Balinese believe that their spirit
lives forever even after their death. The spirits (atma) in Balinese
language are pieces of the god almighty himself that lives within
the human, gives them power, strength and consciousness. When
the atma returned, and the person died, that's where the Balinese
held the ngaben ceremony (ngaben from abu which literally means
ash) to return the body elements to mother earth.
Human body, to our (Balinese) believe consists
of 5 earthly elements (Panca Maha Bhuta) and when the spirits
return to the god, the body has to be returned to the earth. The
5 elements consisting Pertiwi (earth), Apah (water), Teja (light),
Bayu (wind), Akasa (ether) are the main elements to unite and
form the human complex body. The pertiwi, mother earth within
human body symbolizes by flesh, the apah is the liquid that flows
in human body, teja is the light or magnetic field generated by
human body, bayu is the wind, respiratory system and akasa occupies
gaps within human system, ie inside the bones, etc.
The similarity of human system and the Earth
is one of the reason as why Balinese regard their surrounding
macrocosmic as high as themselves as microcosmic. The way Balinese
treated the environment, the trees, the wind, the oceans even
to the animals, the daily offerings not only to the god, but as
well to the trees and environment, or to cars and motorbikes are
living proof of the mutual respect to the cosmos and the earth.
The ngaben ceremony itself is a simple ceremony,
whereas the body is cremated and the ashes are spread over (thrown
to) the sea or through the river that leads to the sea. The procession
of the ceremony however is a very sophisticated affair that took
weeks and in most cases, requires a considerable amount of wealth.
That is another reason why ngaben is such an honorable, prestigious
and elegant ceremony even to the Balinese tradition itself and
unfortunately not every Balinese can afford them.
Nonetheless, ngaben, the last journey of the
Balinese life is a must do ceremony that in the end every Balinese
will acquire to do. Whether it’s an individual or collective
ceremony (collective are consists of several sawa or dead bodies),
ngaben is the procession that unite people together, with every
person in the village come together and work to the success of
the ceremony.
The details of the ceremony can not be undone
in one simple essay. Above listed are some of the essays which
we found very interesting. Unfortunately we can not find the references
of the book due to some technical problems. We would appreciate
if you know the author and e-mail to us the information so we
could provide the appropriate references.
Any suggestion and comments please further e-mail
us at info@batukaru.info
batukaru.info team |
