Pejeng, Bali - Indonesia

Date: 23-24 April, 2025

I have stayed at Gending Sari guest house in Pejeng several times. I choose this location because it is conveniently close to Ubud for travel and serves as a great stopover when heading to Nusa Penida and Lombok. It's a charming guest house, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering a stay in Ubud. Located in a small town amidst the paddy fields, it offers affordability and a fantastic kitchen for preparing large meals.

Above all, the guest Gede is an incredible person to spend time with. He has an amazing attitude and assisted me with many things, such as dealing with hemorrhoids and planning trips to Lombok and Ubud. He also hosted me for two days during the Galungan celebrations at his house with his entire family. I have never experienced such emotional family bonding with anyone else during my travels. I met around 20 of his family members, and we discussed their Hindu traditions and ours in India, among other topics. In this article, I primarily want to focus on the Galungan festival in Bali.

Galungan celebration

is celebrated over 10 days all over Bali. It is a hindu festival which signifies triump of good over evil. Every day there is Barong which is basically an effigy of boar where kids carry it around the village dancing and playing music. They mostly do it in the eveing and seeking donations for the festival. It is amazing that most of the festivals the ceremony rituals, music, etc are carried on by young generations and noticied that they really enjoy doing this. Also at home all the families working at various parts of the country come together to celebrate.

Food - Families purchase a variety of candies, flowers, fruits, prayer items, and more. They prepare a large amount of food, particularly pork. The Gedes family cooked nearly 15kg of pork in a stew rich with fat. I ate so much that I could barely walk on the first day. Rice, pork, plenty of tum, fruits, candies, and more nearly put me to sleep. Tum is an amazing dish made from banana stem shoot, spices, and some pork, chicken, or fish, all ground together and steamed. It was one of the best dishes I had in Bali.

Dragon - every house, important locations like shops, temples, streets are all decorated with dragon strucute. Basically its made of treet items and they add paddy to it, add some food items for birds to consume. Dragon holds a significance role in Balis tredition as it represnts prosperity and power.

Anyway, returning to the ceremony, on the last day I traveled to Undisan to reconnect with old friends, and fortunately, the Galungan day ceremony had just begun in the morning. It was a wonderful experience exploring the village and witnessing various rituals. In the evening, I joined the Galungan festival with the Gede family in Pejeng. I spent nearly 7 hours walking through the streets of Pejeng and Undisan. The ceremony featured women leading with holy waters, candy, and other offerings, followed by effigies of gods and lions, and finally, a band playing rhythmic music. The music was both enchanting and catchy, mostly performed by young boys. After the band, villagers followed, typically 3-4 people per family. The ceremony wound through all the village streets, offering blessings to residents and visiting important sites like temples, concluding at the village temple. Final blessings were given, and participants returned home. The event started around 2 PM and ended at 9 PM, leaving everyone exhausted yet it was a lot of fun meeting villagers, greeting young ladies, saying hi to adorable kids, and enjoying cold drinks or snacks along the way. Overall, it was the highlight of my Indonesia trip so far.

After spending 2 days, I decided to return to Canggu, where I will relax for my final few days before heading back to India. The next morning, I spent time playing with Gede's children, who were sweet and fun to be around. Gede's wife gave me so much tum that I cannot express my gratitude. I love this tum and decided to share it with friends in Canggu so they can appreciate it too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a family photo. I am incredibly grateful to you, Gede, for treating me like a family member. I am sure I will visit you again soon; let's continue to build our friendship.

Here is the short video I made of the festival.