The village of tenganan pegeringsingan is one of the bali aga villages located in the mangosteen subdistrict of Karangasem regency of the province of Bali. The location of the village that is far in the middle makes the distance to the village of tenganan from the city of Amlapura reach 18 km and approximately 67 km from the city of Denpasar. Administratively, the traditional village of tenganan pegringsingan enters into the village of the Tenganan Office with a number of territorial boundaries consisting of the Northern Limit, namely the Bebandem Village, the Eastern Limit of Pertima village, the southern boundary of the pasedahan village and the western border of Ngis village.
In worship of the gods of the senses as the god of war, the traditional village of tenganan has a ritual called Mekare-kare. Mekare-kare is packaged in the form of a contest of agility, a battle of courage like those who are at war. This is the reason they are also often known as war dance. War dance is said because at the time of its implementation, the ritual of mekare uses several means that reflect the existence of warfare, such as tamiang, a shield made of woven rattan, and weapons in the form of a bunch of thorny pandanus leaves, so the ritual of mekare is often also known as “pandanus war”.
Pandanus is used as a type of pandanus thorn by local residents called pandan lengis. There are no specific provisions relating to the number and length of one pandanus bundle. All adjust to the reach of their participant’s fist. No less important means to treat wounds is bore curry. Bore curry is made using natural ingredients such as turmeric, galangal, and vinegar. These materials are processed in a special place that is tantalizing nyoman and presented to the patemu gedong as a form of request to God so that the curry bore can treat wounds caused by pandanus thorns when they are missing.
The implementation of the mechanism involves participants from the village community element as the main actors and is open to the general public which is overseen by the village manners. The perpetrators only wore a relentless and bare chest and tried not to overdo actions, such as hitting or attacking the face, instead bringing up the value of dance in each of his movements, even those who were particularly injured suffered injuries caused by the opponent’s attack. the wound suffered is believed to be an offering to the god Indra. If the ritual of mekare is considered sufficient, between the manners of the village and the truna perform a mecane activity, which is to collect a mixture of rice and turmeric. While eating together, the perpetrators were given treatment for wounds by applying curry boreh. As the final procession of the ritual of mekare, the village manners and truna carried out the activity of pouring wine into the pond accompanied by symbolic mechanism. Pouring of palm wine is carried out in rotation according to the position of the village manners from the lowest to the very top level which is then closed with the village manners rotating three times counterclockwise.
From the whole series of kare-kare, the residents of the traditional village of Tenganan Pegringsingan believe that sincerity and sincerity are the main offerings before God. Blood-sacrificing karees are not a ritual to judge win and lose, strong and weak, but rather as a ritual that reflects the pride of the ancestors who have bequeathed an ancient culture accompanied by learning life concepts that indirectly have also provided economic prosperity for the local community.
Source : http://tourism.karangasemkab.go.id/