Hindu Cremation Ceremony

Ronnie is guest blogging for me today. We had no idea when we planned our trip to Bali last weekend that we would be attending a Hindu cremation ceremony. Apparently these ceremonies are only held once every 3 years, as Hindus must wait for enough bodies to perform such a ceremony. We observed many open graves (where bones of people who have died since the last ceremony had been retrieved) and from our counting there appeared to be maybe 23 or 24 people cremated that day.

 person of most important stature arrives in one procession 

“As they make their way to the coast to spread the ashes over the water, the people will make all four turns on a market square to confuse the soul of the dead, ensuring that it cannot find its way back to the body.”—Hotel Concierge.

 bones of deceased wrapped in white cloth

 remains placed inside various animals to be burned

mass procession of family members coming from opposite direction

flow of humanity

bringing offerings

offerings are brought to be cremated along with bones

On successive days, Jan and I witnessed one small and one very large Hindu cremation ceremony in Ubud, Bali. While riding bikes through the rice fields outside Ubud we happened on the tail end of one ceremony where an individual from the “priest” caste was being cremated. I made a short video of the music as the fire burned hot and long enough to reduce the bones to ashes (Cycling Ubud, Pt 2). Later the family would gather the ashes and spread them over the ocean waters in Bali Sea.

 open grave - notice wood, gasoline and general trashiness of cemetery

contained water to be put inside with bones

wonder if these were husband and wife?

many carried framed photos of the dead

surrounding the crematory animal with gifts or offerings to be burned

bringing more unearthed bones

A ceremonial bull is used (see photo) to hold the bones of the dead person, along with other memorabilia. Wood is placed around the bull and gasoline is added to get the whole thing burning quickly. There were roughly 20 such bulls in the mass ceremony we witnessed and a few others shaped as elephants, pagodas, etc.

more containers carrying bones of the deceased

transferring bones into animal to be burned

A sea of humanity including the families carrying the bones of the dead (which had recently been dug up - see photo of opened grave) flowed to the waiting bulls from a nearby holding area.  Everyone crowded around as the men worked feverishly to insert the bones and to make ready for the fire. When the last one was finished, they all went up in flames together. All the people left at that point and so did we. Later I suppose the families returned for the ashes to start their meandering journey to the coast.

after all offerings are placed, cremation fires are started

Personally, I wept at the site of the people and their futility. Some were hurting with grief with no hope. Others were stoic and watched with blank faces. Many simply carried out their ceremonial duties. I cried out to the Living God on behalf of the people and even prayed for rain to dowse the flames. None came.

The whole scene was a cornucopia of sights, smells and sounds as you can imagine by looking at the photographs included here.

people leave quickly due to intense heat and smoke

Next Post: I took so many photos at the ceremony, I decided to post an addendum called "The Faces of Hinduism."