A day prior to Nyepi, or Balinese New Year, the great Tawur Kesanga ritual is held all over Bali. The word “tawur” literally means, “pay” in a sense of a payment to the bhuta kala, personification to negative force, in order to restore the harmony of life. And kesanga is the ninth month in Balinese Caka calendar. The kesanga is considered the worst month by the Balinese, with troublesome rainy season, and when even the earth is said to be sick and feverish (panes). It is believed that the Lord of Hell, Yama, sweeps Hades of devils, which fall on Bali, making it imperative that the whole of the island be purified.

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The tawur kesanga ritual is always held on the new moon of the ninth month of Balinese Caka calendar that always coincide with the spring equinox. This ritual is believed to be an effective way to purify the island in order to make a harmonious relation between human being and God, human and human, and human and their environments.

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The enormous water-buffaloes, which in Bali appear in two colors, a dark muddy gray, and a pale, almost transparent pink, an albino variety are usually found in the river with their masters, small boys wearing only oversize sun-hats. A water-buffalo will not hesitate to attack a tiger; their ponderous calm and their gigantic horns are awe-inspiring to Europeans, who have been told that their odor infuriates the buffaloes. They have often charged white people for no apparent reason, although the smallest Balinese boy can manhandle the great beasts. They love to lie in the water and be scrubbed by their little guardians, who climb all over them and hang from their horns when they take them for their evening bath. The buffalo tolerates the children perhaps as a rhinoceros tolerates the birds that eat the ticks on its back.

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