TENGANAN TRADITIONAL VILLAGE

Tenganan Traditional Village lies northwest of Candidasa and situated about 5 kilometers from the main road. Tenganan is a symmetrically laid out Bali Aga village with walled homes and unique crafts. Bali Aga was the original inhabitant of Bali, before the arrival of Hindu Javanese. Tenganan retains its ancient pre Hindu customs through a strong code of non fraternization with outsiders, further enforced by the protection of its surrounding walls. The village is charming and has some very fascinating authentic traditional festivals (ritual dances and gladiator) like Bali Aga of Tenganan often holds the battle between local youths. The people of Tenganan are skilled in the unique technique of weaving, called the double ikat, where the belief in the magical power of the fabric is essential in bringing out the beauty of the ikat cloth.

How to Get to Tenganan Village

Tenganan Village located in Manggis sub district, Karangasem Regency, east part of Bali Island. It is situated approximately 68 km from Denpasar airport or taking 1,5 hour from Kuta or Seminyak area by car. Tenganan Villa is open to the public without any entry costing, but a small donation. If you want to explore for yourself, it would be nice if you use google map as a guide to get to this location from Tenganan village.

What to Expect at Tenganan Village

Visiting one of the cultural tours on the island of Bali, namely Tenganan Village or better known as Tenganan Pegringsingan Village in the eastern part of the island of Bali is one of the tours that will be very memorable in the hearts of visitors, with all the uniqueness of this Tenganan village making visitors very happy. Enjoy walking around the village and seeing the village which still preserved its customs and traditions from year to year and is not eroded by the erosion of an increasingly challenging era. The residents in Tenganan village are very united in preserving their culture, as for if you visit Tenganan village, there are several things you can do here to enjoy the beauty of the village and the unique customs and also see beautiful handicrafts.

1. Village Tenganan: You can enjoy the beauty of the customs here which are still very well preserved by walking around the village of Tenganan and seeing the daily social life of the people here which is still awake and you can mingle with the local community of Tenganan village because the residents of this village do not get much influence from the outside so that their daily lives are similar to the past.

2. Take a photo at the Traditional House: Besides that, you also visit one of the traditional houses here and take pictures in one of the old houses, where the building is still very well preserved from year to year which can be seen here, without a touch of modernization making the people's houses here look like houses that existed in ancient times, a very pleasant sensation to take pictures at homes that existed in the past.

3. Pegringsingan Crafts: Besides that, you can also visit one of the famous pegringsingan crafts in this Tenganan village, you can see the weaving process carried out by local people here, a very unique process that produces very beautiful works, you can also buy pegringsinan cloth this as a gift.

4. Watching the War Dance Tradition: As for the blooming tradition, you can't see it often, because it's only held on certain days, usually after Nyepi Day and some days there will be a blooming curry tradition, so this is a very rare event, if you want to watch please see the schedule first.

5. Watching the Swing Tradition: Another tradition is the swing, where when the girls are about to grow up, they will wear traditional clothes and pegringsingan cloth and sit on a big swing made of wood which is moved by 2 people and its meaning is to represent the life that continues to revolve, but this is only held if there are girls who are about to grow up in the village.

6. Buy Souvenirs: Besides pegringsingan cloth, here there are also various types of handicrafts that you can buy for you to use as souvenirs for those who have visited Tenganan village, such as painting on palm leaves, drawn eggs, animal bone crafts, mask crafts and others that will surely amaze you to see it.

The Mythology of Tenganan Village

The Mythology story of Tenganan Village can be told from several mythological stories that have to do with this Tenganan Pegringsingan village which is still alive among the people of Setempet, namely, in ancient times when it was still in the era of the Belalu kingdom which was led by a very powerful and arrogant king. named Mayadenawa, during his reign all the people of Peneges Village in the territory of this ancient kingdom were prohibited from carrying out religious ceremonies and praying to the Besakih Temple, the behavior of this Mayadenawa king was heard in heaven so that the gods were angry and Bhatara Indra came down to the world to fight the king.

The very powerful king, in this war King Mayadenawa was defeated by Bhatara Indra, this victory was celebrated by the residents of Peneges Village and Bhatara Indra ordered the residents to return to pray to the Besakih temple, while this ceremony was named Asua Medayad, namely the sacrifice ceremony using use a horse with white hair named Onceswara. When the ceremony was about to be carried out by the residents of Peneges Village, suddenly Onceswara's horse disappeared, Bhatara Indra ordered all residents to look for the horse. The search team was divided into two groups, the first group headed northwest and the second group headed northeast.

The group that looked to the northwest found nothing and then they built houses and settled in Beratan. The second group who searched to the northeast managed to find the horse but it was dead. Bhatara indra knew this and said "hi.. Peneges people don't be sad, even if your Onceswara horse is found dead I will repay your services. For that I bestow this area for you. Regarding the area to the limit of the Onceswara horse carcass smelling" Hearing this, the villagers of Penages finally cut the horse into pieces and threw the pieces in all directions so that they could dominate the area.

The Traditional House of Tenganan Village

Traditional houses in Tenganan Village have very significant differences with residential houses in Bali, where in general this difference is due to the concept of spatial division in Sanga Mandala, namely dividing the house plot into nine parts which are located in the northeast direction, which is the highest hierarchical area. which is influenced by the philosophy of seamount orientation and east west (rising and setting). In Tenganan village, the Meulu to Tengah concept applies in a residential plot with the highest hierarchical space located in an area close to the front/outside courtyard because the main road (awangan) is considered a sacred area. Residential houses in Tenganan Village always consist of four main building units, namely:

1. Bale Buga: is a place to carry out ceremonial rituals more on a religious function. Judging from its function, the location of this building is always close to the main road or the cloud because the cloud is a sacred area. The roof of Bale Buga must be made of palpalan (coconut leaves) or palm fiber. The location of the Bale Buga building is integrated with the entrance or is called the Jelanan Awangan type or separately called the Kori Ngeleb type.

2. Central Bale: Bale building which always consists of two rooms where one room/bale is for carrying out death rituals and the other room is for placing newborn babies.

3. Bale Meten: This bale/building among other buildings has the most profane function, which can be modified and used daily as a bedroom or living room. However, when there is a wedding ceremony there is a ritual ceremony that is carried out in one of the rooms in this Bale.

4. Paon or Kitchen: has the same function as the kitchen at home in general for cooking activities and other kitchen matters. However, in the kitchen of the Tenganan people, they are required to have a furnace (jalikan) because there is a ceremony that must be carried out in the jalikan. On the south side attached to the kitchen wall there is a bathroom.

Tenganan Village Entrance Ticket

Visiting Tenganan Village there is no entrance ticket required, but a donation is expected especially of foreign visitors.

Opening Hours : 07.00 AM - 06.00 PM