Having more confidence on the road i ...
Trip Start
Oct 25, 2001
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40
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Trip End
Ongoing
Ubud, Indonesia
Thursday, March 14, 2002
I came across some locals cooking 5 dead piglets over a coconut fire, and was told that a local villager had recently died and the whole village was preparing for the huge ceremony tomorrow day, and that i was welcome to come along and take pictures.
Not wanting to offent the man i took him up on his offer!.
The next day i returned around 1pm and the ceremony was already underway.
There was about 70 locals (mostly relations) that attended, and after some singing and chanting they balanced the coffin on a section of large bamboo poles and a elderly man climbed ontop of the coffin while about 30 men carried them 100 metres down the street all laughing and singing while the rest of the relations followed behind.
It was total mayhem, with it all happening so quickly to try and get controlled pictures.
As they carried the coffin (and man sitting ontop frantically waving his arms around) they all shouted in sequence and did what could only be described as the 'mexican wave' Looking from the front, it looked like the man sitting on the coffin was riding the 'billy bronco'!!
Eventually they arrived at the burning area where they discarded the coffin and placed the body inside a large wooden carved cow.
After some more chanting, they burnt the wooden cow along with the body.
Once the open aired cremation was over, food was offered to relations followed by some more singing and chanting that went on for a few more hours.
