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s many as 135 Hindu adherents had their teeth filed on Sunday in a mass Mapandes (tooth-filing ritual) organized by the Bali branch of the Parisadha Hindu Council (PHDI), the Balinese Hindu religious body.

The mass ceremony was funded by the local branch of the Bank BNI and targeted Hindu followers from low-income families.

"This is the first-ever mass ritual organized by the PHDI. The Parisadha decided to hold the ritual because there are a large number of Hindu families that could not afford to organize it on their own,"said Made Raka Santeri, an executive from the PHDI's Bali branch.

Mapandes is one of the most important Balinese Hindu rites of passage. The ritual is generally reserved for Hindu youths and symbolizes entrance into adulthood.

In the ritual, a respected person, who has undergone special religious training and ordination, known as Sangging, files the teeth of the participants with an iron file.

Filing the teeth is a symbolic act of destroying the Sad Ripu (the six enemies within), including anger, pride, vanity and greed.

Following the symbolic destruction of those enemies, the participants are then considered by their society as adult, and therefore capable of making decisions based on common interests rather than personal interests.

Hindu parents generally try their best to organize Mapandes for their children, but the cost of holding the ceremony, ranges from Rp 5 million to more than Rp 10 million and is often too expensive for a single family to bear.

The participants of the mass ritual on Sunday came from varying age groups, occupations and islands, including four Hindu adherents from Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

At the designated site, each participant underwent a series of purification rituals before ascending onto the elevated stage, where the main ritual took place.

The Mapandes ritual was carried out in groups, each comprised of ten people.

Ten participants moved up onto the stage, lay with their backs in rows on pandanus mats and had their teeth filed by the awaiting team of Sangging.

"Usually, the Mapandes is reserved for unmarried Hindu youths. However, in this mass Mapandes we allow married adherents, who, due to various reasons, have not undergone Mapandes, to participate," said Raka Santeri.

One of the married participants was Ni Ketut Gandriasih, 35, who said that she hadn't had her teeth filed during her adolescent years due to a lack of money.

"My parents didn't have enough money to organize Mapandes for me," she said.

She said she felt relieved that she had finally undergone the ritual.