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During my first trip to Bali I became friends with the owner of the guesthouse I was staying in. Shortly after my arrival his brother, who I had never met, was rushed to the hospital. He was 23 and had suffered an immune deficiency from birth, something that here in the west could have been taken care of with a bone marrow transplant. It ended up being to late, within two days the pneumonia had taken his life.
The procession to the field where The	Some friends of the family
Cremation took place.
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My new friend was a Brahman from a well to do family, so instead of burying his brother, as most Balinese Hindus would, (Because cremations are very expensive the bodies are buried and later exhumed and cremated in large communal cremation ceremonies.) his family had him cremated shortly after his death.
Anyway Gusti asked if I would like to attend his brother's funeral. (Cremations are open affairs, anyone may attend & though many hotels & local travel agencies sell tickets, these tickets are for transport only. If you really want to attend a cremation, hire a driver to take you to the village where the cremation is going to be held and mingle with the crowd. Walking with the procession to the graveyard is more then half of the experience of attending a cremation.) I agreed and when the time came I borrowed a ceremonial sarong & was introduced to the family by my friend. They were very cordial and made me feel like I was a part of their extended family, I still consider myself as such.
Anyway back to the reason for this story. After reaching the graveyard, while the family and friends were setting up the funeral pyre, a tourist bus pulled in and unloaded a fairly large group of international tourist. Some, but very few, were dressed appropriately. I saw woman with short shorts & halter tops, men in shorts etc. They acted as if they were attending a big party held in their honor. (The banyan tree is considered holy on Bali, as it is believed to connect Heaven and Earth.) I don't know if it's considered a sacrilege or not to climb one but one of the tourist, to get a better view, did just that and by doing so automatically placed himself above the priest. (See do # 7)
A cremation on Bali is a happy ceremony, the freeing of the spirit from it's earthly body so it can start it's journey to the next cycle of reincarnation and thus become closer to it's final goal (Heaven), but even though there is a party atmosphere, that doesn't mean we should forgo decency.
So let's enjoy the sincere hospitality of the Balinese people, the grandeur of their island, the beauty of their arts, the exotic nature of their music and dance and the openness of their religion, but PLEASE let us do it with respect.
Oh! I almost forgot. On the way to the field where they held the cremation we passed about ten or fifteen intersections and at every one they turned the coffin around three times. I hadn't noticed at first but after I did I asked a Balinese walking beside me why they were doing it. He replied "When the spirit leaves the body during cremation it will try to go back to the family compound. By turning him around he gets confused & since he can't find his old home he will pass to his next life." I guess it should have been obvious but I just wasn't thinking about spirits.
See some of the Photo's I took at the cremation.