THE
BODY
To
the Balinese only the soul is really important, the body
being simply an unclean object to be got rid of, about which
there is no hysteria. Details which would be considered
weird and shocking elsewhere are regarded naturally and
with great indifference. I have seen a corpse poked, to
help it burn, by relatives who were making loud jokes and
scolding the body because it would not burn quickly enough,
so they could go home.
When a man dies, his relatives, near and far, are expected
to assemble and bring presents of food to the immediate
family of the deceased. It is believed that the ghost of
the dead man will bring them bad luck if they are not informed
within three days. Automatically all relatives of the dead
man become impure, sebel, and cannot enter the temples until
the complete purification rites have been performed. This
impurity extends to the house and even to the entire village,
and the higher the position of the dead one, the greater
the degree of uncleanliness of the village.
A sign of death in a house is the lamp called damar kurung,
with a white cloth, and an egg is rolled all over the body
to signify its newly acquired purity. The corpse is next
wrapped in many yards of white cloth, in a straw mat, and
again in more yards of cloth, and finally bound tightly
on the rante, an external covering of split bamboo tied
with rattan.
If
the corpse is to be buried and not mummified, it is taken
to the cemetery with music, accompanied by singing relatives,
who carry offerings and bamboo tubes with holy water. Before
lowering the body into the shallow grave, the offerings
are dedicated to Mother Earth, a prayer is recited, and
money is thrown in to pay for the ground used. The corpse
is laid in the grave with an open bamboo tube in the place
of the mouth to let the soul out, the grave is filled, and
a bamboo structure with a roof of white tissue paper is
erected over it.
A
small altar of bamboo is placed next to the grave for offerings,
brought daily for a period of twelve days. Offerings are
brought again forty-two days after the date of death, when
it is considered that the soul has been completely detached
from the body and the cremation can take place, provided
there is money available; otherwise it has to be postponed
until means are obtained, often years later.
The high priest is next consulted to determine the propitious
day on which to hold the cremation - a date far enough in
advance to allow for the elaborate preparations. A few days
before the date named, the relatives start for the cemetery
to dig up the remains. The grave is opened and the body
removed or as much of the body as remains after an interment
which lasts from a month and seven days to even two years
and longer.
links
[ 1 ] - [
2 ]
