Death
And Cremation
To
have got rid of the corpse that, with its uncleanliness,
bound the soul to the material world, despite the strenuous
sacrifices of the family and the countless rites performed
does not yet mean that the duties of the descendants
are over. It is now essential that the liberated soul
be consecrated by further ceremonies, often even more
elaborate than the cremation itself, as one of the pitara,
the full-fledged ancestral deities. After this the soul
receives the name of Dewa Yang, literally a " God,"
and is allotted a resting-place in the family temple
to protect the household.
There
are further minor ceremonies within the next twelve
days after the remains have been disposed of, such as
the metuhun, when the relatives congregate and through
a medium, usually a medicine-man, a balian in a trance,
communicate with the soul to ask if all is well. I was
told that once the balian encountered difficulties in
establishing contact with the soul, but an old woman
relative suddenly went into ecstasy and spoke to the
spirit of the dead man in order to inform the anxious
family of the success of the cremation. Then there are
the ngerebuhin, when the soul receives offerings, and
the mapegat, the final breaking of the last ties with
this earth, symbolized by burning a thread and smashing
egg-shells. The relatives, the house, and the precious
objects used in the ceremonies that were not meant to
be destroyed have still to be cleansed from the impurity
they acquired by their contact with the dead. But the
greatest of all the funeral ceremonies, the consecration
of the soul, is the mukur, when the deceased is symbolized
by an object called a " blossom," by means
of which the ceremonies are performed.
The
mukur takes place forty-two days after the cremation
and consists in offerings and magic incantations by
the high priest, meritorious acts to help the travelling
soul to attain its highest goal, the heaven allotted
to it by caste, and to predispose the supreme judges
to overlook minor sins and be lenient. There are various
heavens, each on a higher and higher level, the stages
of the cosmic meru, symbolized by the temple pagodas
and by the cremation towers. Each heaven is dedicated
to one of the castes: the highest is of course for the
Brahmana Siwa, the next for the Brahmana Budda, and
the lower ones for the Satrias and wesias. The common
people have to be content to go to the swarga, the purgatory
where they enjoy a perfect life in pure Balinese earthly
fashion.
The
mukur ceremony is extremely complicated, but is, in
a way, so similar to the cremation itself that a detailed
description of it would only result in a repetition
of the ceremonies already described. The same guests
are entertained, similar offerings and accessories are
made, the same priests are engaged, ,and a second tower
(bukur) is constructed, this time tall and slender and
entirely decorated in white and gold. Again many orchestras
and troupes of actors arc engaged and pretentious banquets
of turtle and roast pig are served.
Great
stages raised high above the ground are built at the
house for offerings and for the priest. The altars are
higher and more beautifully decorated than ever, the
devil offerings more elaborate than before, and the
participants wear their best clothes and jewellery,
the women adding a band of white cloth and a little
fan of white paper worn on the head as a symbol of the
purity of the occasion. The ceremonies begin by the
making of new effigies identical to the adegans used
for the cremation, which are given life, blessed, purified
by the priest, and then killed " by being burned.
The ashes are collected and placed in individual coconut
shells with a short stick through their
middle. These coconuts are then wrapped in white cloth,
decorated with flowers, and provided with a gold knob
at the top, a gold ring with a ruby, a string of about
two hundred kepengs, an image representing the dead
drawn oil a sandalwood slab, and a label of palm-leaf
bearing the name of the person. This is the sekar, a
" blossom." a When ready, the sekars arc placed
oil silver platters, the relatives mike a ceremonial
reverence to them, and they are deposited oil the high
stage, which is now filledwith expensive silks and offerings.
At the mukur of the Radja of Djerokuta we saw glasses
of foreign commodities such as whisky, brandy, and gin.
After
the night of vigil spent in watching dramatic performances,
listening to music, and so forth, the priest performs
his most powerful mantras, the relatives pray, and the
sekars are brought down, each member of the family placing
one over his or her head to absorb their beneficial
influence. They are then broken up, burned, and the
ashes placed again in a new sekar identical with the
former. These are placed on the white and gold biers
and again a great procession starts off for the sea,
of ten miles away, with the same mad recklessness as
when the corpses were carried to be cremated. The procession
stops a, the seashore and the sekars are brought down,
placed on a boat, and taken out to the open sea, where
they arc thrown into the waters, far enough so that
they will not be washed ashore. The biers are again
dismantled and burned. All the accessories are destroyed;
nothing must remain, and what is not broken tip is burned.
Special patrols are appointed to destroy whatever is
returned by the waves.
The
ceremony over, the happy participants, now relieved
of their strenuous duties, take a general bath just
at the water's edge, the women unconcerned in a group
just a few yards away from the boisterous men, who play
and splash in the breaking waves, There is still the
long walk home from the shore, and the crowd returns
in the blazing midday sun - hot, exhausted, and considerably
poorer than before, but in high spirits and happy to
have accomplished their greatest duty to those to whom
they owe their existence: the consecration of their
dead so that they shall continue to guide them as deities
in the same way in which, as ordinary human beings,
they helped and protected them. All of this has been
achieved by the triple purifying action of earth, fire,
and water.
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INDONESIA
