A Sacred Dance That Closes the Festival Season
In Tista village, Karangasem, more than thirty teenage girls walked barefoot across a temple courtyard on June 27, each balancing an elaborate headdress of colorful leaves and flowers while wearing full traditional dress. They were there to perform the Rejang Kuningan dance at Puseh temple, the spiritual center of their Balinese Hindu community, on the occasion of Kuningan.
The scene was documented by AP photographer Firdia Lisnawati, who first reported the details of the ceremony.
What Kuningan and Galungan Mean
Kuningan is not a standalone holiday. It falls on the tenth and final day of the Galungan festival, a period Balinese Hindus observe as a celebration of the triumph of good over evil. The belief attached to Kuningan specifically is that the deities and ancestral spirits who descended to earth at the start of Galungan to bless their families now return to the heavens. The closing day therefore carries a particular weight: it is a farewell as much as a celebration.
The Rejang Dance as Living Offering
Rejang is a sacred form performed exclusively by young women, who move slowly in formation around the temple. The intended audience is not the crowd of onlookers but the gods and village ancestors themselves. The dance is understood as an offering, not a performance in the theatrical sense.
Before the dancers take their places, a Hindu priest blesses each girl and places incense on her headdress. A religious volunteer, known locally as a ngayah, also gives blessings before the ceremony begins. Costumes and headdresses are inspected carefully, because the visual presentation is part of the ritual integrity.
Rejang takes different forms across Bali, shaped by the specific occasion, the community, and local tradition. In Karangasem, a district known for villages that maintain distinct customs visible even in temple architecture, the Rejang Kuningan version carries the particular identity of each village. The costumes, the music played by Balinese men on traditional instruments, and the dance formations together communicate who these people are and where they come from.
For fourteen-year-old Ketut Alit Widiantari and her peers, participating is both a spiritual act and a way of carrying forward something their community has preserved across generations.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation operators in Karangasem and across Bali regularly host guests who arrive during Galungan and Kuningan without fully understanding what they are witnessing. A brief, accurate orientation, whether in a welcome letter, a printed card in the room, or a short conversation at check-in, can transform a guest's experience from passive observation to genuine engagement. Explaining that Kuningan is the closing day of a ten-day festival, that the Rejang dance is a sacred offering rather than a tourist show, and that barefoot entry and quiet respectful behavior are expected near temple grounds gives travelers the context they need to be considerate visitors. Hosts who can point guests toward communities where Rejang is performed, while also setting clear expectations about respectful conduct, add real value that no booking interface can replicate.
This post is published by the Qontaktly travel blog. Original reporting and photography were by Firdia Lisnawati for The Associated Press.
First reported by Bali Travel.