Mekotekan Rituals in Munggu

The Mekotekan Rituals are part of the traditional Kuningan Festival that is celebrated to battle evil spirits that are said to attack Munggu Village.  The Kuningan Festival is held every six months according to the traditional Balinese calendar. The festival’s rituals are diverse but aim at purifying the locals and the village. By eliminating any evil spirits, the locals are able to ensure that only good spirits remain.

The ritual involves men reenacting the Blambangan war by walking to temple carrying wooden sticks. They are sprinkled with holy water and proceed to lay the sticks into a huge pyramid. Some men will climb the pyramid to “face-off” with each other whilst cheered on by the large crowd.

This ritual is believed to date back to the 17th century around the time of the Mengwi Kingdom. Legend has it that the Mekotekan ritual was conducted to welcome the kingdom’s soldiers back from the battlefield after fighting against soldiers from East Java’s Blambangan kingdom. On their way to the centre of the Mengwi kingdom, which was Munggu village, local residents cheered them as the winners of the war.

This ritual was banned for a time during Dutch rule of Indonesia, around 1915, but the village resurrected this important cultural event and it remains today.

Ngerebeg tradition or better known as makotek held every Tumpek Kuningan (ten days after Galungan) at Munggu customary village, Mengwi, Badung, has the meaning as a tribute to the heroes, repellent of negative things and a means to unite the citizens. This was confirmed by chief of Munggu customary village, I Made Rai Sujana, amid the ngerebeg procession at the local Desa and Puseh Temple of local village, Saturday (Jan. 5).

He explained the meanings of the procession starting from the Mengwi kingdom headquartered at Munggu with the king named Ida Cokorda Nyoman Sakti Munggu. When defending his territory in Blambangan, East Java, before the Mengwi troops named goak selem or black crow troops left the kingdom, right on the Tumpek Kuningan Day, the king of Mengwi performed a meditation at Dalem Kahyangan Wisesa Temple, Munggu. The king got a revelation from his meditation.

The return of his troops with victory or success in the war was then commemorated with the tradition of ngerebeg. “Therefore, on Tumpek Kuningan, the tradition of ngerebeg continues to be commemorated at Munggu customary village as a tribute to the victory of Mengwi’s royal war, as the respect for the heroes,” he explained.

Related to the tradition as disaster repellent, he told that it was initially carried out with a spear. Then, during the Dutch colonial period the tradition was banned because it was thought to be a rebellion. As a result, this tradition had not been organized for several times. Then, outbreaks of disease or plague attacked villagers, even many people died.

This condition made some customary and religious leaders negotiate with the Dutch administration and finally the tradition was allowed to be held again. However, the facilities used are not spears, but replaced with pulet wooden stick. “Since then, the tradition of ngerebeg formerly used spears was replaced with a pulet wooden stick, with the length of 3.5 meters. Based on such belief, the ngerebeg tradition serves as catastrophe repellent or keeps away from negative things,” he explained.

The third meaning of the tradition is as a means to unite citizens. This tradition is followed by almost all men aged 14 years and over from 12 hamlets at Munggu customary village. They mutually mingle while carrying wooden sticks and walking around the village area. When they arrive in several places such as road intersection they gather and unite the end of the stick to form the pyramid.

Once in a while, a young man will climb up the pile of the sticks. “So, this tradition is to unite young people from 12 hamlets across the Munggu customary village. By carrying out the ngerebeg tradition, they will definitely do positive things and strengthen the sense of unity among the youth,” he concluded.

Mekotekan Rituals in Munggu

Source  : https://www.baliplus.com/