Yadnya Kasada Ceremony

Yadnya Kasada is the biggest day of the year for the local Tenggerese people, when they come to the volcano to make their yearly sacrifices as part of the festival of Yadnya Kasada. On this day, these Hindu people of Probolinggo (a minority in Muslim-dominated Java), travel up the mountain to make offerings in the form of foods and flowers and even sacrifices of farm animals to the mountain gods by throwing them into the caldera of the volcano. This ritual started way back in the 15th century based on an ancient legend of a princess named Roro Anteng. Her and her husband were unable to have children and prayed to the mountain gods for help. The gods blessed them with 24 children, but demanded that the 25th child was to be thrown into the volcano as a human sacrifice. The couple complied and so began this sacrificial tradition which still occurs each year at Bromo.