Tooth Filing Ceremony

Well we enjoyed Ubud and some of Bali’s “landlocked” attractions so much but our gills were drying out. We were off for the coast again!

A 3 hour moto ride later and we were back in Amed. After checking in to our room, Roy was running down to the beach to go for a dive. He was back within an hour and had a nice catch of fish to have cooked up for dinner. 

He filleted up the Giant trevally (GT for short), and gave all of our friends at the hotel fresh fish to bring home. We brought a large fillet of trevally and a whole small tuna to a Japanese restaurant in the area hoping that they would be keen to trade the fresh catch for two prepared plates for dinner. They happily accepted and later that evening when we returned to eat, the sign out front read “Today’s Special- Tuna Sushi”. It was fun to walk in and see couples sitting down to a romantic candle-lit dinner enjoying Roys fish.

We feasted on tuna sushi, tuna rolls, and an amazing plate of grilled GT topped with a wasabi-mayo sauce on a potato cake. A weird combonation we know, but it was insanely tasty! The best part, it was free!

The next morning our friend Wayan invited us to his local village temple to see a special tooth-filing ceremony. Wayan and his wife Made(pronounced Maud-aye, meaning second born) graciously lent us some proper attire and we were off! Excited and a bit nervous to learn exactly what the procedure of tooth filing entailed, we read up on the tradition and learned the facts behind the ceremony.

In Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language), the ceremony is called Mesangih or Mepandes, and it usually takes place when a Balinese boy or girl comes of age. The procedure includes a “Holy Man” literally filing the 6 upper front teeth evenly into a straight line. It is believed that having sharp teeth, like the canines is a demonic trait and the filing procedure symbolizes the transition from animal to human. It also represents controlling the six human evils, desire, greed, anger, intoxication or being under the influence of strong emotion, confusion, and jealousy.

When we first arrived we were happily greeted by Wayan’s family friends and sat down with them for a morning meal. We did our best to fit in and be respectful, hoping not to come off too touristy, but it was difficult as we were the only white foreigners there for most of the time. But the locals truly treated us as guests and even encouraged us to walk around to see everything, take pictures, and stand close to the action when the actual ceremony was taking place.  

We observed as the men and women sat in small groups socializing when we all ate. The food was very similar to the meal we had at Wayans home just a couple weeks back, but included a few different things. Off to the side a group of men were cooking pigs over an open fire, Bali’s famous Babi Guling. 

Roy was drooling at the sight and kept saying how jealous Greg and Michael were going to be when they see the photos. Haha! Unfortunately it probably was harder on Roy because the pigs were not to be consumed until the next day. We were unclear as to why this was when the men explained it to us, but we learned that there would be another ceremony the following day with lots of food. We don’t know if it was part of the same ceremony or what but it was killing Roy!

When the ceremony started, a group of men began playing instruments, and the 4 girls walked into the main temple area. They were dressed up in beautiful dresses and headdresses. A priestess or some type of holy woman then began sprinkling the girls in holy water and other offerings.

Apparently these ceremonies are expensive and many times families wait to have their children take part during a large village-wide ceremony when many participants have their teeth filed to share the financial burden. Wayan explained that these girls were all relatives and the family was somewhat wealthy.

Next, one by one, each girl walked over to a bed and laid down in the middle. The crowd surrounded the bed to watch, and the holy man whipped out his file. A piece of sugar cane was inserted into the girl’s mouth to bite down on to numb any pain and hold her mouth open. The priest filed the teeth for maybe five minutes at most and it didn’t seem to cause any of the girls agony.

 We read that much of this ceremony is now performed symbolically as the knowledge of the adverse medical effects have been learned. But by any means, this was not something either one of us were about to volunteer for!

The ceremony ended around 10am and we gave the priest a customary donation and they gave us some chicken satay and nasi bunkus (rices with veggies and a bit of meat wrapped in a banana leaf) to take away. It was a great time and we were so thankful to attend the special event.