Sights And Ceremonies
The Balinese are Hindu…but a Hinduism that is overlaid by ancient animist beliefs…a world away from the Hinduism as practised in India. To the Balinese, spirits are everywhere and offerings are put out in shrines in every field and on the street in front of every home and shop to pay homage to the good spirits and to placate the bad ones. A few sticks of incense are stuck in among some fancy food and various flowers that are carefully laid in little hand-made reed trays. Once the gods have eaten the essence of the food it is left discarded.
One afternoon on the beach, amid a crowd of chanting and drumming Balinese, we saw two men with 12-foot long propane torches burning something through the open ends of a colorfully decorated large bamboo “box.” After a few questions from some on-lookers we were amazed to discover that a cremation was taking place. 
The body of a 12 year old girl had been carried on the shoulders of several men to the cremation ground in a high, multitiered tower made of things like bamboo, paper, string, tinsel, silk, mirrors and flowers. Along the way celebrants, followed by a noisy gamelan sprinting along behind, shook the tower, run it around in circles, spinned it around, threw water at it and generally created anything but a stately funereal crawl…all precautions taken to confuse the deceased spirit and ensure that it would not find it’s way back home. Male relatives did their duty by poking around in the ashes to make sure that no bits of body were left unburnt…which actually took quite a long time. And where did the spirit go? Why to a heaven that is just like Bali!
Tags: Bali, Cremation Ceremony, Culture, Festivals & Ceremonies, Indonesia
Zoe