Monday, September 8th, 2003 – Day 202
I know I was waxing lyrical yesterday about now nice it was here. I still believe that but they are drawbacks. If I turn on more than 2 lights in the bungalow the electricity goes down and it reappears again about an hour later. Secondly black bits and pieces flow freely from the tap and shower. Thirdly and most importantly are the number of roosters (cocks) in this town. At about 5.00am there is a dawn chorus.
Male chickens have among their secondary sexual characteristics, pronounced combs and cheeks, raisable hackles, spurs, robust musculature and a crow. The crow is a territory thing. It lets other males in the area know that this is “my”territory and to back off unless you want a fight. Females may respond to a crow and in fact join a rooster’s recruitment group based upon his crow in addition to his hackle display, his fighting ability, and most strongly his delivery when he calls the females in with the promise of food. It is the delivery on the food promise that actually is most important for the female, although dominance over other rooster matters almost as much. Read about the behavior and watch your own. It is a most interesting soap opera.
There are hundreds of them here. I suspect that some cockfighting goes on. They make a terrible racket in the morning. Everywhere you go you see hens with a dozen chicks. Pain in the arse! Found if difficult to sleep with them going off.
Anyway I was up at around 9.00am and called into the tourist office. There was a celebration in the main temple here, called the Merajan Temple around 10.00am so I stayed around. There are as many temples here as there are pubs in Ireland. You find one in EVERY corner. They are of similar style to each other. I don’t know why they need so many.
I put on my sarong etc. and headed in. There were big crowds and some Bali dancing going on. Everything was cool and there were about 100 people playing Bali music on instruments. It was good and I enjoyed it, although I heard that a cremation was been held 1km outside of town and wanted to attend.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Temple Celebrations (08-09-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Temple Celebrations (08-09-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Temple Celebrations (08-09-2003)
I had to leave mid-way at 11.40am to get to Kuluck at 12.00 noon. I walked there and saw the cremation party ahead.
There are ceremonies for every stage of Balinese life but often the last ceremony-cremation-is the biggest. A Balinese cremation can be an amazing, spectacular, colorful, noisy and exciting event. In fact it often takes so long to organize a cremation that years have passed since the death. During that time the body is temporarily buried. Of course an auspicious day must be chosen for the cremation and since a big cremation can be very expensive business many less wealthy people may take the opportunity of joining in at a larger cremation and sending their own dead on their way at the same time. Brahmins, however, must be cremated immediately. Apart from being yet another occasion for Balinese noise and confusion it’s a fine opportunity to observe the incredible energy the Balinese put into creating real works of art which are totally ephemeral. A lot more than a body gets burnt at the cremation. The body is carried from the burial ground (or from the deceased’s home if it’s and ‘immediate’ cremation) to the cremation ground in a high, multi-tiered tower made of bamboo, paper, string, tinsel, silk, cloth, mirrors, flowers and anything else bright and colorful you can think of. The tower is carried on the shoulders of a group of men, the size of the group depending on the importance of the deceased and hence the size of the tower. The funeral of a former rajah of high priest may require hundreds of men to tote the tower.
A long the way to the cremation ground certain precautions must be taken to ensure that the deceased’s spirit does not find its way back home. Loose spirits around the house can be a real nuisance. To ensure this doesn’t happen requires getting the spirits confused as to their whereabouts, which you do by shaking the tower, running it around in circles, spinning it around, throwing water at it, generally making the trip to the cremation ground anything but a stately funeral crawl.
More information can be found here , here and here.
But as someone said, Imagine being this receptive to a total stranger at a family funeral, and you have an idea of what kind of people the Balinese are.
Cremation is the only way a soul can be freed of its earthly self and travel to its next incarnation (or to enlightenment). Death is a joyous occasion in Bali, full of floats and fanfare that can resemble a Mardi Gras parade. Complicated towers (the higher the caste, the higher the tower–limited only by power lines) hold the body, carried aloft by cheering men, who turn the tower in circles to send the spirit to heaven, then take it to the burning ground. There the body is placed in receptacles resembling fabulous creatures (winged lions, bulls and so forth, again determined by caste), and set on fire. Sometimes the body won’t burn quickly enough, and it is poked at, often mocked, to help free the spirit from its now-useless fleshy vessel and send it on its way. This is an extraordinarily beautiful and moving rite and marvelous to witness, even for Westerners whose view of death is so different from that of the Balinese. Cremations are expensive and so not as common as other ceremonies; sometimes, bodies have to be buried until such time (from a few months to many years) the family can afford the proper send-off. To share costs, they are also often group affairs. There are tours that take tourists to a cremation, which might be worth going on if it’s your only shot at seeing one, but they can be somewhat embellished for the visitors.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Cremation (08-09-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Cremation (08-09-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Ubud – Bali – Indonesia – Cremation (08-09-2003)
I stayed here for over three hours. Its amazing to watch the cast of hundreds at work. Everybody has a part to play. Hundreds brought offerings and wee twisted around in semi circles at crossroads leading to the site. At the site itself there were amount 15 towers each ahving a hollow mythical type horse. Each tower had a priest and about 8 helpers to put the offerings in the hollowed out animals. They then spent about 30 minutes adding different flowers, herbs etc.
People were more focused on the offerings that the two bodies (I think they were buried for a few years and were dug up for a special date). They were put in between logs and there were about a dozen interested on lookers.
After a while all the 15 towers were set alight. It was quite a site and the bodies were lit and helped with gas fire. It took about 2 hours to burn everything. Then all the ashes were collected and divided. It goes on and on.
I was at the Australian Museum in Sydney a few days ago and they had a exhibit on death and how people from different parts of the world dealt with death, and what happened to the body. While 70% of people who die in the UK are cremated, only 5.6% of Irish people are.
Still amazing scenes here. It was nearly 4.00pm when I decided to head back and walk about town. I decided to hire a bike for tomorrow. It cost 12,000 IR (1.30 Euro) per day.