Royal Balinese Funeral
Otrib has yet to produce any content that details Hindu funeral rites. Today’s New York Times has a piece on the mass cremation of royalty and commoners in Bali (see story) which seems a good excuse for introducing the topic.
Things that caught my eye include the preservation of the deceased for several months before the cremation took place. That people would wait so long to cremate the remains seems counter-intuitive. But, perhaps it could explain the festive nature of the event. According to the article, people view the ritual as a time for gaiety and fun as it is the fulfillment of a sacred duty – to liberate the soul of the deceased. I would imagine it hard to be happy and gay when you’ve just lost someone close.
The other thing that caught my eye was the use of a bull-shaped sarcophagus. The bodies of the deceased were placed in elaborately decorated, hollowed-out, wooden black bulls. The bulls were then hung in a massive three story framework/structure and set alight. Why did this catch my eye? Mainly because of a preconception – based on ancient Egyptian burial rites – that sarcophagi (is that the proper plural?) are to be a storage unit of bodies to last in perpetuity.
Participants at the funeral indicated that a burial as grandiose as this one would not happen again. If that’s the case, then I’m glad the Times was there to document the occasion. However, I tend to think humankind has a penchant for trying to outdo one another – even when it comes to burials.
