Tenganan community preserves age-old traditions

Text and photos by Tarko Sudiarno

TENGANAN VILLAGE, Karangasem, East Bali (JP): A state within a state. This is a true picture of the traditional village Tenganan Pageringsingan in Karangasem regency, East Bali.

Tenganan is one of the remaining ancient Balinese villages occupied by the Bali Aga (early Balinese) society who have strong attachments to their centuries-old traditions.

Located 70 kilometer east of Denpasar, the province's capital city, the village is laid out in a large rectangle measuring some 500 meters by 250 meters encircled by natural boundaries and walls.

In the village, there are three public corridors rising in a terrace-like fashion, running along a north-south axis from the sea toward the sacred volcano Gunung Agung. There are six lengthwise rows of compounds; the pairs located in the center and to the west are striking because of their closed house fronts, which resemble palm leaf-covered longhouses.

The buildings and areas for public use are situated on the central axes of the central and western streets. On the western streets are walled temple areas, longhouses, smaller pavilions, rice granaries and shrines, all of which suggest a strong communal life with pronounced ritual rites.

In the eastern compounds of the banjar pande live those who have been banished from the village, such as disabled people, together with those whose customs share greater similarities with the majority of Hindu-Javanized Balinese.

The Tengananese are the custodians of the pre-Hindu Majapahit, who, as speculated by many scholars, presumably came from India.

But there are other indications that the people of Tenganan have not always lived in the present Tenganan village.

A copper inscription dated A.D. 1040 speaks of a relationship between the powerful governor from Java, a certain Buddhist reformer Mpu (master) Kuturan in Silayuki (near Padang Bai), and a nearby village named Trangana that was then on the coast near Candi (temple) Dasa but which later moved to the interior.

Proof that the Tenganan moved from the seaside to their present location is provided in the design and placement of the sanggah kamulan (original altars) in the house compounds. In other parts of Bali this altar is always built in the corner facing east and toward the mountains. As Urs Ramseyer discusses in Bali, Island of the gods, in Tenganan it is placed toward the seas.

The Tenganan people vigorously maintained their customs and refused to comply with traditions brought by the Hindu-Majapahit followers from East Java.

Their age-old customs and traditions do not recognize types of ceremonies, rituals and celebrations performed by other Hindu- Balinese people, such as Nyepi, the Caka New Year, Galungan, Ngaben and cremation ceremonies.

The Tengananese adopt a Hindu religion which originated from the Indra sect in India. This is clearly seen from the types of rituals and ceremonies, such as the rituals for death ceremonies.

When a member of the Tenganan community dies, his or her body is not cremated. Once the sun is past it's highest point, the corpse is carried from the compound to the cemetery. At the grave the body is undressed and buried facing the sun.

Unlike other Balinese villages, Tenganan traces its origins and its social institutions back to a written source called the Awig-awig, a set of laws and guidances which regulate the social and religious activities of the Tenganan community.

According to this text, the Tengananese have chosen by their creator, Batara Indra, to honor their descendants through communal offerings and sacrifices. It states that the descendants of the original villagers have been chosen to administer the surrounding lands.

The concept of territorial and bodily purity and integrity plays an exceedingly important role in village culture. It is reflected not only in many important rituals, but also in the idea that only a person who is healthy -- physically as well as mentally -- may take part in rituals. Disabled members of the community and outsiders cannot be admitted to the adat organizations of the village.

As a result of this divinely ordained scheme, the original layout and social organization of the village may not be changed. Houses, compounds, gardens, the village council and youth groups are to be left as the gods have created them.

Should anything be changed or taken away, the curse of the gods would fall upon the village and its people would perish. Anyone guilty of not respecting the inherited order is banned from participating in village rites, and thus from sharing in communal property.

The Awig-awig, for instance, clearly stipulates that land, water, and other natural resources are communal properties.

The Tengananese highly respect their nature and environment. No one in the community would dare to cut a tree without prior permission from the village's council. Furthermore, they are not allowed to pick fruit and other crops such as durian, kemiri (candlenuts), etc. before they are ripe.

Those who violate the existing rules face certain punishment from the village council and the community.

The Tenganan people have also adopted a well-ordered community system. The village is chaired by four people called the Krama Desa, the all village council.

Only men and women without mental and physical defects who were born in Tenganan, and who have duly passed all ritual initiation stages by the time they marry, are eligible to join the council.

With the opening of the once-isolated and sacred village Tenganan to visitors, the fate and the future of the ancient Bali Aga must be secured, not only by its community but also by the people of Bali and Indonesia in general.