Tajen Cockfighting

There are many articles or essays in the net which explains cockfighting in Bali in remarkable detail but they are all in the past. So I will give information in relation with cockfighting in Bali after the 1981 ban up to present days.

In 1981 the government of Indonesia banned the cockfighting but the practice has merely moved away from prying eyes so that it is less obvious but still very real.

Cockfighting runs in the blood Balinese men especially the older generation, Fred B. Eiseman, Jr author of Sekala Niskala wrote “So popular has cockfighting been in Bali for so many decades, that it is about as realistic to tell a Balinese man that he cannot participate in his favorite sport as it is to tell the sun not to rise”.

In the reign of Mangku Pastika (as a head of Bali Provincial Police), the campaign against cockfighting reached its peak, the secular tajen (cockfighting for gambling purpose) virtually vanished from the island but the Tabuh Rah (cockfighting for religious purpose) survived until present day. Tajen has become a rare event.