Bali

This word refers to an unique cremation ceremony which is held by Balinese Hindu community. This ceremony is not only can be held in Bali, because one my friend did this ceremony in Jakarta couple years ago (they do this in Lampung and Surabaya as well). Ngaben’s meaning is to chastisement the body before the body is disappear and the soul will reincarnate.

As it’s definition, cremation, in ngaben the body will be buried. The unique thing is, the buried process itself because the body is not buried directly, but there are some steps before. First, the family must do some preparatins, such as create some ’sesajen’ (I couldn’t find the match word in English. Is it the same with offerings?). Then they create a huge buffalo replica. in some ceremony, they didn’t create buffalo replica but garuda replica. Inside of it, the body is inserted (note: the body is ritually washed first).

After that, the procession begins. The replica will be took by some persons to a open field. They will be followed by group of sesajen holders. After they arrive, the preacher will say some incantation then the replica will be burn. People, especially the family, will wait until the burning process is over because the family must recollect the left ashes and bones from the body.

This ceremony can took more than 6 hours, from the beginning until finish. The longest part is the burn process, because burning the bigger replica need extra time.

You can see the pics of the ngaben process. I took the pics from here.

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