth or double ikat. Through an intricate process of weaving
and dyeing, known only here, a single cloth takes five years to complete.
which is supposed to protect the wearer with magic powers. Here unique
rituals offering dances, and gladiator ( the fight of the Pandanus leaves)
takes place only once a year.
On a side-road, leading inland to the hills near Karangasem,
is Tenganan, one of the most conservative villages of the BaliAga11
original" Balinese. This is a walled village. Within the bastions, all
living compounds are identical in plan and are arranged in rows on either
side of the wide, stone-paved lanes which run the length of the village.
The people of Tenganan claim to have come originally from Bedulu. The
legend of how they acquired their land dates from the 14th century:
the mighty king Dalem Bedaulu lost his favorite horse and sent the villagers
of his kingdom in all directions in search of it. The men of Tenganan
traveled east and found the corpse of the horse.
When
the king thereafter offered to reward them, they requested the land
where the horse was found, i.e. all the area in which the carcass of
the dead horse could be smelt. The king sent an official. With a keen
sense of smell to partition the land. For days, the chief of Tenganan
led the official through the hills, yet still the air was polluted with
odor of dead horse. At last, the tired official decided this was enough
land and departed. After he had left, the BaliAga chief pulled from
his clothing a very smelly remnant of the horse's flesh.
Tenganan still owns, communally, these large tracts of well cultivated
land. Traditionally, the men were not accustomed to work in the fields
with their own hands and hired out their land to men of neighboring
villages. The aristocratic Tenganese went to the fields chiefly to collect
tuak, a popular palm beer. The women of this village weave the famous
"flaming" cloth, kamben gringsing, which supposedly has the power to
immunize the wearer against evil vibrations.
Through an intricate process of weaving and dyeing, known only here,
a Single cloth takes five years to complete. Only the finest pieces
are worn by Tenganan people for ceremonial dress. The imperfect ones
are sold, since they are much in demand throughout Bali.
During ceremonies here, girls, from the age of two, wrap their
bodices in silk, don a multi colored scarf and flowered crowns of beaten
gold. Men begin to play the mysterious melodies of the gamelan selunding,
an archaic orchestra of iron sound-bars, seldom heard outside a few
cloistered villages in the east. Very slowly the girls file out of the
darkness, their eyes cast to the ground. Silently, they lift their scarfs
and let them fail again, always moving in slow, dreamlike elegance.
This is Rejang, a ritual offering dance.
The Fight of the Pandanus Leaves at Tenganan takes place only
once a year during a festival called Usaba sambah. To the accompaniment
of the sacred gamelan selunding, two men each within round, plaited
shield attack each other with wads of pandanus leaves, the variety with
thorns down either side of the leaf. The two favorite tactics are to
rush and clench the opponent. The clench has one disadvantage: while
one man rubs this thorny wad across his opponent's back, he is rather
open to the same treatment. Occasionally, the earnestness of an expression
makes one wonder if an insult is not being repaid. During this festival,
ferries wheels, such as you pass on the road past Klungkung, are set
up on the rising terraces of the village. Some have one wheel of seats,
others two, and the whole wooden contraption is turned by the foot-power
of two men at the tops of the poles on either side. Within a few kilometers of
Tenganan are other conservative and secluded villages that enact, unchanged,
rituals peculiar to them. At Asak, dancers sweep their hair in a great
coil to one side, as seen in old stone statues of noblewomen. Men play
the ancient gamelan gambang of wooden keys. Beyong Tenganan, the main
road crosses a pass overlooking a huge valley. At the highest point,
where drivers often place offerings, a path climbs steeply up to Pura
Gumang and a great view.
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