Bali Aga de Tenganan

🏞️ Tenganan Pegringsingan: the stronghold of the Bali Aga

📍 Location

• Located in the east of Bali, just a few kilometers from Candidasa, in the regency of Karangasem.
• Nestled between green hills and rice fields, the village is surrounded by a stone enclosure, preserving its isolation and identity.

🧬 Who are the Bali Aga ?

• The Bali Aga are the descendants of the first inhabitants of Bali, before the arrival of Javanese Hindu influences in the 14th century.
• Their culture is animist, centered on the worship of ancestors, nature and protective spirits.
• Tenganan is one of the few villages to have resisted the domination of the Majapahit kingdom, retaining a autonomous social and religious organization.

🏘️ Architecture and organization of the village

• The village is structured according to a rectilinear plane, with three large cobbled streets lined with traditional stone and wood houses.
• Each house is oriented according to sacred principles, and the common spaces are used for ceremonies and community meetings.
• The atmosphere is quiet, orderly and deeply spiritual.

🎨 Unique crafts and traditions

• Tenganan is famous for the double ikat, called Kamben Geringsing :
• A extremely rare weaving technique, practiced only here.
• These fabrics are considered as magical, used in protection and healing rituals.
• The locals also make engraved bamboo objects, the basketwork, and the illustrations from the Ramayana hand painted.
• There are also painted fighting cocks, raised for ritual ceremonies.

🐎 An astonishing founding legend

• According to tradition, the king of Bedulu offered the lands of Tenganan to the villagers after they found his dead favorite horse.
• The village chief simply asked for the area of ​​land impregnated with the body's odor.
• Thanks to a ruse involving a piece of rotten meat, the villagers obtained a vast fertile expanse, which they still occupy today.

🎉 Ceremonies and community life

• The village celebrates every year the Usaba Sambah Festival, a complex, multi-week ceremony dedicated to fertility, ancestors, and social harmony.
• Rituals include traditional dances, the ancient songs, and the ritual games like the Perang Pandan (symbolic fight with pandanus leaves).

✨ Why Tenganan is fascinating

It is a place where time seems to stand still, where thousand-year-old traditions are alive and respected, and where one can feel the deep soul of Bali. Tenganan is not a museum: it is a living community, proud of its heritage and open to those who come with respect and curiosity.