Siat Sampian or sampian war is one of the oldest
Balinese Hindus sacred tradition that is performed annually at
Samuan Tiga Temple in Gianyar. In this war, dozens of premas -
or woman - worshippers to the temple,s Gods, attactk each other
using young - coconut leaf arranggements ( sampian) in an almost
unconscious state of mind. After them, the same sampian war is
also performed by no less than three hundred of the parekan -
or men-devotees. The war and its related ritual begins at 6 am
and finishes around 1 pm. This more than eleven centuries old
tradition is very unique and cannot be found in other parts of
Bali. Visitors are welcome to watch this amazing event this year
on Sunday, may 14th.
Samuan Tiga is one of the most important temples in the history
of the Hindu development of Bali. Initially, Hinduism in Bali
was very sectarian. There were at least nine sects among Hindu's
adherents and each of them followed certain beliefs and practiced
them differently. Each of them tended to claim the ultimate truth
of their belief and undermined others. Thus this caused spiritual
tension and forced the community to split thus forcing the king
to reconcile them all. The then Balinese King, Udayana Warmadewa
and his Javanese wife Sri Gunapriyadharmapatni, who ruled Bali
in the 10th century, made a stand for reconciliation. A meeting
was initiated and held at place now called Samuan Tiga. The king
invited several priests from java to held the reconciliation process.
The brilliant and influential priest Mpu Kuturan was able to
encourage the participants to accept at least three concepts for
both the Hindu beliefs and their community life. The first, the
notion of Tri Murti, that is the three manifestations of God including
Brahma, Wisnu and Ciwa, each respectively being a Creator, Carer,
and Destroyer. The second the idea of the customary village known
as desa pekraman along with its three village temples ( Khayangan
Tiga). the last is the three spaces of a household's temples and
shrines or sanggah kemulan. All of these three based concepts
had been and are now still the backbone of the Bali Hindu Religion.
The term desa pakraman had long been forgotten, having been replaced
by the Dutch term of Desa Adat ( customary village). However,
since early 2000, amidst the attempt to revitalize indigenous
values, the Balinese once again use the term desa pakraman and
are aware that the term desa pakraman the Balinese also reflect
again on the importance of Samuan Tiga temple.
Actually, Samuan Tiga temple is as important as teh Hindu mother
temple Pura Besakih in Karangasem. This can bee seen from the
ritual day of both temples that fall on the same day which is
the 10th purnama ( Purnama Kedasa, fall every April). In order
to give more preparation time and to pray for the general public
and in particular the congregation, the ritual at Samuan Tiga
Temple is delayed to the following full moon, which is the 11th
purnama. Thousands of people, mainly from Southern Bali, come
to perform worship to Samuan Tiga on each day of ritual. In additional
to that, in the last ten years, the pilgrimage ( tirta yatra)
of this local region has become popular amongst the Balinese,
therefore many people visit Samuan tiga temple to pray, notably
on the full moon day.
The main rituals of Samuan Tiga temple can be distinguished into
three catagories, which are the temple festival that falls every
six months of the Balinese calender ( 210 days) the same day as
Kuningan. The other two are Ngusaba alit and Ngusaba agung, that
fall every 11th full moon. The latter being a more elaborate festival
that is attended by divinities and gods from related nearby temple
networks, Ngusaba Alit celebrated every odd year, while Ngusaba
Agung is celebratedevery even year, with this year 2006 being
an example, with a more grander ritual. This end of the whole
ritual is marked by melasti or a purification ceremony at Lebih
Beach, 15 km southward, done through a returnibg walking procession.
In the procession, almost all of the temple regalia like spears,
umbrellas and arca are taken to the beach for purification. The
primary congregation of Samuan Tiga temple spread across five
customary villages, with a total of 2000 family heads, all of
whom are socially obliged to attend the ritual.
Siat Sampian is one of the most important and intresting. It's
held two or three days after the ngusaba day. The war is first
performed by the women's group called premas and followed by the
men's group called parekan. Both premas and parekan mean "
follower" or " devotee" in Balinese. Not all of
the temple's congregation are premas or parekan. The status of
the devotees is determined by inheritance along the family line.
There are now are 42 premas and 300 parekan. In the last ten years,
the number of devotees has increased significantly, not because
of an increase in family numbers but because some of the devotees
have submitted themselves to fulfill their spiritual promises,that
the temple council would find difficult to reject. There were
some of the congregation, for example who promised to became a
devotee if she could recovery from a serious and prolonged illness,
other become devotees because she had been appointed in a dream
by the divinities. Gaining a special status has also been a motive
for members of the congregation to become premas or parekan. Those
holding premas or parekan status are ascribed a certain prestige
at the village level. They are often given trust to conduct certain
rituals at the village level's temple.
The devotees dedicate their time and skills during the ritual
preparations at Samuan Tiga and they join the Sampian War. The
Sampian War starts in the morning as early as 6 o'clock. it is
started first by the premas, 42 people, wearing white shirts and
black kamen, making a line and dancing around the temple with
three different movements. For each movement, they first move
around in circle three times, each circle being around 200 meters.
The last movement is making waves where the premas hold each other'
white waist-scarves. This white wave symbolizes holiness. The
parekan who dress in full white, join the last movement of the
premas, but go straightaway to a temple to pray where they surrender
themselves spieitually to the Gods. While the parekan are praying,
the women group performs a war, using sampian to attack each other
for around 10 minutes. when they have finished, the parekan enter
the yard and dance hand in hand, moving around and then perform
the sampian war. The participants run to the spring water beji
on the site to get holy water to mark the end of the holy war
performance.
Samuan Tiga, which is strategically located set back a little
from the main street between Ubud and Tampaksiring, used to be
one of the most popular tourist destinations. The local Bali government
build a stage for touristic performances and other cultural activities
for the locals. Samuan Tiga was selected as one of the PATA's
marts participants to visit in the mid 1970s. many travel agents
held dinnes with cultural nights there. But, by the late 1980s
the popularity of Samuan Tiga as a tourist destination dropped
drastically because of competition and lack of site management.
But, nowdays, with a strong commitment from the temple congregation
to maintain their traditions and the spiritual power of the temple,
Samuan Tiga has gradually regained its popularity especially concerning
tradition and its religipus field. this month be sure not to miss
the sampian war perpormance at Samuan Tiga where visitors are
most welcome
