Ubud celebrated mass cremation of head of royal family of Ubud, three royal figures and 68 commoners in a rare spectacular display of their hindu tradition and culture.

It took three months of preparation for this royal funeral and last rites. Agung Suyasa died on March 28. His body was kept embalmed under vigil where family and people of Ubud came to pay their last respects and brought daily offerings. Meanwhile the stage was being set for a royal and traditional cremation according to hindu rituals. Some dead bodies had waited months, even years, for this spectacular cremation on this Hindu island.

According to Hindu customs, the dead body is consigned to flames; which symbolizes it being reduced to earthly elements of earth, wind, water, fire and ether. The ashes are disposed into sea. The ritual also means soul is purified and renewed. Balinese belief says soul is then ready to inhabit a new being. It is a big circle of life. Everything transforms, takes a new form.

In the globalized world, such display of traditional rituals that too on such a big scale makes this a rare event. Death is rarely celebrated with procession, drums, music, thousands of masked volunteers, porters, symbolisms, emblems of the celebration and much fanfare. Separate pyres were made for all the bodies. The head of royal family had a huge pyre, with symbolic hollow bull structure inside which the body was placed and consigned to dancing flames. Bali itself has seen such a cremation after three decades.

This plurality of culture may look threatened by globalization but as people of this island believe; traditions of people and flavor of the place will never be dead, buried and forgotten. It’ll renew itself, it’ll transform into something new, something more intriguing, something more spectacular.

source: IHT