the ultimate stage of ones life as a hindu here in bali, is to be cremated. for that, every young man must make a living. he owes it to his parents to be able to cremate them. if the parents happen to be wealthy enough to pay for their own cremation, all the better. but many balinese are very poor, and cremations are expensive events. a wealthy widow passed away 3 months ago, from a very honorable and respected family here in the village, and it was her request that her cremation be done together with whoever else needed a cremation and could not afford one, since the price is the same for one, or for a communal one. so 24 deceased joined in her cremation so that their souls will complete their necessary cycle in order to be reincarnated.
there is an auspicious day for it, and lots of preparations, and so it took until now to have the cremation. her body was buried until now, others that are joining her cremation will do so purely symbolically and the bones are not actually dug up. the whole thing is taking several days of activities. todays' included many children, from around 5 years old up to 20, that dressed up in gold and multi-colored materials of traditional balinese ceremonial clothing, and had a procession around the village.
there were about 60 of them, each with heavy makeup on their faces, making them as fair skinned as possible, red lips, tons of black hair pieces in fancy hairdos, pink cheeks,black eyebrows and huge gold earrings, flowers, neckaces and pins. i didn't succeed in understanding why those 60 kids chose to participate. maybe prestige, honor for the village, the deceased, not clear...but two of them showed up by my landlord, who was a former beautician, and she was busy making them up and dressing them in the special costumes that she had in storage by her. i wanted to take a before and after photo, but my battery stopped, and by now i realize that it is just a sign that i am not supposed to be photographing, but just being.
after the hour and a half of make up and costume, we were off on the motorbike to their house, to wait another half hour for the ceremony to begin. during that time i was the object of most of the photos with the two children. i guess it is prestigious to be in a photo with a tourist. they were very kind to me, didn't speak a word of english, and adopted me as if i was a long lost cousin or something.
once we arrived at the decorated narrow pathdway where the ceremony began, it seemed more like a purim party or haloween or something, with all of the kids posing with each other, and parents busy photographing them non-stop. the next hour and a half included a big procession with the live band accompanying and leading to a temple with holy water and then a walk around the village. the sight of 60 elegantly and brightly colored young adults was a delight to the senses and once we began the walk all of the i-pads, telescopic lens, i phones, blackberrys', and video cameras became the main focus! parents ran alongside of their children, photographing them as they walked in the procession,
the streets were lined by the rest of the villagers that had just come out of their shops or homes to participate in the event, without joining the procession. they too were with cameras. when we arrived at the holy temple, i was surprised to see balinese, standing on the raised area opposite the priest, photographing the amazingly colorful and impressive site of all of the children seated behind him as he performed the ceremony. until now i had been told by my balinese friends that i can take photos, but just not facing the priest, but from behind. and here it seemed that the main point was to get this dazzling visual site on film. the only ones that seemed to be focused on the purpose of it all were the priest and priestess', as far as i could tell. but what was interesting was that it didn't matter to anyone...no one has any pretensions. it seems that it is fine that many of the kids in the procession were busy with their cell phones and blackberrys' while the priest was performing his rites. and once the major ceremony ended and only hours and hours of additional ceremonies would continue, all of the kids went out to pose in front of the huge floats which will hold the remains in them during the cremation!
i tried to imagine what it was like before there were cameras....what was everyone doing? what was the intention? and together with that, i was reading a book about bali, and the author said that bali has a unique mix of strong tradition together with a flexibility to be part of the modern technological world, and that it is a gift to be able to mix the west and the east, but it is the balance of the two which will ensure that the country continue to be spiritual, and alive. time will tell....
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