Thread: My 1st (but definitely not last) Balinese Cremation

I wonder what the smell would be like? I can't imagine you surrounded the "place" while it burns...

Hello Orang Balipod,

While this might not be an ideal subject for a first post, I would struggle to find an event so different from what I'd expected as much as a Balinese cremation.

It was the younger sister of my partner's already deceased grandmother and was held near Tabanan late last year. It was fascinating to see the rituals and ceremonies involved but I really had expected more anguish, more crying, more outpouring of grief. Make no mistake, there was crying, sadness etc, but it was so subdued, almost subtle. In my country, the Maori wail, and in Timor Leste where I live now, funerals are very very noisy... so for some reason I'd expected something similar.

No, not the kind of smells I was prepared for - as Markit said - it's diesel. The smell I was most expecting was from her body as she'd been dead for over a week without the benefits of refrigeration; but nothing to report.

The big bonus was meeting so many of the extended family for the first time, after the main event we went back to the house for a huge feast and talking well into the night - which is not too smart when you are 2-up on a scooter riding back to Denpasar in the dark.

Just going to a ceremony in Bali is a real treat, but a cremation ceremony, is especially a treat.

Part of the fun is the nights beforehand where everyone stays up, eats drinks and gambles all night.