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General Information
The Tenggerese are the descandants of the Majapahit princes. Their population of roughly 600,000 is centered in 30 villages in the isolated Tengger mountains bear Mount Bromo within the Bromo-Tengger-Serumu national park in East-Central Java. Scattered communities of Tenggerese in Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Malang and Lumajang districts of eastern Java. Most of the Tenggerese have Tibetan-like features (with flushed faces) due to th cold weather they experience all year round. They are believed to be the descandants of Roro Anteng and Joko Seger.
Language The Tenggerese speak an archaic Javanese (Majapahit) dialect called Tengger. Elements of modern Javanese influences in their speeches can be seen. They have their own Kavi script based on the old Javanese Brahmi type.
Religion The Tenggerese basically profess Mahayana Buddhism as their religion, though they have imbbibed many Hindu and Animist elements. Like the Balinese, they pray to God Ida Sang Hyang Widi Wasa ( Big Almighty lord) for blessing in addition to other Hindu and Buddhist gods that includes the Teri Murti, namelyShiva, Brahman, Vishnu and Buddha. Their places of worship includes the Punden, Poten and Danyang. The Poten a sacred area of ground at Mt. Bromo's Sand sea, and becomes the focus of the annual Kasada Ceremony. Within the Poten, it contains several buildings and enclosures, arranged in a specific composition called the Mandalas (Zones).
1. The jeroan, or central place of worship, containing the padma (lotus) a roofless construction decorated with images of a turtle eagle and swan. 2. Place for the dukuns (magician/priest) known as Bale Pawedan, and open four pillared construction; the Kori Agung, (Great Gate) Candi Bentar; the Bale Kentongan (Place for keeping the bells); and the Bale Bengong, a place for preparing food. 3. The Mandala Nista is a type of reception area bordering the inner place of worship with the outside world.
The Tenggerese also worship a host of spirits (ancestor worship). They include cikal bakal, the spirits of the founders of the village, the rohbau rekso, the village guardian spirits and the roh leluhur, the spirits of the ancestors. Rituals to propitiate these spirits are conducted by special priests. During these rites little doll-like figures representing the spirits are clothed in batik cloth and are presented with food and drink. It is believed that the spirits partake of the essence of these offerings. The Bromo volcano is considered one of the most sacred places. If it erupts, they believe that their god is very angry.
The Tenggerese gave offerings to the gods in different forms. One of these, Sajenan,is presented to the guardian deities by the priest in formal liturgy. For different occasions different sorts of food are offered as Sajenan. For instance, during weddings a cone of rice, Tumpeng Walagara, is offered, and this is considered to be a source of blessing for the couple as well as the whole village. The second sort of food offering, called Suguhan, are those that are offered by ordinary Tengger Hindus to their ancestral spirits. The third type, Tamping, are food offerings to evil spirits so as to ward off bad luck, and typically consist of meat, rice and bananas wrapped up in leaves and placed at places considered inauspicious such as cemeteries, bridges and road intersections.
Their priests are called Dukun or Rasi Pujjanga, who play a middle role in their religious worship. They were believed to posses spiritual knowledge called Ilmu of the gods and the spirits, which they carefully guard from ordinary Tenggers.Membership of the priesthood is hereditary, and generally passes down from father, to son. Occult powers are transmitted through a secret training process, the culmination of which is a ceremony organised at the foot of Mt Bromo. Each village have only one of these three priests, together with three assistants. The three assistants are:
1. Wong Sepuh. He is charged with the care of the family spirits once they have been invoked to a ritual site by the priest.
2. Legen. He is responsible for carrying the priest's ritual implements. These include a incense brazier, a holy water pot, a holy thread and the scriptures.
3. Wong Dandan. She is responsible for preparing trays of food that are offered to the spirits. In the course of the worship, the priest recites a number of Buddhist prayers or the japa mantras. The entire corpus of these mantras is recorded in palm leaves known as kropak, and written in the old Javanese language.
However, in the past few decades, due to over-population in Madura, many Madurese have explioted their land by clearing some of their nature reserves for land and converted 2-3% (up to 10,000 of them) of the Tenggerese to Islam in the process, particularly those living in the more accesible areas in the lowlands just outside the Tengger range. When the remainder 97-8% of the unconverted Tenggerese saw this and began to ask the Balinese or help any by reforming their culture and religion closer to the Balinese. The Indonesian government saw this and declared the Tengger mountains as the Bromo-Tengger-Serumu national park, and also have declared that any more logging in this area is an illegal act.
Both Muslim and Christian missionaries have attempted to convert the Tenggerese. However, the Christains have met with hardly any success; they only managed to convert a few hundred to Chriistianity. Even so, due to the negligible number of them, most of them either reverted back to Hinduism of convert to Islam. The Tenggerese Muslims have a more successful conversion, though they frequently mix original Hindu-Buddhist ideas and spirits to their Islam and celebrate Tenggerese festivals at the same time.
Lifestyle The Tenggerese are basically either agriculturalists or nomadic herders, similar to the Tibetans. The agriculturalists generally live on the lower altitudes, but the nomads live on the higher altitudes, riding on small little ponies.
Festivals The main festival of the Tenggerese is the Yadnya Kasada, which lasts about a month. On the fourteenth day of the Kasada, the Tenggerese will go to Poten Bromo and ask for blessing from both the supreme God Hyang Widi Wasa and the God of the Mountain (Mount Serumu) by presenting annual offerings of rice, fruit, vegetables, flowers, live stock and other local produce. They will also see the examination of the medicine men memorizing prayers. The medicine man who passes the exam is decide to be spiritual leader of Tengger tribe.
The origin of these festival is about a legend which dates back to the Majapahit kingdom, during the reign of King Brawijaya. The queen of the Kingdom gave birth to a daughter named Roro Anteng, who married Jaka Seger, a young man from the Brahmin Caste. These are two of the many others who fled from the already tattering Majapahit kingdom during the 15th century, when the Islamic religion is increasingly getting more converts. The couple later settled in the Tengger mountains and ruled the region jointly under the title Purbawisesa Mangkurat Ing Tengger. The word 'Tengger' itself is said to have been derived from a combination of the last syllables of the two rulers names: 'Teng' and 'Ger'. Another meaning of the word Tengger is 'Tenggering Budi Luhur', meaning eternal peace and high morality. For a few years the Tenggerese people here flourished under the leadership of Jaka Seger and Rara Anteng, yet the king and queen were unhappy for their had no children. Desperate, they decided to climb to the top of Mt. Bromo and pray for help. Deeply moved by the couple's depth of his faith, the god of Mt. Bromo assured them of offspring but with the conditin that the youngest child be sacrificed in the crater of the volcano. After a giving birth to 25 children, the time came for Roro Anteng and to fulfil her part of pledge. Although they were reluctant, they were threatened with catastrophe, forcing them to futfil their pledge and complying the god's wishes, they have no choice but to sacrifice their 25th child, Kesuma, by throwing him into the crater. As the child was sacrificed, he echoed a message to his parents: "My beloved brothers and sisters I Have been sacrificed by our parents to appear before Hyang Widi. Be in peace and live prosperously never forgetting to perform worship to the god. As reminder ask you to perform an annual ceremony on the 14th day of Kasada at the time of the half-moon bringing offering of crops and livestock." With that, Kesuma was being sucked up into the fiery lava. To commemarate this event, the Tenggerese celebrate the Kasado festival.
History The History of the Tenggerese before the 15th century links with the Majapahit and other kingdoms from the earlier period. According to legend, Jaka Senger and Roro Anteng are the ancestors of the Tenggerese. (To know more about them, see the festivals section.) Since theen, the Tenggerese have lived in near-complete isolation until the recent years.
See Also
References - Tourism and Conversation in the Bromo-Tengger Serumu national park (http://www.mtnforum.org/resources/library/cochj97a.htm)
- Kasada Ceromony at Mount Bromo (http://www.petra.ac.id/english/eastjava/tourism/kasada.htm)
- The Tengger of Java (http://www.hvk.org/hvk/articles/0599/41.html)
- DISCOVERING EAST JAVA (http://www.eastjava.com/books/discovery/html/bromo.html)
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