INDONESIA (Bali)

DAY 12

In the afternoon, we went with a tour bus to Blahbatuh for a cremation ceremony. Three busloads of tourists outnumbered the family members, and the amount of people selling things was worse than in the larger cities. We talked with one guy for a while who was a member of the family (one can tell from the black shirts) and he said he didn’t mind the tourists as long as they stayed slightly in the background (which was unfortunately not the case for the majority). Besides, there was nothing he could do about it. They loaded the body (the uncle of one guy we spoke with) into a tall ornate carrier. The long procession then led to the wooden cow in which he was to be placed and then burned. The fire burned very quickly and one could see an arm after the flames settled down.

After a brief rest back home sipping brem (rice wine) and eating rambatan, we headed off to the Keckak trance & fire dance. 50 men sat in a circle around a large torch and chanted. They often collapsed to the ground and had to be picked up by one of the women. After their dance they were blessed by a priest who awoke them from their trance. Then a large pile of coconut husks were lit on fire and a guy comes running out and kicks them everywhere with his bare feet. We had to lift our legs to prevent being scorched by the scattering pieces. At the end, he too was blessed and let everyone look at his feet, sooty but otherwise unscathed.

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