There is no denying that cockfighting is more popularly known as a gambling. But, in fact, there is spiritual reason behind the performance of cockfight in Bali. Staged as a religious duty, Balinese cockfight is a symbol of ritual spilling blood. The spilling blood is believed to be able to appease demons that accompany Hindu temple festivals.

The blood is an offering to the hungry forces of evil, locally known as the butas and kalas. The Balinese call the cockfights for ritual purification, which is in Bali called as Tabuh Rah (pouring blood).

The ground for the cockfighting arena should first be cleaned when it is held for ritual purposes, whether in a temple area or in a family house compound.
When staged as a religious duty, a cockfight is only performed in three rounds.

A cockfight is not just allowed at every Balinese temple festival or religious ceremony, but it is particularly required when the purification ceremonies are held whether in family house compound or in temple areas.

At the appointed hour a white-clad pemangku, a lay priest, advances to the center of the arena and presents offerings on the ground to the butas and kalas, chanting over them, ringing his bell (in Balinese called Bajra) over them, and finally pouring rice wine on the ground. Then he makes similar offerings to the Gods in a shrine built up on the ground at a corner of the arena. Blood is on the way, although the actual fighting is still a long way off.

At such times a very large offering, called a Caru, is made inside an enclosure of coconut leaf mats, and the buthas and kalas are placated. Word of the cockfight gets around fast, and villagers from all over come to help stage an impromptu tajen right inside the family house compound. Some temples regularly have their obligatory three tabuh rah (tabuh means offering and rah means blood).

As with many other Balinese rituals, the lore and law of cockfighting is written in sacred palm leaf book, which is called lontar. The writings are unbelievably intricate and detailed. There is a mind-boggling classification of cocks by color, shape, configuration, neck ruff and other characteristics. All direction in Bali has different colors with different names of God as color of cocks.

Certain colors of cocks should fight cocks of other colors only during specific phases of the moon, on the specific days, at specific times of day, from specific directions in the ring, and so forth.

The larger temples generally have a permanent cockfighting arena called as a wantilan, which is outside the temple proper, but near its entrance. It may or may not have a roof. The arena itself is about 15 meters square, enclosed almost completely by tiered seats. At the smaller temples, an area for the fights is roped off nearby and a row of benches set up just outside the ring. There is often a huge banyan tree nearby for the little boys to climb and from which they get a good view.