The pilferers, Kepra and Beben, were too busy stealing slices of pork meat dried on the village's open community hall Bale Agung to notice the villagers had embushed them. The two youths tried to run away, but the villagers cornered them before they had any chance to escape.
As a punishment, the villagers forced the suspects to apply makeup on their faces. Slices of pork meats were tied to their heads, waists, wrists and ankles. The suspects were told to wear odd-looking crowns made up of dried coconut leaves and skirts out of dried banana leaves. The villagers finally colored the suspects' bare chests with markers.
When they were done with the suspects, Kepra and Beben could have passed for transgender members of royalty from the Kingdom of Loonies.
The punishment didn't end there. The suspects were escorted across the village, providing ample opportunities for villagers to mock them. Local residents, who lined the street, also had the right to add "fashionable" items to the suspects' already bizarre costumes.
By the end of the march, the suspects met their heaviest penalty; Tenganan-style forced labor. The villagers had free reins to ask the suspects to do any chore as long as it was related to the preparation of the village's major religious ritual.
"The suspects must perform whatever tasks the villagers require of them," the village chief I Komang Karyawan said.
The catch? Kepra and Beben were not real thieves. These innocent young men were handpicked to impersonate thieves in the village's ancient game of thieves.
Known as Maling-malingan, derived from the word maling (thief), the game is an integral part of the village's annual religious festival Usaba Sambah, held on the fifth month of the Tenganan calendar, or June in the Gregorian calendar.
"The game is an annual ritual, which has been carried out over centuries," Karyawan said.
Playtime: Young women in Tenganan play on the Ferris wheel-like, sacred wooden structure during the Usaba Sambah festival.
Karyawan didn't know precisely when the first Maling-malingan was held. Local folklore only detailed the nature surrounding the first Maling-malingan.
"It was first held several centuries ago during a Usaba Sambah," he said.
It is believed several villagers stole the meats reserved for sacred offerings during that festival. Locals then devised the game as a way to punish perpetrators.
"It was a sort of collective punishment aimed at humiliating the thieves," he stressed.
This collective punishment still exists today. Citing an article in local customary law, Karyawan stated a thief would be given the same punishments as in the Maling-malingan.
"Fortunately, we haven't witnessed any thefts for decades," he said
http://beke000.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/the-ancient-game-of-thieves
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