Kasada Ceremony of Tengger People, a Tribute to The God

Tengger tribe is a tribe who live on the Mount Bromo. Tengger tribe has many ceremony, for ceremony is a way of Tengger People to express gratitude, ask for protection or wealth to the god. one of The Ceremony is Kasada Ceremony.

Kasada Ceremony was held to commemorate sacrifice of Raden Kusuma, son of Jaka Seger and Lara Anteng. Beside that this ceremony is also used to express gratitude to the God. It's held at day 14 or 16 in Tenth month of Java Calender, at Fullmoon.

The story behind this ceremony said that once upon a time, Raden Kusuma sacrifices himself to the pit of Mount Bromo to prevent anger of the god to the Tengger People. Before throwing himself, Raden Kusuma made promise with his people to tribute every full moon in Tenth month in Java Calender, and thus Tengger People is saved by Raden Kusuma action. To commemorate the sacrifices, Kasada is held.

The ceremony is done by gathering all harvest or poultry as a tribute to te god which is held inside a place named Ongkek. After reaching bromo crater, all the tribute is thrown to the pit. This ceremony is also a graduation test for the new shaman of the villages. If the young shaman do wrong in the ceremony, then he fail to be new shaman.

There is step by step which must be done to do Kasada Ceremony, first is Sadya Kala Puja when Tengger People go to the bromo pit to prepare the tribute. Second is the elder speech and Sendratari show of Rara Anteng and Jaka Seger in the open stage Ngadisari Village. After midnight, the shaman is holding an Inauguration of new Shaman and ask for blessing of God to the Tengger People in Mountain Bromo sand field. But before inauguration the young shaman must be tested with reading a set of Prayer. After that Ongkek is thrown to the Pit of Bromo.

Kasodo Ceremony has become a symbol of Tengger People and become one of the famous tourist attraction in Indonesian. If you interested to show the ceremony. You can search the google about Java Calender and go the tenth month and plan a trip in that month. It's only held one a year..