Balance arises through respect and awareness. The Hindu Balinese people practice respect and awareness through their rituals, or yadnya, in which offerings are made to the unseen energies of the universe, both high and low. Dewa yadnya, for example, are rituals addressed to deities, while buta yadnya are directed to ground spirits associated with disruptive forces. One spectacular example of buta yadnya is the Tawur Agung Kesanga.

Tawur Agung Kesanga is a sacred ceremony which is held annually as part of the celebration of Nyepi, Bali’s ‘Day of Silence’. Tawur Agung is a great complex of offerings in which tawur means ‘to pay or restore’. Everything that we take from nature is restored through the Tawur ritual, dedicated to the invisible buta, with the aim that they will be pacified and not disturb the world. The ritual is held in Kesanga, the ninth month in Balinese Saka calendar. It is carried out by local people at the crossroad of their village on the day before Nyepi. Its meaning is one of purification as an expression of harmony between humankind and nature — peace for the universe as the whole.

As part of this ritual, every household in the village also does a similar ceremony at home in a simpler way; this rite is called mecaru. People make a sanggah cucuk (a shrine-like construction of bamboo) in front of the gate of the house courtyard, where offerings are set out. The offerings include nasi tawur (colorful sacred rice) which is obtained from the Tawur Agung Kesanga at the crossroad. After the mecaru, the family parade around the house compound banging on pots, scattering the nasi tawur, and sweeping the air with burning palm leaves, cleansing every corner and every building in the compound. It is believed that this will make all negative energies disappear from the house environment.

Mecaru is also done in the Komaneka resorts as part of our odalan, the anniversary of the founding of the Komaneka temple. Every temple in Bali has its own anniversary date, on either the solar Saka calendar or the 210-day calendar. Odalan at Komaneka Bisma takes place in the fifth month of the Saka calendar, or around November.

But you do not need to wait until our odalan to see a mecaru, because it will be part of the Nyepi celebrations at Komaneka Resorts.

Would you like to experience this sacred ceremony at our home?