'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 women - worshippers to the temple's Gods, attack each other using young-coconut leaf arrangements (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.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 a place now called Samuan Tiga. The king invited several priests from Java to lead the reconciliation process.
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