First and Third World in Tenganan
Colors and Trees
In the 1980s, Pak Sadra and the villagers of Tenganan started to plant 17,000 trees on the denuded hills behind Candi Dasa, with the help of the Gandhian Ashram and Quakers' donations. Their dream is to be able to grow the mengkudu tree again, (Morinda citrifolia or noni), whose roots give the red color of the geringsing textiles. Used for ceremonies, these long scarves hold intricate patterns with symbolic meanings, and are believed to have healing and protective powers.
Building Village Ecotourism
A curse and a blessing, tourism has glued the people of Tenganan together and encouraged them to revive their traditions. When Candidasa boomed as a tourist destination in the 1980s, Tenganan reoriented its economy towards the sale of handicrafts, such as textiles, and baskets made of ata grass. But as traditions had been lost, Tenganan was easily exploited by outsiders.
"With the boom of travelling to Candidasa, or people started to become tourism objects," explains Pak Sadra, a community leader. Tour operators charging their clients hundreds of dollars would leave less than US$20 to the village. Knowing nothing about Tenganan, guides from outside fabricated stories. "They would tell tourists that geringsing , our sacred cloth, used to be dyed with human blood, or similar lies."
"In 1977," explains Sadra, "only five women of the village could still weave the geringsing , or double ikat cloth, which is unique to Tenganan." When people started to sell their old pieces to tourists, Sadra encouraged more women to make geringsing . "The main difficult was finding the red dye. We had no more trees producing this ingredient, so we had to bring tons of dye by boat from Nusa Penida before starting to plant the trees again.”
The next step was to motivate the young generation to revive traditions and be able to explain them to visitors. Pak Sadra started to challenge the village youth to continue local traditions by talking to the elders. With support from the Village Ecotourism Network of the Wisnu Foundation, he started to train young guides, establishing trekking trips during which hikers can discover Tenganan from the viewpoint of its people. This new generation of local guides, like Nyoman, is able to paint an honest portrait of their village. In many cases, he candidly admits that not everything can be explained, and has to follow the advice of Pak Sandra: “The meaning of old traditions is partially lost. It is for us to find our own interpretations to keep them alive.”
