On Friday, April 11th 2008, the royal cremation ceremony of the late Dr. Anak Agung Made Djelantik will be held at the royal palace of Karangasem, rescheduled from the initial plan in which the cremation ceremony will be held in August 2008. Dr Anak Agung Made Djelantik passed away on the eve of Sept. 5, 2007 and had been cremated with modest kingsan ring geni (bequeathal to fire) ceremony without the actual cremation ceremony.
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The appearance comet is not just an ordinary astrological phenomenon to the Balinese; it is an omen, a prophecy of what will happen in the future. Most of the Balinese believe that the appearance of a comet means the world was going to get “very hot, or bad”. A comet was reported in September 1965, at the time of Gestapu, the abortive Indonesian coup which claimed the life of more than 50.000 Balinese. Another was reported at the time of the death of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno.

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The comet is called Bintang Kukus by the Balinese; “bintang” means “star” and “kukus” means “to steam rice”, steaming rice in traditional way will much smoke. The bintang kukus means smoking stars. Balinese believed that when comets (bintang kukus) appear they portend either something very good or very bad in the world based on their position in the sky, of course from Balinese point of view.

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