Ngaben or cremation ceremony is arguably the most documented Balinese ceremony among hundreds of Balinse religious ceremonies. And of course the prima ballerina of Balinese cremation is the cremation tower or well known as Bade or Wadah. Bade or wadah is a tower which is used to carry the body of the deceased to the cremation ground.

Bade or Wadah is a pagoda-like structure with multi-tiered roof, constructed by a group of special craftsmen known as sangging with specific material such as bamboo, paper mace and cotton. The size, proportion and the structure of the bade is strictly governed by the ancient rules of bade construction. The height of the Bade could reach up to 25 meters and the weight around 10 ton. It is required a few hundreds of man to carry it.

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Hierarchy in a society exists in some areas in the world and Bali is one of them. This island of gods has a special society order. Balinese adopted their society order from India. This order was developed between 2000 until 1000 BC in India by the Aryas (an ethnic group which lived in India at that time).

Indians, between 2000-1000 BC, had divided their society based on the divisions of labor into four parts.
1. Brahmana. This group was fulfilled by the people who have abilities in leading and managing the traditional ceremony (Pendeta).
2. Ksatriya. People of noble birth belong to this group, included the King and his family.
3. Waisya. Farmers and traders belong to this group.
4. Sudra. This group is the lowest and its members are the slaves and bondsmen.
Actually there are two possibilities to explain how caste system was spread to Indonesia, but a theory which stated that trading was the medium of spreading the caste system seems more acceptable. The trade made the adoption easier. The caste system was brought from Java to Bali and Balinese then applied it into their society.

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Here a nice piece on Clifford and Hildred Geertz experience when dealing with Balinese.

Early in April of 1958, my wife and I arrived, malarial and diffident, in a Balinese village we intended, as anthropologists, to study. A small place, about five hundred people, and relatively remote, it was its own world. We were intruders, professional ones, and the villagers dealt with us as Balinese seem always to deal with people not part of their life who yet press themselves upon them: as though we were not there. For them, and to a degree for ourselves, we were nonpersons, specters, invisible men.

We moved into an extended family compound (that had been arranged before through the provincial government) belonging to one of the four major factions in village life. But except for our landlord and the village chief, whose cousin and brother-in-law he was, everyone ignored us in a way only a Balinese can do. As we wandered around, uncertain, wistful, eager to please, people seemed to look right through us with a gaze focused several yards behind us on some more actual stone or tree. Almost nobody greeted us; but nobody scowled or said anything unpleasant to us either, which would have been almost as satisfactory.

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Yesterday I found an interesting writing on Balinese culture, religion and people which is entitled “From Royal House to Nation” by Scott Johnsen. Here is a piece of his insight on Balinese religion:

Bali, with its thousands of temples, has long been known in tourist literature as “The Island of the Gods.” Now one can find a new slogan alongside the old: “Bali: The Island of God.” It would be incorrect to say that Bali has only recently acquired ideas of an ultimate divine form: the god Siwa has long had something like a “highest of the high” conception, and there were a variety of other concepts of ultimate divinity known primarily to Brahmana priests, including that of Sang Hyang Widhi. Nonetheless, when Christian missionaries chose this latter divinity as the Balinese “one god” (Covarrubias 1994 [1937]:263, Bakker 1993) – the most notable missionary achievement in an otherwise rather bleak record of failure (Hanna 2004 [1976]) – this began a popularization of this deity that grew after the second world war (Swellengrebel 1960:71-3) and became the centerpiece of Balinese efforts to gain formal state recognition for their religion.

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Ideas of “debt” (utang, rna) are pervasive in Bali, but this is not a simple economic concept, it involves both material (sekala) and non material (niskala) realm; it seems that Balinese have “invisible” economic relations with spirits, ancestor, and myriad manifestations of God, but it is actually not a some sort of economic relation, it is some obligations that have to be fulfilled towards God, ancestor and priest. This kind of obligation occur since Balinese believe that everyone has three kind of debts in his life (Tri Rna), they are “debt to God” (Dewa Rna), “debt to ancestor” (Pitra Rna), and “debt to priest” (Rsi Rna).

These three debts are considered as a basic reason of Balinese religious ceremonies. Debt to God (Dewa Rna) occur since Balinese believe that God gives life to human and bestow innumerable mercies and graces. Balinese pay their debt to God and expressing their thankfulness by conducting myriad ceremonies and presenting innumerable offerings to the God. Sometimes in the time of danger or facing a great illness or misfortune, Balinese usually make a vow to present certain offering if God help him to face the danger or misfortune, or recover from illness. When he is able to pass all the danger and misfortune or recovered from illness, he has a debt to God that has to be paid immediately, and Balinese is usually waste no time in paying this kind of debt.

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Balinese Hinduism nowadays is fighting a negative stigma “ritual without essence” in religious practices in Bali. Balinese do their religion, attend ritual, and hold temple anniversary or countless other ceremonies without any knowledge on the meaning of these rituals. In sort, Balinese practice their religion without sufficient understanding on what they are practiced.

There is a great gap in the understanding of religion between the young and the old. The young which have tasted the knowledge of western logic begin to ask ‘why’; “why we do this ceremony?”; “what is the meaning of that ritual?”; “what is the significant of that offering?” etc. the old which almost have no interest in doctrine, or generalized interpretation of the religion, give unsatisfactory answer “that’s just the way it is” to the persistent questions of the young. And still uncomprehending Balinese attending temple rituals and relying on priests to tell them what to do.

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