​

​Tiban art featuring dancers who each other was whipping their bodies to bleed as a form of sacrifice and ritual to ask the rain come to the Almighty.

​

The legend behind "Tiban"

​It is believed by the local people that the blood which come out of the dancer's body will fall upon the Earth and be able to bring rain. Tiban appears when the Kingdom of Kediri suffered a catastrophic drought. At that time King Kertajaya asked his people to offer sacrifices in order to be immediately freed from disaster. The sacrificial cermony was carried out under the blazing sun by way of torturing their own body using whip made of Sodo Aren. Blood that dripped out from people's body as a form of sacrifice is the one that then considered to be able to bring rain on Earth. Until now, rain calling ceremony still takes places because it is still believed by most people to be able to prevent the people of Kediri from catastrophic drought.