Cremation Ceremony

Mom and I have breakfast and get ready for our first Balinese ceremony. For mom this means getting some makeup and proper clothes. For me it means swimming in the pool. Rahul is bringing sarongs which are a must to ceremonies and when entering temples - men and women alike. Kare and Rahul come get us already with Inge in tow and we head to Serangan Island. When we arrive we stop at the turtle park and get to feed some massive sea turtles. I find out later is that the locals, the Balinese government and the wildlife federation are working to conserve the sea turtle population here and have centers where they breed and release hatch lings into the wild.


After the turtles we get our sarongs on and look rather funny I might add since we don't match and in no way look as put together as our Balinese counterparts. The men also wear the sarongs, most of the young men wear just a T-shirt with the sarong but also wear a typical headdress/hat which I personally find very handsome.
We head over to the viewing in the village. The body is in a simple coffin propped up inside a small pendopo type structure. Surrounding the deceased are offerings, photographs and different objects. They begin to prepare the body for the procession and ceremony. Ice is removed from the coffin and it is nailed shut, covered and a crown type object is placed at the head. The women lead the procession with tall offerings carried on their heads followed by the gamelan musicians, then the coffin and last all other attendees.































Please forgive my lack of terminology regarding this Balinese death rite.

The coffin is placed in a wadah, a colorful temple like structure that is carried to the funeral site by many men. Leading the wadah are a few men, one carrying a spear to fight away evil spirits, one that carries a branch with leaves and one that holds onto this long piece of white fabric that seems like it leads (like a leash) the structure. The men carry the wadah and run down the street to the cemetery and spin the structure when reaching crossroads in order to disorient the spirit from coming back home. Upon reaching the cemetery the coffin is removed from its carrying structure and placed on another structure next to a large table that has offerings. The women now begin to place more offerings on this table and they continue to do this for a while, they pay their final respects and bury the body. My understanding is that an actual cremation, burning of the body, is not always performed when a person dies. It depends on social status and wealth. It is very expensive to cremate the body and so many are buried until their is enough money to cremate the body in which case the bones are exhumed and burned. In this case the cremation was symbolic. My friend, Wayan "Rahul", whose great uncle it is that has passed away explained that this is symbolic and later they will release his spirit into the ocean. Shortly after the body is buried the priest arrives and begins performing rites to allow the spirits passing into the afterlife. The family sits together to pray and receive blessings. As they pray I feel this intense spiritual energy and I too clasp my hands and pray for the deceased and the family. Later, Inge tells me that she too felt an intense surge of energy at experience. I am so grateful and honored to have been able to experience it and to be invited and welcomed into Rahul's family and village.that moment. Its hard to explain - hopefully you have felt something like this and know what I am talking about- it was like a connection with the whole. It was a powerful and beautiful.

Then our awesome boys Mr. Mike and Curry suggested we go have dinner at a seafood restaurant on Jimbaran bay with a beautiful view of the sunset and it turned out to be the perfect end to a perfect day. The tables are right on the sand and you are greeted with a frangipani behind your ear. The food was wonderful. Everything is grilled and you pick your fish or seafood market style and they cook it for you with the amazing Balinese spices. We had a bottle of arak, watched dance performances and sang along with the musicians that come around to the tables. They even sang "Guantanamera" and mom played the drums! It was really lovely.
We then decided that we wanted to go sing karaoke and dropped off mom since she was tired from a long day and Inge, Raul, Kare and I went to a local place to sing karaoke. It was an interesting experience to be at this karaoke bar since it was almost pitch black except for the light coming off this big screen and the cocktail waitresses wait at the doorway outside for the customers and when we got there I thought it looked a little sketchy them standing outside, but it was cool...the girls will sing with the customers and all. Aside for them taking really long to play our songs and the other people singing really corny Indonesian songs it was fun.
So the next day mom and I would be heading out to Amed with Komang our guide that a friend hooked me up with and he would be coming to pick us up and drive us out there while making a couple of scenic stops. As we head back to drop off Inge I don't want to say goodbye to my friends so, it dawns on me that since we are heading to Amed because I want to dive the USS Liberty wreck and Kare is a divemaster that maybe he can take me diving. So, I ask him if he can do it and he says "yes". YAY! We make plans to meet the day after tomorrow to go on an underwater date...