Cakepung is a male social performance, combination of singing and dancing, done strictly for recreation and amusement, and is found today only in Karangasem Regency and on Lombok, its former vassal state. This folk-performance derives its name onomatopoeically from the sound of its accompaniment, a rhythmic vocal sound similar to that produced by the cak chorus. In the accompaniment, two dozen vocalists chant ‘pung-cakapung’ in unison.

A performance of cakapung might take place any evening during leisure time. The dancers gather at about seven o’clock at the bale banjar with simple costume, a sarong, headdress, a shirt sometimes bare-chested. Some participants bring bottles of tuak (Balinese palm wine), brem (sweet wine) or arak (distilled palm wine).

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Brem, sweet rice wine that is usually found in traditional markets or roadside stalls large Bintang beer bottles is one of three popular Balinese liquors – other are arak, and tuak. Like arak and tuak, brem is in addition of being a beverage, a necessity for matabuh (offering liquid for bhuta kala, evil spirit, demon, etc) in almost all religious ceremonies. Very large quantities of it are made and used for that purpose. This is usually low grade, homemade brem, and it is often mixed with water. It is a pat of custom in some areas in Bali to bring a bottle of brem or two as a present for the family that hold a religious ceremony or as an offering in a temple anniversary.

Brem is made from glutinous or “sticky” white rice, known as ketan in Balinese, and a smaller amount of Indonesian black rice, called injin in bali. Both ketan and injin are less commonly used in cooking than common white rice, baas. The sticky ketan is made into various Balinese traditional cookies for offering and other religious purpose. The black injin, is made into delicious traditional dessert (jaja injin) by cooking and serving with brown palm sugar and coconut milk. Since injin is rather expensive, only enough is used in brem to impart the desired final color.

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The great Tawur Kesanga, an extortion payment to the bhuta kala (personification of negative force) that is held a day before Nyepi (this year Nyepi falls on Monday 3/19/07) will not be complete without Tabuh Rah (spilling blood) ritual or cockfight as a matter of fact.

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The word “megibung” is from the Balinese dialect meaning people eating communally. It is traditional custom of the Karangasem regency and normally occurs when there is a lot of work to be done in the village like a temple ceremony or social work. The megibung usually involves hundreds of people. The participants of megibung are divided into groups; each group consists of eight people of same gender, sitting cross-legged in circle on a mat or banana leaves and enjoying the delicious food. The participants eat with their right hand no spoon or fork is used.

The food eaten in megibung is arranged into sets of food called gibungan. The gibungan is set of foods comprise of various food that can be scooped easily with the hand, such as pesan (spicy fish wrapped in banana leaves), be guling (suckling pig), siap / bebek betutu (roast chicken or duck), spicy vegetables such as jukut ares (soup made from a banana tree trunk), jukut urab (strong smelling salad served warm) or lawar (grated coconut, condiments, meat and sometimes raw blood) and nasi putih / nasi kuning (white or yellow rice). Brem (balinese rice wine) or tuak (palm toddy) is always the favorite drink during megibung. The gibungan (food) is placed on a mat or banana leaves, no table is used in the megibung. (more…)