Each year, the Tenggerese people climb to the rim of Mount Bromo – which lies 116km southeast of Surabaya – and cast their hopes into the volcano to observe the Yadnya Kasada Festival. Offerings of crops, livestock and coins are hurled into smoke and ash in one of Southeast Asia’s most extraordinary rituals.
Though rooted in Hindu tradition, the ceremony is a reflection of the community’s unique spiritual identity – one shaped by centuries of volcanic life, ancestral reverence and the quiet resilience of highland culture. Scroll down to witness a striking visual narrative of devotion and danger.
Before first flight
Tenggerese pilgrims begin their pre-dawn ascent across the Sea of Sand, drawn by faith and ancestral promise. The journey to Bromo’s crater is both physical and spiritual. Each step towards the crater is a quiet offering – of sweat, breath and belief. At the summit, the sacred and the earthly meet. The Yadnya Kasada Festival is held annually on the 14th day of the Kasada month in the traditional Tenggerese lunar calendar.
Nets in the mist
As offerings rain down from the crater’s edge, men below raise nets skyward – not for fish, but for fortune, catching chickens, vegetables and coins in flight. For those at the bottom of the caldera, faith takes a different form: the daring grab of a midair coconut, a goat leg or a sack of rice, all believed to bring luck. Standing on loose volcanic rock, arms outstretched, they catch what others have let go – an act of devotion, resourcefulness and survival.
Sacrifice shared
In the Tenggerese worldview, the offerings are meant for the gods – and those who catch them are part of the cycle, a living metaphor for give and take. From mountaintop prayers to crater-edge exchanges, Yadnya Kasada is a rare ritual where risk, devotion and community converge under rising plumes of smoke.
Malaysia Airlines flies between Kuala Lumpur and Surabaya. To book a flight, visit malaysiaairlines.com.
