More than 15.000 people witnessed the royal cremation ceremony of the head of Ubud’s royal family. this grand cremation ceremony needed almost three months of preparation, hundreds of workers, exorbitant budget, and tons of offerings materials. All these resources were combine a together and created a magnificence ceremony, one of the biggest cremation ceremonies for decades. Many articles and reportages have been written to describe the magnificence of this ceremony, so it seems superfluous and redundant to write another an article on this ceremony. Instead here are some photos of the ceremony, this time let the photos do the talk.

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Attending a cremation ceremony for Balinese is not just a matter showing taking a part in the cremation but also cleansing the mind and body soon after attending the cremation ceremony. When Balinese arrive at home after attending a cremation, they will go right to the kitchen and take a ladle of water then throw it upward so that the water gets on the kitchen roof while Balinese stand under the roof waiting the water to fall down. A second later that water falls out wetting their heads and faces. Sometimes, after that they also should enter the kitchen again; after this ritual they are allowed to enter other structures in the house compound.

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Collective cremation season is on in Bali, dozens of collective cremation take place in eastern area of Bali especially in the regency of Gianyar, Klungkung and Bangli, some collective cremations also stage in Tabanan. Collective cremation rituals are done for large numbers of people (of potentially varying statuses) at the same time. By sharing many offerings and other expenses together, the cost per person can be dramatically reduced. Holding individual ngaben ceremony is not cheap and would cost a family anywhere from tens of millions of rupiah to hundreds of millions of rupiah. On the other hand, taking part in a collective cremation (ngerit) ceremony will only cost a family somewhere between two and five million rupiah.

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A friend of mine asked me how to express a condolence in Bahasa Bali (Balinese language). It seemed an easy question at first but after a few moments I realized that Balinese language has no expression for showing condolence not even a simple “I am sorry”. I explained this “newly realized” fact to my friend and what saw is a face hunger for explanation, and I did not have to wait for the question I hated most, “why”. But an answer has to be given anyway.

My explanation ran as follow when Balinese heard a sound of kulkul (traditional communication device installed in every Balai Banjar (sub-village public house) with“death news” rhyme, the first thing that cross in their mind is “who was death?”, when will the work for preparation of body washing ceremony begin?” when will the cremation ceremony will be held? As soon as we know the identity of the deceased person we will go straight to their house not to express a condolence but to help the family preparing a body washing ceremony. After the preparation is finished, the time for expressing condolence is begun.

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Many non-Balinese people have seen the Ngaben (Balinese traditional cremation ceremony), some people take for it for granted, “oh, Ngaben good”, but some people asked various question in relation with this ceremony. One question that I find it interesting runs as follows “Ngaben is a cremation ceremony; someone is death, why it is merrily and lavishly celebrated? It will put another burden to the family of the deceased”. A question with supporting sentence like this is always hard answer, but not impossible to answer.

Death to Balinese is not end of the story, but rather a new beginning to the next stage of life, true stage of life. The word “death” is equivalent with “mati” in Balinese language, but Balinese seldom use this word, they usually used the word “majalan” which means “taking a journey” or “sing enu” which means “ceased to exist”, or “ngalahin” which means “has left”, the older generation used a bit longer expression but with a more precise meaning to Balinese point of view toward death. They called death as “magingsir ke tanah wayah” which means “back to the old land”. For Balinese this world is considered as new land, we can not live forever in this new land someday we will be back to our home, the old land and death is our journey back home.

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It is very common before proceeding to burial or cremation, the dead body is bathed by holy water – called “Nyiramin”.

Start on early morning, the Nyiramin ceremony is begun with the purifying of ceremonial equipments that are going to be used in the Mendak Tirta procession. In this procession, the holy water is taken from Water Spring near the river followed by Angklung and other members.

Mendak Tirta procession

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