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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