a funeral at the ocean

todays' activity was going to a nearby sacred place by the sea where a 75 year old mans ashes were thrown into the sea for his burial...i was invited to go there to hear the gamelon chimes, but in the end it turned out that it was a funeral....which is no problem having foreigners there like me, taking photos, or sitting with them cross legged on the sand with the mourning family and the high priest (dressed in white in the photo) who is here busy putting out all of the offerings everyone has made to the gods so that his soul will be released and he can come back and be reincarnated easily...
the funeral is part of many different parts of a funeral that goes on for months and sometimes years...depending on how much money the family has to cremate, and if they don't then first they bury it, since all of the offerings cost money and the refreshments and priests costs, etc...and meanwhile everyone is laughing and talking and the dog is running into the sea where the offerings were later thrown into as part of the ceremony, and he found the grilled chicken and came running out of the water with it in his mouth, which had everyone laughing even more...
in short...quite the different scene then a western funeral...but i must say that his daughter was very anxious at one point and kept making exaggerated movements as if she was smoking a joint again and again and again and everyone started yelling in balinese: marl bo ro! marl bo ro! and i thought...hmmm..i wonder what that means?? is she kissing his spirit, being invaded by her fathers dead spirit? is she sending him kisses? and finally a man rushed up to the woman where a big crowd had gathered and handed her a box of Marlboro cigarettes and lit one up for her!