A Balinese Funeral

Balinese are Hindus (a slightly different version than India's) and cremate their dead. Balinese funerals are elaborate – and expensive – affairs. The images below capture some aspects of them. Others, such as the actual cremation, are missing.

A funeral for one person costs a minimum of 45 million rupiah. To put it in perspective, that is what a family may earn in two to three years. The result is that only the rich can afford it. Images below show a funeral pyre and a bull in which the body will be transported – from a funeral for a rich person.

The rest resort to other means. The most common practice is to bury the dead, in the hope that a cremation can be arranged some time in the future. A picture below shows a burial ground in Ubud.

Most commonly, 40 or 50 families will get together when everyone has saved enough money. Since a funeral ceremony for so many bodies may last as long as two weeks or more, it costs each family 6 to 8 million rupiah – still a sizable amount. The bodies, or portions of them, are dug out of the ground for the ceremony. After the cremation, the ashes are poured into the sea. Pictures below show people sitting at a ceremony, and bodies wrapped in white cotton.

The funeral bull. The dead body is carried inside the belly of the bull to the funeral pyre. The pyre was being prepared by the side of the road.	The funeral pyre on which the body will burn.	A burial ground in Ubud. Bodies may remain buried or years, before they are dug up for cremation..
Mourners and village folk at a funeral. The funeral was for 40 to 50 bodies.	Another view of the ceremony.	The bodies - or bones wrapped in white cloth and lined up in a row. Sometimes only a few bones are cremated instead of the entire skeleton.