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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The village of Kamasan, in Klungkung, Bali’s oldest kingdom, as an ancient tradition of painting with its roots in the art of the great Javanese empire of Majapahit. Kamasan is far from the usual tourist tracks, and so many visitors to Bali get the false impression that Ubud is the centre of art. The art of Kamasan is the ‘classic’ style based on the shadow theatre or wayang, and Kamasan village once included many wayang puppeteers, although few remain. For many centuries that tradition was practised by the Sangging descent group, who gave their name to the section of the village of Kamasan where present-day artists are still found. Early in the nineteenth century the Sangging descent group died out in Kamasan through lack of male heirs, but they passed on their tradition to others in the village, via the most famous artists of that era, Modara.

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THE NAME OF THE CEREMONY IS DESCRIPTIVE, but hardly explanatory. This is, perhaps, why the wife of a visiting foreign dignitary, when told of this practice, exclaimed: “Oh, do they still do that here?”

Yes, they still do that in Bali. To everyone. But do not confuse tooth filing with some sinister vision of Dracula-like sharpened teeth. In fact, the procedure produces just the opposite, dulling the front teeth to diminish the savage characteristics of their owner. The ceremony is called matatah, £rom the word natah, to “chisel” or “carve”. The same word in high Balinese is mapandes, and another common synonym is masangih, from sangih, to “file”. Sometimes the Indonesian potong gigi - “to cut teeth” - will be used. The person who files the teeth is called sangging, the same word used for “painter” or “artist”.

Tooth filing, together with prenatal rites, birth ceremonies, various ceremonies for the young baby, and marriage, is one of the rituals known as manusa yadnya. These are an important category of the Panca Yadna (”Five Rituals”) that every Balinese Hindu absolutely must have performed to insure an orderly transition of his or her spirit from birth to death and later reincarnation. Six to 18 years old is considered the best age for tooth filing - before marriage, bJ.lt for girls, after the first menstruation. Better late than never though, and it is not unusual for people in their 60s to have their teeth filed. If a person dies before having held the ceremony, the family sometimes has it done to the corpse before burial. It is that necessary.

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