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Posted by mcdamas in July 25th, 2008

Been to Bali for a vacation or business? Bali is one of the best world tourist destinations. Bali offers not only the natural beauty that is relatively still fresh and green but also cultural attraction. Balinese culture is one and only available which no others compare to it. What tourists find in Bali is truly particular and exclusive as well as eclectic.

Hinduism which majority of Balinese embrace spurs creativity of Balinese people as doing art work is part of worship. As the result, Balinese houses are always artistically designed and built to cater to the needs of religious perfection. Temples where Hindus do worship are as just amazing too. Never will tourists find temple built in no artistic at all. All temples are built to be dedicated to gods.

Aside from such amazing attraction, tourists visiting Bali will also be astonished to realize that a funeral of dead Balinese can be an awesome attraction as well. A funeral event in Bali is as festive and conspicuous as a wedding. Long funeral processions crawling through streets often invite people’s amazement and so halt people’s activities. But no true Balinese would ever grumble about this inconvenience. Instead, every road user quite willingly shows deep respect for the occasion and makes way for the procession to proceed to the nearest cremation grounds.

The long procession of relatives and sympathizers, all dressed in festive traditional attire and accompanied by a lively band of musicians, enters the grounds. Not less impressive is the funeral pyre; mounted on a bamboo platform and carried by more than a dozen strong men. On top of the pyre, adorned with ornate decorations in resplendent gold and silver, is the coffin of the deceased. As proscribed by tradition, a close relative rides next to the coffin to hold it in place during the journey.

In Balinese-Hindu cremations, grief is turned into a colorful event, with gongs, cymbals and flute musicians paving the way to the cremation grounds. Contrary to modern beliefs, which see death as the end of one’s life, traditional Balinese-Hindu beliefs deem death as just a transition from one phase of a person’s life to the next. As the procession of the dead arrives in the funeral site, the coffin was brought down from the pyre. The deceased, wrapped in white cloth, was taken out and placed in a banana trunk-walled enclosure. Offerings and burial paraphernalia are also placed in the enclosure.

A piece of white cloth is spanned over the enclosed area to signify respect. The organizer of the cremation event has prepared four powerful gas burners, which are placed at the corners of the enclosure and directed towards the corpse. After last respects are paid, along with the incantation of mantras and prayers, the burners are lit. Huge tongues of flames and black smoke, signifying the demolishing process of the corpse has begun, filled the air above the body.

While members of the procession relax under the shade of a big tree to relief themselves of Bali’s midday sun, the organizer remains constantly busy. The organizer is there to ensure that the burst of fire is constantly directed to the remains of the deceased. After four or five hours of burning, the gas burners are removed and the organizer informed relatives that the cremation process is over.

After that, the organizer pulls out a large sheet of zinc, on which the deceased’s body has been laid, to show what is left — only a handful of ash and some bone fragments. Relatives are invited to sprinkle water over the ashes as mantras and prayers are once again performed. In Bali-Hindu tradition, the ashes are taken to the beach and released into the sea.

The cremation of a member of an aristocratic family are generally more elaborate and require a bigger budget. The pyre that holds the deceased’s body in such elaborate cremations is always decorated lavishly and usually takes the shape of a mythical Garuda bird or a buffalo. Grand cremation ceremonies take weeks, sometimes months, of preparation.

Such cremations often provide an opportunity for the less affluent to join in the festive atmosphere to give their deceased family member a befitting start on their way to heaven. This was also the case in last week’s elaborate Ubud cremation, in which the remains of 68 others were included in the grand ceremony.

Above all, cremation of Balinese deceased’s body has become another awesome attraction for tourists from all over the world.