Ceremony

Ngaben of deceased members of the Pucangan family. Singaraja, Buleleng Province, Bali, Indonesia. 12 July 2016. Video credit: Putu Aditya Nugraha.

The Ngaben, or cremation ceremony, is a vital element of the Balinese life cycle. According to Hindu philosophy, humans, like the entire universe, are composed of five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether. Cremation speeds up the process of returning the elements to their origin and allows the soul to enter the realm of the deified ancestors.

Today, a Balinese cremation is likely to be a group event, much like the one in the video, where the symbolic remains of the deceased from the extended Pucangan family in Northern Bali were cremated together. Requiring many days of preparation, larger mass cremations help members to share the expenses and ensure that all the deceased of one community can have a proper ritual.

While the actual body of the deceased may be cremated soon after death, as in the case of royalty, it is more likely that the dead would be buried, disinterred and cremated later. In the latter case, Ngaben is done with a symbolic body. In brief, the soul is first invited to leave the human remains (which are burned separately). Then the deceased’s soul is situated in a series of symbolic bodies in the form of effigies, ultimately residing in a multilayered textile shroud. It is the burning of the shroud in animal-shaped coffins (lembu) that constitutes the transformative event in Ngaben. Finally, the ashes are collected and immersed in the sea.