A Royal farewell : Part Two

The photo above shows the very last stage of the cremation that had taken many hours to complete. It shows one of the Temple men carefully placing the remaining ashes in a white cloth into an elaborate golden' bone box' as it's called here.All of the thousands of spectators had disappeared and there was only a handful of people to witness the last stage of the process. By late that night this structure had been taken to a cemetery for her ashes to be buried in her final resting place.


But the rest of the story goes like this:

Whilst I was trying to concentrate on learning Indonesian in my language lesson at the library the rest of the cremation ceremony took place. Whilst thousands of spectators lined the streets the procession made it's way to the Pura Dalem temple a couple of kilometres away. It was no mean feat to carry these elaborate constructions so far - plus the coffin and relatives in the case of the tower!

They did have some rest stops but apparently they also had to stop because of two parked cars which obstructed their passage in the narrowest part of the road. A friend of mine was watching from the first floor of a cafe as the procession ground to a halt. So what do you do when confronted with a locked car obstructing a royal procession?? You break the window and enlist spectators to help lift the car off the street! Apparently it was quite a sight! Fortunately the second car wasn't locked ad was able to be simply pushed around the corner.
So after my two hour lesson I headed for home only to find that I had missed the actual cremation at 'my' temple completely. Am I disappointed ?? I'm not sure, to be honest!

This is what I saw:
 - a rather dilapidated walkway and a lopsided tower with a red fire engine parked in front of the Temple

The remains of the beautiful black bull - notice the smoking legs, The corrugated iron sheet contains the remains of the cremated body and the ashes from the bull, all soaking wet

 - Firemen rolling up huge fire hoses that had clearly been used to extinguish the fire so the Temple gardens didn't go up in flames

Women and men from the Temple sorting through the ashes to find any remaining bits of bone from the body. They were carefully placed in the grey pot.


It had been a fascinating day - a combination of a religious ceremony, a festival and a logistical challenge. When Balinese people die they are not mourned openly and there is no crying or wailing or sadness of any kind as it is considered to be a peaceful journey to a better life.