Important Temple on
'Turtle Island'
Serangan is a small island lying just off Bali's southern coast
near Sanur. It has an area of only 180 acres and a population
of about 2,500, and is known principally for its turtles and its
important Sakenan Temple.
Serangan is too dry for wet rice farming, but its residents grow
corn, maize, peanuts and beans. Some islanders earn a living making
shell trinkets to sell to the tourists who come here in ever increasing
numbers. But the trade in another distinctive item is even more
crucial to the local economy.
The sea turtles which give Serangan its popular name are not found
swimming picture squely under ocean cliffs - here they are caught
and sold as food. People in the Denpasar area are fond of turtle
meat, especially on festival days. Serangan residents make a living
capturing and wholesaling the creatures, also buying them from
Muslim fishermen from islands to the east.
The turtles are kept live in bamboo sheds on the sandy beach around
Dukuh, the island's main village on the north coast. Here they
are fed with fresh leaves and sold to buyers from Denpasar, who
will eventually prepare the turtle meat in dishes like sate and
lawar, a kind of tartare or raw meat dish.
There is also a turtle-egg hatchery on the island. The most popular
edible species is the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), which swims
ashore to lay eggs in a shallow pit in the sand before returning
to the sea. It is at this moment that villagers catch the turtles
effortlessly and in large numbers, just by turning them on their
backs. The eggs are considered a great delicacy, and are dug up
immediately. Not surprisingly, the green turtle is now threatened
with extinction and the World Wide Fund for Nature has consequently
appealed to the government to put a stop to the slaughter.
Manis Kuningan festival
The best day to visit Serangan is on the holy day Manis Kuningan
in the 210-day Balinese calendar. On this day, the famous Sakenan
Temple celebrates the anniversary of its founding by Mpu Kuturan,
which according to the Prasasti Belanjong inscription occurred
during the 10th century. The Sakenan complex consists of two pura
on the north coast of the island just west of Dukuh.
The festival lasts for two days, beginning on the last day of
Kuningan wuku or week and ending on the first day of Langkir wuku.
The ferry from Suwung, normally serving the odd tourist or a few
villagers coming from Serangan to do their marketing, is at this
time chock-a-block with thousands of worshippers in all their
colorful finery. They queue up on the dike of a canal meandering
through the mangroves to board a ferry which takes them straight
to the temple.
Inside the first pura there is only a single shrine, in the form
of a tugu or obelisk. This is the seat of Cri Cedana or Dewi Sri,
the goddess of prosperity and welfare. In the second and larger
part of Pura Sakenan there are typical Balinese-style shrines
for the prasanak, relatives of Sri who come to visit the temple
on its anniversary day.
On arrival, worshippers pray at the shrine of Dewi Sri to ask
her for a prosperous year in the fields or in business. But it
is obvious that this day is most prosperous for the ferrymen,
who earn a lot more money than usual. |
