Cremation - Bali style

December 9

Wayan told us that sadly, a 17 year old girl from down our lane was killed on her scooter the night before we arrived, and that there would be a cremation on Wednesday.  He thought we should follow the procession and watch the ceremony, so having nothing else to do, we figured we would take an hour and do so.

Not so much . . . about 3 1/2 hours later, we were finally home again.  These people do death in style is all I can say.  The young man Kadek, who is in charge of the cooks and housekeepers for us, informed us he would be playing in the band (yes, they had a band.  Two of them, actually).  He said that we should go into the lane at about 11:30 as the procession would start shortly after that.  The entire neighbourhood was in the lane, some sitting, some standing, some taking photographs.  In the lane was the most elaborate conveyance - a kind of tower sitting on a bamboo platform.  It had a picture of the young girl on it.

This is the container for the coffin that is paraded through the town

Close-up.  Very elaborate.  

Some of the band members waiting.  They are sitting over the drainage
ditch that runs down the side of the road.  No sidewalks here!

The members of Kadek's band. You can see the platform built of
bamboo - it will be carried by about 30 - 40 men later on.

 In front of that, was another conveyance - what looked like a giant bull, also sitting on a bamboo platform.   At the gates to the family’s home were a number of floral ‘fans’ for lack of a better word.  They were very pretty, and seemed to be made of flower petals.

This bull is made of wire and cloth and sits on the same platform as the
tower.  This will also be carried to the cremation site.  When they get
to the site, priests will cut the bull from tail to shoulder, and remove
the 'back' of the bull.  They will place the coffin inside, along with
various offerings, then place the lid back on before setting it alight.

There were probably 20 or 30 of these beautiful flower petal arrangements

Well, after about a half hour or so, the band started up, and a great number of young men all stood inside the cross-hatches of the platforms, picked up the tower and the bull and everyone started walking.  And walking.  And walking.  And walking.  I think we probably covered a good 2 or 3 km up and down the streets of town which were closed to traffic.  So it was a mass of humanity following these structures and the band.  And then there was a herd of scooters following all the walkers.  For awhile, we were stranded behind the scooters, and the exhaust fumes were dreadful.  We finally got smart and scurried back in front of them.

Here's are links to some (very poor) video that I took with my camera - you'll get a bit of an idea:

Getting started - moving the bull along.  They took awhile to get into the groove of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYU0kYdZan0

Friends carrying the floral tributes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pNCHzJFmk

Crowds following the tower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Yuysbp8SQ

Waiting in front of the family home.  

The entire neighbourhood sits watching and waiting.

These contraptions must be very heavy!  There was a lot of tipping and
weaving along the road before they seemed to get the hang of it.
At a couple of points on the road, they actually were pushing
overhead wires out of the way to allow for the tall structures
to get through.

All along the route, people at the side of the road were throwing plastic cups of water at the structures - they had tinfoil on top, with a hole punched in it - I’m presuming it was to cool down the people carrying the structures.  It was a seriously HOT afternoon.  And yes, mom and Allie,  I did put on sunscreen, thank goodness!  The road was absolutely littered with these plastic cups.

Crowds following the coffin on the parade route
through the village of Lodtunduh

Getting close to the cremation field.  There were
hundreds of people here.  The last bit of the route
was uphill and I could tell it was quite a struggle
for the pallbearers.  The drums beat louder and
they all gave a bit of a run to get up the hill.

The band following behind

Plastic cups of water that were thrown at the men carrying the tower
and the bull.  The roadside and road were pretty much covered.  When we
walked back later, most had been cleaned up but there were a few left
around.  There were holes punched in the plastic covers to let the water out.

After about 45 minutes, we came to a stop in a large field.  At this field were another similar tower-like structure ( a little larger ) and another bull structure ( also a little larger).  I learned later that another person was being cremated at the same time.  At this field were also a number of food vendors - you can have popcorn, drinks, candy and snacks while you take in the cremation.  People were milling about and there didn’t seem to be much order to anything.  One of the bands sat down and proceeded to play some very upbeat, rousing kind of music.  The other band all put their instruments into the back of a pick-up truck, hopped in beside them, and drove away.

You can buy pies, drinks, buns, popcorn.  And look at the back of the
black t-shirt!  Really?

Kadek's band - these were the guys who stayed.
They sat in a circle and played for the afternoon.

Crazy big instrument to be dragging around

Next, the two bulls were put next to each other under these very tall ‘canopy’ like structures.  Men started cutting the fabric of the bull from the neck to the tail, on both sides, and then lifted a ‘lid’ off the back of the bull.  A very beautiful coffin was then lifted out of the larger tower structure and put into the body of the bull.  Think Trojan horse, but loaded from the top

The two 'bulls' are under the tall canopies.  The coffins will be removed
from the towers and placed into the bulls.  

Close up of the bulls.  You can see that they are about to remove
the 'back' of the one on the left. 

Taking off the 'lid' of the bull

A number of items were put into the other bull, and it took about 40 minutes for the bulls to be loaded with various items.  It appeared that there was some sort of incense / blessing ceremony happening around the bulls at the same time, but I was too far away to really see and didn't feel that it was appropriate to be running up to get close-up pictures.

The men in white are  on ladders and packing the bulls full of offerings.
I understand incense and blessings were involved as well.

These tables were full of various items that were all placed under the
bulls and burned along with them.  All the lovely flower petal
arrangements were burned as well.  Nothing made it back to the house. 

The backs were put back on the bulls, and then logs were laid underneath them.  The two towers were removed to the far side of the field, and then all the flower fans and assorted other baskets full of mysterious things were loaded on top of the logs under the bulls.  At that point, a fire was lit under the smaller bull, and finally one was lit under the larger bull.

The bulls are put back together and now they are laying the logs for
burning underneath.  Kind of hard to see.  After that, all the flowers
and personal stuff from the tables will be put on top of the logs

There was not talking of any sort by priests or family.

We decided to leave at this point - it was blazingly hot and we had a long walk back to the villa.  Apparently there was plenty more to be done throughout the day, but we did feel a bit like intruders. (although there were plenty of people there who were obviously also vacationers taking in local
customs)

I thought about it on the way back, and I think it’s kind of nice.  The entire village participates and supports the family through a very sad time.  The band, the men carrying the structures through the streets, the hundreds of people following behind, the people throwing water, even the food and drink sellers - all come together to create something kind of beautiful out of something horrible.  It’s a community’s loss as much as a family’s loss.  And none of it seemed mournful or depressing.  They turn it into an all-day affair, everyone puts on their prettiest clothes (didn’t see much black!) and is there for the family.  Kind of beats the heck out of the bland, depressing services I’ve experienced back home.

The fabric burns away and you can see the wire structure
of the bull underneath.  The smaller one was lit first.

Both are burning now.  Not a great smell.

We decided to leave at this point.  I believe it carried on for quite
awhile longer, including burning of both towers.  

One final note on all this.  Our driver, Wayan, told us he and his family could not attend the service because they have a 5-day old baby.  The family cannot attend a cremation unless a baby is at least one month and 7 days old.  I didn’t really get why - it seems to have something to do with the umbilical cord coming off.  There is still a bit of a language barrier, even though he does speak pretty good English!