Tourists join 'Kuningan' celebration

Tourists join 'Kuningan' celebration

DENPASAR, Bali: Hundreds of foreign tourists joined the Hindu celebration of Kuningan at Sakenan Temple in Serangan subdistrict, 15 kilometers south of Denpasar.

The ceremony, conducted once every 210 days, was held to celebrate the victory of dharma (the good) over adharma (the bad).

Wearing predominantly yellow Balinese clothes, foreign tourists joined the thousands of Balinese people taking sesajen (offerings) to the temple.

People wanting to watch the religious ceremony were obliged to pay between Rp 1,000 and Rp 2,000 as an entrance fee to Serangan island, which has been connected through a reclamation project carried out by the local administration.

Hundreds of predominantly Muslim Bugis, whose ancestors settled in the subdistrict hundreds of years ago, also cooperated with the local Hindu committee to prepare the celebration.

Bugis people said Muslim and Hindu adherents in the subdistrict had cooperated for many years to promote tolerance among the local religious communities. --Antara