‘Siat Sampian’: A Centuries Old Unique War Performance at Samuan Tiga Temple ( 4 )

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 others' 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 spiritually 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 built 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 dinners 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, nowadays, with a strong commitment from 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 religious field. This month, be sure not to miss the sampian war performance at Samuan Tiga where visitors are most welcome!