Worshipers sacrifice in Yadnya Kasada festival held in Indonesia volcano

RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Thousands of Hindu worshippers scaled an active volcano in Indonesia to toss livestock, food and other offerings into its smoking crater in a centuries-old religious ceremony.

Swarming the rim around the basin of Mount Bromo on Monday, devotees hauled goats, chickens and vegetables slung across their backs up to the dusty peak as part of the Yadnya Kasada festival.

Every year, Tengger tribe members from the surrounding highlands gather at the top of the volcano in the hope of pleasing their gods and bringing luck to the Tenggerese, an Indigenous group in eastern Java.

Some villagers who do not belong to the Tengger tribe took to the crater’s steep slopes equipped with nets in an attempt to intercept offerings thrown into the abyss and to avoid them going to waste.

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Monday’s ritual was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that authorities allowed tourists to visit the site.

The festival, which was limited to worshippers last year, has its roots in 15th-century folklore from the Majapahit kingdom, a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist empire that stretched across Southeast Asia.

Legend has it that a princess, Roro Anteng, and her husband, unable to bear children after years of marriage, begged the Gods for help. Their prayers were answered and they were promised 25 children, as long as they agreed to sacrifice their youngest child by throwing him into Mount Bromo.

Their son is said to have willingly jumped into the volcano to guarantee the prosperity of the Tengger people.