Seraya Culture Festival
Seraya Culture Festival
The Seraya Culture Festival centres on Gebug Ende, a rain-calling ritual found nowhere else in Bali. Held in Seraya village in the dry highlands of Karangasem, the ceremony pits men against each other in pairs — armed with rattan sticks and round leather shields — in bouts believed to invite rainfall by drawing blood as an offering to the heavens.
Fighters dress in red udeng (headbands) and poleng (black-and-white checkered sarongs), colours that carry deep significance in Balinese cosmology. The ritual follows the Balinese lunar calendar and is held during sasih kapat — the fourth month, falling around October — when Seraya’s arid hillside is at its driest and the need for rain most urgent.
Beyond the bouts, the festival includes village processions, ancestral prayers, and ceremonial offerings at shrines tracing their lineage to the Karangasem Kingdom. It remains one of the most distinctive and rarely witnessed traditions in East Bali — far from the tourist trail, rooted in a highland culture that has changed little over centuries.
Location: Seraya Village, Karangasem, East Bali
Dates: October 10–12, 2026
