Life after Death

Nearly all religions include the belief that human beings survive death in some form. For many people, such as the Balinese, a funeral symbolizes the passage from one life to another, rather than the end of a person’s existence. In Bali, a cremation is therefore a time of joy and celebration. On the morning of the cremation, friends and relatives gather to pay their last respects and to eat and drink § with the family. There is then a procession to the cremation ground, some men carrying the corpse in a tower built of bamboo and paper, and other men carrying a special container called a sarcophagus, which may be in the shape of a cow or a bull. At the cremation ground the body is transferred to the sarcophagus and when it has been reduced to ashes and the soul released, there is a happy noisy procession to the sea, where the ashes are scattered. This last section of the ceremony represents cleansing and purification.