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Tenggerese gather during the Yadnya Kasada Festival at crater of Mount Bromo amid the coronavirus pandemic on June 26, 2021. Tenggerese people are a Javanese ethnic group in Eastern Java who claimed to be the descendants of the Majapahit princess. Their population of roughly 500,000 is centered in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in eastern Java. The most popular ceremony is the Kasada festival, which makes it the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. The festival is the main festival of the Tenggerese people and lasts about a month. On the fourteenth day, the Tenggerese made a journey to Mount Bromo to make offerings of rice, fruits, vegetables, flowers and livestock to throw them into the volcano's caldera. The origin of the festival lies in the 15th century princess named Roro, the principality of Tengger with her husband Joko Seger, and the childless couple asked mountain Gods for help in bearing children. The legend says the Gods granted them 24 children but on the provision that the 25th must be added to the volcano in sacrifice. The 25th child, Kesuma, was finally sacrificed in this way after an initial refusal, and the tradition of throwing sacrifices into the Caldera to appease the mountain Gods continues today. (Photo by Bayu Novanta/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)
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