A Funeral In Bali

I wished to learn to "hang" in a good place, instead of constantly moving to next destination. The first chance to practice was Ubud, the arty village in Bali.  After 3 days rent-a-car-and-a-driver, I moved to the town center, and practically wandering around town everyday.  One day I found a notice at the visitor information center, a funeral, willing people should gather at a time and took bus over to some village. A funeral in Bali?!  I read it's a worthy event to see, but still, what kind of family would open their funeral to public, especially foreigners?  Well, if they posted at the center for people to see, that should not be my concern. 

While Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, Bali, however, is overwhelming a Hinduism Island.  Other than this simple fact, I honestly did not know what to expect from the funeral. I saw women worked hard every morning making offerings and distributed them, with prayers, to the small temples of their choice.  There was no organizer or guide, just a bunch of foreigners got on the bus for an hour ride.  Once got off the bus, they were easy to spot because of the sheer size: a red cow and a sedan chair style of dragon pagoda, both made with paper, and many bearers sat around, waiting. 

Typical offering. 

This guy got so many offering. 

After some serious prayer, things started to move, the red cow and the dragon pagoda, all the bearers, local band, along with the relatives (my own guess, since no explanation was made to us).  I later learned the coffin actually was in the dragon pagoda, so those bearers should be the pallbearers.  I walked along with the group, passing small villages.  It was a hot day, the bearers all worked out sweating, they sang, they danced in tune while moving, people splashed water or run hose on them to cool down.  The whole thing really felt like a celebration, if I didn't know beforehand the purpose of it.  A couple of foreigners got excited, ran down and took a position as a bearer, and they were very much welcomed.  Village people lined up the street, expecting the coming group, laughing at the sarong wearing foreigners that dancing and sweating with everyone. 

Just like this, we finally reached a place outside of a town, with clearing and a platform waiting.  First they loaded the red cow, walked the casket around the platform several time, loaded onto the red cow.  Women with offering loaded on their head came along, then the priest came for the blessing, relatives went to to top for the last farewell, so was the Frenchman in our group, went up with them, without seeing anything up in the open casket, stretched his camera on and clicked away continuously and unapologetically.

Then the oil cart rolled in and the fire started. The red cow quickly went up to flame and gone, oil was added for longer burn, till the casket was gone.  I noticed on the far side of the crowd, there was a table covered with sheet, a pair of foot stick out, waiting for the fire. Before we leave, I learned some scattering information that the funeral was very costly, poor people who can't afford to the cremation right away would have to wait for a situation like this to tag along. And I believed I had just witness an extravagant funeral of a very wealthy family. 

After the funeral, we took the bus back to town.  Another steaming hot afternoon in Ubud, and I would again spend it in my air-con room till the sun went down.