Contents:

Bali Travel Guidebook:
Pelebon - Royal Cremation

Introduction
Background on Bali
Activities & Tours
Language
Climate & Clothing
Money
Shopping
Health
Balinese Culture
   Naming System
   Religion
   Temples
   Ceremonies for        Children
   Wedding &
       Tooth Filing
   Royal Odalan &
       Tooth Filing
   Purification
       Ceremony
   Cremation
   Royal Cremation
   Special Days

A cremation for every Hindu-Balinese is the most important of all the Upacara Manusa Yadnya (life cycle ritual ceremonies). For the higher castes this ceremony is done on a magnificent scale, making it one of the most spectacular sights that people who travel in Bali may witness. However, there is much that goes on apart from the actual cremation in the preparation for the deceased soul's departure from this world.

When Krishna's step-grandmother died on November 26, 2000, all of the preparations from when she died until the cleansing ceremony three days after the cremation were documented. A collection of over one thousand photos taken during this time may now be viewed in our library at KLUB KOKOS. A smaller sample is included here, together with an explanation of the events. I hope this assists you to better understand the enormous effort put into a cremation ceremony, particularly a royal cremation. A briefer account of a communal mass cremation.

On the morning of Sunday 26th November 2000 Gusti Niang Madé Oka died at the age of 68 years. Throughout her life she had difficulties with her health, suffering badly from asthma, so at this still relatively young age her life was finally taken, leaving behind two children and five grandchildren.

Gusti Niang was the second wife of Tjokorda Gdé Raka Sudharsana (Krishna's grandfather), a direct descendant of the old King of Ubud. Having lost his first wife in 1955, Tjok Raka remarried soon after this, but died in 1973. He had two surviving children from the first marriage, as well as ten grandchildren, one of which is at the time of writing this the current Bupati of the Gianyar District. Another, of course, is Krishna. The Sudharsana family is based in the eastern wing of the palace - Puri Saren Kangin - so this is where all the preparations leading up to the Pelebon (Cremation Ceremony) are based.

Upon Gusti Niang's death, word was immediately spread amongst the extended family of Puri Ubud, who had only just completed the huge Maligia (Purification) Ceremony the week before, where souls of many of the family that had died over the past 30 years were chosen for further purification, to bring them closer to a deified state. Gusti Niang's husband, Tjok Raka was one of the souls to be a part of this ceremony. Now the whole family were called together again to prepare for the most important of the Pitra Yadnya (Life Cycle) Ceremonies of a Balinese - Gusti Niang's cremation.

On the evening after her death, the body of Gusti Niang was transported from her home in Campuhan & carried through the main gates of Puri Ubud to the Balé Gdé - the pavilion used for all the life-cycle ceremonies - in Puri Saren Kangin, removed from the stretcher & wrapped in more white cloth, to lie in a curtained area on this raised platform. Earlier in the day Nini's body had already been injected with formalin, to aid in the preservation of the body in the time between her death & her cremation. A burning lamp is placed beside the body, along with some simple offerings to feed her spirit for the next few hours. The full-on work of the mammoth amount of offerings required for the cremation ceremony will not begin until the next day.

Then the heads of the various families of Puri Ubud gathered together to work out a schedule for all of the intricate preparations that precede the Cremation Ceremony. A date needed to be chosen, using the complex Balinese Calendar, that was suitable for such an important ceremony. After consultation with the pedanda (high priest) the next morning, it was confirmed that the ceremony would be held 10 days after her death, on December 6.

To be able to prepare for a Cremation Ceremony even on the most simple of scales, a huge amount of labor is required to prepare everything. Because Gusti Niang had married into the Royal Family of Ubud, her cremation is therefore on a much bigger scale than those of the lower castes of Hindu-Bali. So one of the first things that needed to be done was to call together all the heads of the 5 different banjar (local councils) of the Ubud/Taman area to discuss a schedule for their assisting in all of the preparations. Once this was done, Gusti Niang's death was formally announced to the township of Ubud by hitting the bamboo kulkul that can be seen hanging in a small tower at every banjar meeting place, using a particular rhythm signaling a death, making the whole village sebel (unclean). This means that no other ceremonies should be held in this area of Bali until at least 3 days after the cremation ceremony is over. Meanwhile, the body of Gusti Niang is continually kept company by family & friends, in the daytime with people sitting & chatting, catching up with family news, while into the wee hours of the night various forms of Balinese card games are played - mainly one called ceki - to keep those keeping watch awake.

Each day since then hundreds of people from the different banjar worked to help the Puri with all of the preparations. While the women have been helping with the preparation of the mountains of offerings required for the ceremony, the men have been constructing the temporary platforms needed, as well as cooking some of the food that makes up a part of the offerings. Perhaps the most interesting part for visitors to Bali to view is the construction of the lembu (bull) that will hold the body at the time of it's cremation, & the huge badé (tower) that will be used to transport the body from the Puri to the cremation grounds. Specialists are used to build these two features of a cremation ceremony, the lembu being constructed by a group of craftspeople from Sanggingan & transported into the center of Ubud as it nears completion the day before the cremation, while the badé is being constructed in the outer courtyard of the Puri - where evening dance performances are held, as well as on the street outside the Puri, by a gifted group of carvers, several from our village of Bangkiang Sidem. Because of the towering height of the badé, a lot of this work will be done in the few days leading up to the cremation on the roadway leading to the north from the central intersection of Ubud, where the procession for the Cremation Ceremony will start, heading east to the cremation grounds of the Puri.

During the 10 days leading up to the Cremation Ceremony, various other ceremonies have been held to prepare the soul for its departure from the physical body. On December 1 the Mesiram (Bathing) Ceremony was held, where the body was bathed with water perfumed with fragrant flowers, then anointed with special offerings & fine clothes, to be blessed by the pedanda who attends this ceremony. People from many other Puri throughout Bali, as well as other friends of the family have been invited to witness this very important ceremony held in the privacy of the Puri.

In the last few days before the cremation ceremony, the Puri grounds are packed with people from the different banjar around the Ubud area to ensure that all the offerings required for Gusti Niang's soul's departure are ready. On one particular morning the Taman banjar women - about 135 of them - were at the Puri to help with making offerings. This is our neighbour Gusti Aji's banjar. His wife, Gusti Biang, will be known to any of you who have stayed with us at KLUB KOKOS, as she is the woman who with meticulous care prepares all of our daily offering needs, then delivers them with prayer to the various key places around the KLUB KOKOS complex.

The usual sort of present that people bring along to a cremation invitation is white cloth, incense, coffee & sugar, the amount brought varying as to the closeness of the person to the deceased's family. However, for closer friends & relations, particularly as this cremation is on the high caste scale, there are much bigger donations forthcoming like, for example, a pig, to help with the catering or offerings requirements. Also, bags & bags of rice were pouring in to the Puri from different quarters. Seeing as all of the guests continually arriving at the Puri over the period between Gusti Niang's death & cremation as well as the hundreds of Ubud people who had thrown their labour into helping to prepare for this huge ceremony were to be catered for with meals, these gifts are a very welcomed supplement to the great amount of shopping that needs to be done to ensure that everyone may be fed.

By the day before the cremation ceremony, the major part of work needed to be ready had already been completed. As the lembu neared it's completion in the nearby village of Sanggingan, people at the Puri awaited its arrival at the central crossroads of Ubud to see the quality of the fine craftwork.

Many people also took time out from preparations to go out to where the badé was beginning to take shape. However, the final touch, that of the 9-tiered roof, indicative of a high caste person's cremation, would only be added to the construction on the morning of the actual cremation, to minimize any possibility of damage being done to it by a sudden tropical downpour.

On the day before the cremation hundreds of people also came to call on the Puri, as they also do on the actual day of the cremation. In the later afternoon members of the family formed a procession to walk from the Puri down to the beji (holy spring) by the river in Campuhan.

At the beji holy water was retrieved during a small ceremony, which will be used on the following day during the final prayers made by the pedanda before the body is cremated.

This holy water, together with key offerings & wrappings to be used to accompany the body of Gusti Niang's final journey in her earthly body to the cremation grounds, is then blessed by the pedanda back at the Puri.

As with so many important ceremonies for the Balinese, this day's ceremony is accompanied by various forms of entertainment, and with the music of gamelan orchestras. A talented topeng (mask) dancer performed in the outer courtyard as the ceremony proceeded within the grounds of Puri Saren Kangin. Near to where the body lay in state, a dalang (puppeteer) performed some of the necessary stories from the Hindu scriptures using the wayang puppets.

Then all of the offerings, once blessed by the pedanda, were placed by the body of Gusti Niang. And thus prepared, her final evening in the physical world was accompanied by continual chanting of the Hindu scriptures, while so many of her family & friends kept company in the Puri grounds.

Very early on the morning of the cremation ceremony, at around 4a.m., many members of the family & helpers of Gusti Niang had already arisen after maybe a few hours napping. Everyone gathered at the steps of the family temple within the grounds of the Puri, to offer prayers & to burn fragrant sandalwood.

Then a small group of the family went together to the cremation grounds about a kilometre to the east of the Puri, to prepare the site of the raised structure where the lembu would later be placed to burn the body. The precise centre of the platform was determined by marking a diagonal cross on the platform with rice flour, then, under the instructions of the pedanda, offerings were piled in this spot & prayers said to purify the area.

By the time this small ceremony had been completed the rest of the Ubud township were only just beginning to stir. Then men from two of the Ubud banjar arrived to help with the finishing touches to prepare the two main features to be used for the cremation ceremony. Two huge bamboo grids were made, one for the transportation of the lembu, & the other for the badé. These grids will enable the large gang of men required to lift & carry these heavy objects to be able to keep a firm grip on their burden as they transport it later to the cremation grounds.

The nerve-wracking job of raising the towering roof of the badé was done with the aid of the biggest truck available in the Ubud area to stand upon. Then all the onlookers held their breath as they watched the roof carefully raised in to position, to be then firmly attached to the body of the badé.

With all of this activity on the street in the morning, quite a few people had gathered to watch. Already a number of entrepreneurial sarong sellers had begun to arrive, to try to make a sale of cloth to any foreign visitors to Ubud that wished to attend the cremation ceremony later in the day.

By mid-morning the 3 gamelan orchestras that would accompany the procession to the cremation grounds had already arrived & set up to play their instruments in the outer courtyard of the Puri. Guests were arriving throughout the morning, being provided with food & drinks & a buffet meal before the ceremony was due to start shortly before 1p.m.

Then with everything in readiness, the signal was given for the removal of the coffin. A sea of people swarmed from the Puri gates out onto the street, carrying with it all of the intricate offerings as well as the coffin wrapped in white cloth. The large gangs of men who had made themselves available to carry the lembu & badé to the cremation grounds had all donned a white headband to indicate their honoured task.

A human chain safely transported the coffin to its desired place for transport on the platform under the tiered roof of the badé. Gusti Niang's son, together with another two family members, will ride with the body to the cremation grounds, making sure that it arrives safely.

Meanwhile Krishna's younger brother Felix (Tjok Putra) had volunteered to brave the ride from the Puri to the cremation grounds on the back of the lembu. Once all of the manpower to carry these things was in place, then the lembu was off at a galloping pace, carried by about 80 men, with onlookers scattering rapidly to allow it a clear path down the main road.

Then immediately after this the badé took off also, rotating clockwise crazily three times at the main crossroads of the centre of Ubud, before racing off after the lembu towards the east. To increase the adrenaline of the 100-strong gang that are carrying the heavy tower, their movement is accompanied by boisterous shouts & the energetic hitting of a gong to keep them moving together. Onlookers have already been warned by police & other officials given the task of controlling the crowd that they should keep well out of the way of the badé as it moves down the street.

Within a few minutes the badé had well outpaced all the rest of the people following along behind to the cremation grounds, so that the groups of gamelan players had to run while playing to keep up.

Anyone staying in Ubud this day may have noticed that from mid-morning there was no electricity in most of the town, due to the fact that whenever there is a high-caste cremation, the numerous cables that cross from one side of the main road to the other must be disconnected to enable the towering badé to have a clear path to the cremation grounds.

Once everyone had arrived at the cremation grounds, the coffin was lowered from the badé & in procession with all of the special offerings, circled the site of the cremation anti-clockwise 3 times. The back of the lembu was then cut open & the body removed from its coffin & placed inside the lembu.

A series of prayers were then given by the pedanda over the body, which then had holy water broken over it, before the back of the lembu was replaced in preparation for the cremation to begin.

So that the structure holding the body does not burn too rapidly, causing its collapse before the body is properly burnt, sods of grass are also piled up on the platform under the lembu, & cloth hung around the structure to shelter it a little from any wind.

While many cremations nowadays in Bali are assisted by the use of blowtorches & liquid fuels to increase the rapidity of the burning process, Puri Ubud is proud to still rely largely upon traditional methods for burning their deceased. Kindling is stacked under the lembu to get the fire going, & with such fine weather as had been experienced on this day, the flames quickly spread.

Meanwhile the badé also began to catch on fire in the background.

Everything that has been associated with the cremation is now burnt, including the fine decorative walls that had been made to surround the pavilion back at the Puri where the body had laid in state for the past 10 days. This burning was done amongst the gravestones of those people who have not yet been cremated in the small cemetery on the edge of the cremation grounds.

Gradually the lembu fell away with the flames, leaving the form of the body as it burns. A gang of helpers continued to take turns to tend the fire, so that the physical body of Gusti Niang is well & truly incinerated. Meanwhile, while most of those curious to witness a cremation have now wandered off, most of the family & friends of the deceased continue to sit around the cremation grounds or in the Pura Dalem Puri (temple) next door. Everyone waits until the body has been totally cremated.

Then the sorry task for Gusti Niang's daughter is to sift through the collection of her mother's burnt remains to find & wash the tiny pieces of bone that are to be ground up by each of the members of the family in turn, to be later taken out to sea.

By late afternoon, nothing remains of the spectacular structures that were brought to the cremation grounds earlier, except for the odd piece of unburnt bamboo & a wisp of smoke.

The pedanda continues to oversee the ceremony with further prayers & a mecaru ceremony of the area before the ground bones are collected.

These bones, now as fine as dust, are then mixed with the liquid from a young coconut, & placed inside a special silver container with other offerings.

After dusk this is then all placed on a special throne that is carried again 3 times around the cremation grounds in a clockwise direction, before everything & everyone piled into vehicles to move off to Sanur. With the aid of a police escort, it didn't take very long to travel about 25 kilometres to the beach.

Further prayers were carried out by a pemangku (village priest) as around 200 family & friends gathered there to see the safe departure to the sea of Gusti Niang's ashes.

Then the special throne & offerings were loaded onto the waiting jukung (boat), to disappear into the murky darkness of the ocean, so that the ashes could be scattered into the sea a few hundred metres off the beach.

Heading back to the Puri once more, all of the family of Gusti Niang needed to wait outside the Puri walls until such time as a small purification ceremony was carried out by a pemangku (this one by Gusti Aji's father).

A small structure with offerings was placed by the Puri wall outside, so that if the soul of Gusti Niang was wandering, she would have some place to come to rest before the more elaborate Mengasti Ceremony is held at some later date, giving her a special place of rest within the family temple.

Three days after the cremation ceremony, another Mecaru (Cleansing) Ceremony was held at Puri Saren Kangin, to cleanse all of the Puri grounds & outer courtyard of anything associated with Gusti Niang's death. It is only after this ceremony is carried out that things could be then said to be 'back to normal' spiritually in Ubud.

A note for people wishing to attend a Royal Cremation Ceremony:
While the ceremonies held within the walls of the Puri are private affairs, for the family & invited guests, once the procession spills outside of the Puri walls to the main road & to the cremation grounds, it then becomes public, with the whole of the Ubud community joining in to assist the deceased's soul in its smooth departure from this world. Visitors to Ubud on the day of a cremation may also want to join in the huge procession to the cremation grounds, to witness the most spectacular of all ceremonies for Bali. Your interest is welcome, as long as you remember to respect the importance of the day for everyone involved. Please observe the dress requirements expected of people who wish to join in - wear a sarong tied at the waist with a selendang (scarf), with a top covering your shoulders. Ask one of the staff at your hotel if you do not have the required dress or need help in learning how to wear it properly. Don't get in the way of anyone in the procession. As it takes off the crowd carrying the badé & lembu will get very boisterous, so don't stand too near, or you may get trampled. Don't ever put yourself in a position higher than the pedanda, & don't get too near the fire as the burning gets underway. Please remember that a Cremation Ceremony is not put on for the benefit of tourists, but is the most important ceremony for the Hindu-Balinese to provide for their deceased family's safe departure from the physical world.

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Thispage was last updated on May 27, 2001