MIXING THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakara Post | Feature | Thu, November 27 2014,

Dirty dancing:  After the sacred ritual concluded, a jogged bumbung dancer livened up the post-event party. Considerably. (JP/Tarko Sudiarno)

Teeth filing is mandatory for Balinese Hindu children when entering adolescence.

The traditional practice — called a mepandes ritual (for royals and brahmins) or a metatah (chisel) or mesanggih (sharpening) ritual (for commoners — is done to remove six negative human traits: kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), mada (intoxication or arrogance), matsarya (jealousy) and moha (confusion).

One family in Jegu village in Tabanan recently held a mesanggih ceremony for two children who came of age in the last month. The right of passage was marked by a crowd of hundreds of Balinese Hindus bearing offerings.

The mesanggih, despite its religious and traditional practices, has been combined with other local community practices that are less spiritual.

That’s what happened in Jegu. Following the teeth-filing ceremony, some local residents began gambling and started with joged bumbung, or folk dancing, with the idea to liven up the ritual.

While the joged bumbung is familiar to local residenta, visitors who have never attended a mesanggih might have been surprised.

The joged bumbung was performed by dancers in a very erotic style that aroused the passion of the male audience.

The dancers’ sensual movements, accompanied by music from bamboo instruments, virtually hypnotized everyone — a spectacle of the mixing of the sacred and profane in Bali.

-Text and images by JP/Tarko Sudiarno