This video posted to YouTube in 2008 shows the unique ritual of Tenganan Village that has thieves publicly paraded around and humiliated.
While some cultures are content to just stick thieves in prison, one traditional village in Karangasem, Bali has a more interesting way of preventing recidivism.
Residents in Tenganan Village, Karangasem hold a Maling-malingan ritual or what is essentially called a “Game of thief” to humiliate thieves for their crimes.
The ritual is held on the fifth calendar month of Bali, which most recently happened to be last Thursday morning around 7 am, reports Tribun Bali.
This time around, thieves were decked out in “ugly” makeup, adorned in leaves and snack food, and were given “bracelets” for the hands and feet made of pork—which was nothing random, but a symbol, according to Tribun. And if that weren’t enough of a sight already, the thieves were pulled by their wrists using rope.
Yeah, all that awkwardness and attention may just be this village’s key crime deterrent, especially for those who like to stay out of the spotlight.
Apparently the ritual goes way back. “We don’t know when this ritual started, but it’s already very old. However, documentation from 1928 shows the ritual was already here,” Head of Tenganan Village Putu Yudiana told Tribun.
