Bali Travel news > Tenganan, Bali - Pandan Fight (14 - 15 June 2008)

Source: www.baliandbeyond.co.id
May 2, 2008

It Takes Blood, Literally Speaking....
The young men of the remote aboriginal village of Tenganan in East Bali offer drops of their own blood to the universe once a year to express thankfulness, through the fiery weapon fight of thorny pandanus.

Visitors to the island that are willing to explore village life will often encounter cockfights where two roosters are equipped with super sharp knives tied to one of their legs and the game is not stopped until one is deeply injured and therefore unable to continue to fight. Always a TKO in any fight, actually killed. Yes, because the injured rooster will go nowhere after the fight but straight into the owner's frying pan. Bali style KFC, 'knockout fried chicken.'

Sounds like inhumane conduct, a crime against animals. But such fighting—despite the fact that in recent times it's become a gambling game—is originally a religious event only held nearby the temple on certain auspicious days. Tradition holds that blood dropped to the earth will maintain a harmonious universe, through the logic that some "guardians" of the earth are believed to require fresh blood for their food so that they won't interfere with daily human life. It's like when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son for the sake of God, for the welfare of the universe.

A more "human" blood fight takes place once a year during this month in the remote traditional village of Tenganan in East Bali, 45 km from Denpasar. Each of the young men of the village fight one another, but unlike the cockfights, not to the death.

Instead of dangerous sharp knives, each fighter is armed with a piece of sword-like, thorny pandanus, so the fight is known as perang pandan, a war using pandan leaves (in fact it is more like a branch than a leaf).

Much like modern boxing or the ultimate fighting championships shown on TV, a fighting ring is erected with a respected village elder appointed as referee, deciding when a fight should start or stop. A jury panel chooses who is fighting who, usually a matter of what "body and muscle size" one belongs to. A man like Mike Tyson surely won't be paired to a boy like Oscar de la Hoya.

Also known as mekare-kare among the villagers, the fighting employs a fun yet often bloody atmosphere as every pair of young men hold a rattan armor shield in their one hand and a couple of thorny pandanus leaves as their daggers in the other, fighting until one fighter really hurts and blood runs down from his back, the only body part allowed to be attacked.

One bout lasts roughly two or three minutes. But sometimes the fight may take longer as the referee won't stop it until one spills blood. Some local "balian", traditional Balinese doctors, are the only medical representatives present. Those injured simply receive a treatment of boreh, a traditional medication which they say will fix the skin in a matter of days.

On day of the fight, as the boys are stepping onto the fighting field, the girls wearing their finest gringsing double ikat weaved attire are watching them from the ringside, cheering on their sweet hearts. A selonding gamelan ensemble plays live and the sound gets louder and the rhythm faster so as to increase the fighting spirit and create a heightened sense of excitement. After a round is stopped when one fighter is injured enough, both fighters are guided to the back side of the stage. The injured one is treated and a feast of food is enjoyed.

Such an intense fight is nevertheless a fun gathering. There is really no winner or loser, nor is an overall champion decided. In fact, everyone is a winner; those who won the fight and those whose blood was spilled to the ground, giving an offering to the Almighty. Therefore the celebration that follows is a feast of food and alcoholic drinks (local wines of tuak and arak) and is joined in by everyone.

Mekare-kare is the ultimate event of a month-long annual celebration. Prior to this day, many events involving all the village members are staged, such as dancing and prayer at the village grand temple. One of the popular attractions for the tourists' cameras is when the young girls go for a ride on the traditional Ferris wheel.

The message in the pandan fight is that it prepares the boys to face the real (and at times, harsh) life that they are about to fight for, and the Ferris wheel prepares the girls for the cycles of life, the ups and downs of living.

Tradition has it that this indigenous Balinese (the rest of Balinese Hindu's are those Javanese people migrating to the island when their Majapahit Hindu Empire collapsed as Islam arrived in the fourteen centuries) stage this fighting as the manifestation of the balanced relationship between humans and the Mother Earth.

While the modern (Javanese) Balinese replace this traditional "blood spilling" ritual with cockfighting, the Tengananese maintain their age old traditions, believing that the relationship between humans and Mother Earth only can be extended if their own blood is spilled on the ground.

The Blood Tradition
This blood tradition is not the monopoly of the men alone. Tenganan in fact is the producer of the rare and distinguished gringsing, a double ikat weave cloth. Interestingly, it is not paint that is used as the color. It is blood. No wonder the color is always combinations of dark red.

Current gringsing uses animal blood to make the color, yet long ago, as I’ve been told, every older person that fell sick, man or woman, would be euthanized for their fresh blood. This was as acceptable as when one lets a doctor amputate one’s leg for a better life chance, for example. Anyway, sacrificing oneself for the sake of their community is as heroic as fighting on the battleground, as is done by the younger generation.

Article by Sad Ripu

Photo by Arvid Nicolas

back to top