Tenganan Village, Bali Indonesia.

TENGANAN, THE BALINESE OLD ROMANCE

Photo and Text by Barry Kusuma

Tenganan is a small village in Bali which has its own unique. It is located in a remote area in Karang Asem Province. To be able to reach this place, you must take ground way which is around 60 km from the center of town Denpasar, Bali. This village remains traditional because it can survive from the globalization era caused by advanced technology. Even thought the media and the electricity facilities already exist in this area but they still uphold their nature culture so it remains the way it used to be, which is exotic. It is unchangeable because the local people have a traditional custom regulation which is called “Awig-awig”. This custom had been written down since 11 century and already renew in 1842.

This village spread around 1500.000 ha width. When the tourist spot expanded rapidly in Bali such as Kuta beach, Amed beach this place becoming more prestige by the present of hotels, beautiful beaches, cafes and the night life. Tenganan village still remain unchangeable, even though the era keep on changing it still held its 3 old meeting houses which are worn out and the grid traditional houses which has the same feature physically one to another. The heritance of the villagers in this place are being well taking care of by marriage among them. Therefore this village remain traditional and exotic even though the community of Tenganan excepted outside culture, but it still unchangeable because Awig-awig culture regulation that play as an important part to the Tenganan villagers community.

This village has a unique entrance gate. To be able to enter this village, the visitors have to pass a ticket-counter; it’s not a must that we pay, because the amount of the money that you give as a voluntary donation to the ticket officer who guard the ticket-counter. It was built Semi permanently. Before entering this village, the visitors have to pass a narrow gate which is enough to be passed by one person. The income of the villagers can’t be measure because they still use the barter system among them. Over here there are plenty of trees, rice field; buffalos which are set loose in front of their yard.

To increase the potential of tourism object of this place, the villagers sell their handy craft to the tourist. As we step our food to this place we can see the artificial shops. They sell a lot of the villager’s handy craft for souvenirs, which are bamboo plaited, wood carving, mini painting which made on lontar leaves that had been burn and the famous cotton from this place that called Gerinsing cotton. This cotton is very unique because with only in a glance look we can tell directly that this cotton is a hand-made. It is very expensive and only produces by the local people. It takes time to make this kind of cotton, because the colors on it came from a special tree that needs a special treatment. Even though there are a lot of visitors come to this place but they have less interest in buying the souvenirs, stated by I Made, a mini lontar leaves painter.

Staying in this village make us feel secure and peaceful. The villagers are very friendly and welcome. We can go round this place and see the local people daily routine activities. The best time for us to visit this place is during the afternoon because at this time the local people had finished doing their routine activities and they usually gathered in front of their houses and sometimes they go out together and hang out with other villagers. At that time we can see and notice their behavior, how they still uphold their tradition culture. So they deserve to be called Balinga (original Balinese people).

Photo & Text by Barry Kusuma

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