Zeynep Oral's Books:



They take down the white sheet and the body inside it from the throne and put it on the small mound in the middle of the plain. They bring a diesel burner to the head of it. Pumping, ventilating… the sheet catches fire. The flames rise. Two religious men in white fastidiously supervise the whole event from start to finish.

Then (a couple of hours later) that embellished throne, the silks, satins, ribbons, decorative umbrellas, statues and masks and the pretty offerings, everything is thrown into the fire. First the flowers, palm leaves, and ribbons are burned to ashes. Then go the decorative umbrellas. It takes a while for the wooden statues to burn. Above all the bones… The bones resist the fire. The burner is pumped more. The two religious men say more prayers…Young men come to the rescue with long sticks. They keep pushing and poking the bones with long sticks… The bones resist.

Meanwhile food is served; drinks are shared by everyone. Babies fall asleep; children concentrate on playing… A strange smell, a black smoke covers the area.

The hardest and longest burning are the bones.

At the end of six or seven hours, a handful of ashes, placed in the prettiest basket on the earth decorated with cactus leaves, is given to the children of the dead woman.

The spirit of the dead can now start her journey on the sacred waters, become a new life and live eternally…

They explained that this was an ordinary ceremony and cost one thousand dollars. Later I would witness some ceremonies in Desa Village and Jatuluvit Village that cost five thousand dollars. The difference was that for five thousand dollars the decorations were much more magnificent and the ceremony took longer.

The result was the same: a handful of ashes.

A handful of ashes, in a decorated basket, could start its new journey. In this new journey most of the time was spent passing through the temple of the Water Goddess', Dewi Danu.

There is a temple symbolizing the sacred Meru Mountain in India, devoted to the Water Goddess, Dewi Danu, in the inlands of Bali; it is in the Badagul area, not in the middle but on the edge of Bratan Lake… This may be the busiest temple of Bali… That is because the ashes of the cremated are mostly scattered in this lake.

The closest relatives of the family (men only) with the ash basket in their hand, offerings in their arms, get in a boat and after wandering around the Ulan Danu Temple, they leave for the lake. Amongst the offerings are flowers, fruits and live birds or ducks. At the very front of the boat are the ashes in a nicely decorated basket.

When the small boat reaches the middle of the lake, the birds are freed to the sky, the ducks put in the water. Then…

Then… The eldest son sitting in the front of the boat, trying not to disturb the balance, stands up carefully. And… No, not with a dramatic expression or theatrical manner, with a very ordinary motion he opens up the basket and turns it upside down.

The ashes mix with air and water.

The spirit of the dead person is at peace now. She can start a new life.

The fishermen in Amed Village must have returned today from fishing with their magnificent creatures…

Another cremation ceremony must have taken place in Boruan Village this morning, too…

This morning and mornings after this one…

Bali people will do everything to please nature, the gods and spirits, this morning and mornings after this one.

Because what is really important for them, the most important element of all is harmony. That makes life meaningful, that interprets life and after life, that reveals the universe.

Human beings' harmony inside themselves and the harmony in the universe… Universal harmony…

This harmony is created as a result of various conflicts of power that can be expressed with a serious of symbols, as a result of the conflict of these various forces and contradictions…

The conflict of contradicting forces is like the dispute of light and dark, beautiful and ugly, matter and soul or very roughly and generally good and bad…

Each Bali person from his or her birth to the last breath is part of this conflict The conflict continues after death, too, because even if the body dies the soul continues to live.

The soul lives to be reborn again and again.

The soul has only one aim as long as it lives: to reach the perfect…

temples are built, temples are decorated, wood is carved, stone is shaped, rice fields are blessed, the best offerings are made from grass, leaves and flowers, boats are painted with bright colors… And ashes are scattered to the bodies of rivers, lakes, seas and wind…

Life's adventure is temporary. But even so, the main effort during this adventure is the effort to reach perfection.

The path to reach perfection goes through creativeness, creating the beautiful and good…

And to become victorious for beauty against ugliness, good against bad, light against dark; there is always a smile on the faces, voices are not raised, nobody gets angry, everyone helps each other…They are aware that universal harmony can only be accomplished this way…

That's why life or death turns to ritual, ceremony.