NGABEN ,The Balinese cremation ceremony

Ngaben is one of the greatest funeral ritual  ceremony performed  in Bali. And also as a series of the human rituals for whom already died. Ngaben is a purification ceremony for  the soul or Atma  at the first phase as a Hinduism duty to their ancestors with the procession of burning the corpses.basically the aim of  this ceremony is to send back the ancestor’s soul (atma) to the place of origin (Brahman)as a universal source of life. the Ngaben itself is a fusion from hindu religion teachings with Balinese cultural custom.

Ngaben is commonly  held by family  or relatives from the deceased as a form of respect and  honor from their children to their parents or ancestors.this ceremony is mostly held with a lots of joy,happiness and no more sadness from the family.cause in Balinese believe ,by crying or keep sad over the deceased will became an obstacles for the journey of  the soul (atma) to where it belongs(Brahman) and to achieve  the final released(moksha) or to reincarnate in the next life.

Ngaben procession and the equipments

This ceremony is always completed with  an elaborately  colorful decorated  cremation tower or Bade or wadah which is used to put the dead body and normally lifted up  by a lots of people and  paraded along the way  from the house to the village’s cemetery  and  Lembu as a place to placed the coffin of the dead body during the burning process in the cemetery after taken out from the cremation tower. Then all of those equipments will be burning together beside with the corpses.

This rituals process is a symbol to release the soul from the biological body which is made from the five elements  such as solid(pertiwi),liquid(apah),heat(teja),air or gas( bayu) and vacuum matters(akasa). And this process of sending  back those five elements to where it belongs called Ngaben, an original word of ngabuin  which means turn into ashes.the ashes  collected  into the  holed  gold coconut and coupled with some holy symbols  called sekah  is finally released to the ocean or river  as a symbol of universe  and the way the heaven  and also as a  holy  place for the purification to freeing the soul from the dirt and earthly bonds.

After the all procession is done,all of  the family or relatives may pray for the ancestor’s souls in the  house family  temple quietly. That is  way the family bond in Balinese  family is very strong ,cause they always honor and respect to their ancestors and parents as well. Balinese also believes that the souls of the ancestor will be reincarnate into the cycle of family bond ,usually a grand child is a reincarnation from their parents or ancestors.

The implementation of  Ngaben ceremony in Balinese life

Ngaben is not always done immediately after someone died, except for the highest casts in Bali which is normally doing this ceremony 3 days after the death. But it will take a few years to do this ceremony  for the lowest casts due to a lots of preparation, costs and take so much energy to bring this ceremony realized. normally the deceased will be buried in the ground for a few years or cremated directly after died  in the village’s cemetery(mekingsan ring  geni or stored in the fire) and then the soul of the dead will stay at the Dalem(the Death) temple  until the family  has enough money to do this ceremony.

Now days  Ngaben in Bali generally carried out  often together  with the other village’s member (public cremation) to afford the costs ,preparation ,energy and etc. normally they working together for a lots of preparations from the beginning process  until  comes the main day of the ceremony and  well organized by the structural organization in the village. Every expenses  will  be counted per death body or deceased   in the family .the spacious day for doing Ngaben ceremony will be choosen by the highest priest in Hindu religion also called Pedanda through some consultation and combination with the Balinese calendar .

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