History of Tenganan Village

Are you curious about the history of Tenganan Village? And why they still in the running of Bali Aga concept? Here is the aswer, let's check this out.

Pict 3. Villagers are praying in the temple
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According to some versions of the historical record, the word Tenganan comes from the word "tengah" or "ngatengahang" which means "moving to a deeper area". The word relates to the movement of rural communities from coastal areas to residential areas in the middle of the hills.

     But there is a Folk story, where is the Tenganan Land as the gift of Dewa Indra. The story starts from Dewa Indra's victory over the war with the authoritarian King Mayadenawa. The resident think that the world is considered dirty, and then Dewa Indra decided to make a ceremony to purify the world by sacrifice a horse as a "Yadnya". Oncesrawa is name of the horse. The horse that is considered magic has white fur with a black tail that reaches the ground long. When the horse relized that it was going to be made an ofering, the horse apparently run away. Dewa Indra then assigned Wong Peneges, the Bedahulu royal warrior, to look for Oncesrawa.

     The Paneges people are divided into two groups, The first group looks to the West and the second group looks to the East. The first group did not find traces of the sacrificial horse, while the second group find the horse dead in a place on the hillside, now called “Bukit Kaja”, Tenganan Pegringsingan village. That was immediately known by Dewa Indra. Furthermore, he decided to give a gift in the form of an area as large as the smell of carrion smelled. Wong Peneges apparently 'clever', they cut up the carcass of the horse and took it as far as they wanted. Dewa Indra knew that, then descended Indra God while waving, as a sign that the area they wanted was enough.