With a bamboo pole slung between their shoulders, two young boys in sarongs make their way to a temple under the sun. Tied to the bamboo are coconuts and plastic bags of rice and incense '€” offerings to the gods.

Not yet 10 years old, the boys are following the rare tradition called Ngambeng, special to the village of Bedulu, which is home to one of Bali'€™s most important temples, Samuan Tiga.

Early next month is the temple'€™s birthday, says Wayan Alit, who lives across the road from Samuan Tiga, which is believed to have been founded 1,000 years ago to end the feuds and wars of the time.

'€œWe call this birthday '€˜Odalan'€™ and it is very important because it celebrates Samuan Tiga'€™s history, where all the kingdoms and religious sects united hundreds of years ago. The little kids of the village make offerings to this ceremony,'€ says Wayan.

The 36-year-old remembers his first Ngambeng pilgrimage three decades ago '€” and the courage he discovered when faced with the task of climbing coconut palms to harvest nuts for the temple.

'€œThose trees were so tall and I was really small, maybe six or seven years old. At first I was not brave enough to climb, I was scared,'€ Wayan says. '€œBut I knew to follow the ngambeng tradition I had to do this. Suddenly I knew the gods of Samuan Tiga would watch over me when I climbed the coconut tree.'€™

For more than seven decades, Anak Agung Gede Rai has watched this ritual. He chuckles as a group of young girls march by, their arms laden with goods for the temple.

Never too young: These young sisters have walked several kilometers seeking offerings for Samuan Tiga temple'€™s birthday in early May.

'€œIt is only in Bedulu village that this tradition takes place. The children choose to do this '€” walk the country side asking for offerings to the temple. It'€™s a very old tradition that has come from the children,'€ says Rai.

In Ngambeng, the children of Bedulu band together and head out to nearby villages, visiting homes to seek the many items used in Balinese Hindu ceremonies.

'€œI remember my first Ngambeng,'€ Wayan says. '€œWe walked from here right up through Tengkulak and then Ubud. We went to every house on the way, asking for coconuts, rice, flowers, fruits, anything from the Earth as support for the temple birthday celebrations.'€

Little except traffic has changed over the decades since Wayan walked almost 10 kilometers seeking temple offerings. Faces beaming with grins, a half-dozen young girls bearing bamboo poles laden with goods walk the last hundred meters to the temple.

Their haul joins the small mountain of coconuts growing in the temple grounds.

At 12, Julieantari Agata is one of the oldest children in her group.

'€œI started the Ngambeng tradition when I was seven years old. I joined with my friends to gather things for the temple'€™s birthday. We collect goods from homes and we are really happy to do this,'€ says Agata, who is taking a rest with her friends after walking several kilometers on the hunt for offerings.

The children form collection teams of girls or boys, says 9-year-old Dinda, who is convinced that the girls always bring home more treasures for the temple than the boys.

A fine haul: These lads have collected several coconuts as birthday presents for Samuan Tiga temple in Bedulu.

'€œThe girls always get more stuff than the boys, this is because girls are more diligent and boys are lazy,'€ says Dinda, whose group of girls has earlier in the day walked a good 5 km in their search for offerings.

She adds that being out and about, walking through nearby villages with friends is far more fun than the endless making of banten, small offerings of coconut leaves for which Balinese women are famed.

'€œWe enjoy this much more than making offerings. That is boring. With Ngambeng, we get to walk around together and visit other villages,'€ says Dinda.

It is also a time for the girls to show just what they are made of, says Agata, who has no fear of climbing coconut trees to harvest fronds.

'€œI am not scared to climb. I go up every day to collect fronds for the temple birthday,'€ says Agata, adding the best part of the tradition is the treats served at the temple when they return from their collection duties.

Thirty years on since Wayan was on Ngambeng, he still remembers the foods shared with his friends.

'€œWe had Balinese lawar and rice. It was so good it tasted like a gift,'€ he says of a rare tradition celebrating a temple'€™s birth that lives on down through the generations.

'€” Photos by JB Djwan