Bali My World

Ngaben Ceremony: Tickets to the Hell (or Heaven)

A friend of mine who is currently living in Washington DC asked me questions about Ngaben, the cremation ceremony of Balinese Hindu. At first, I was wondering why she asked such questions which I believed she can easily get tons of answers on the webs. Then I tried to find out about Ngaben in search engines. I found most of the explanations about Ngaben on the web is way too formal. It is way too a, b, c, d, e, f and so on, you know what I mean. Now I know why she asked me the questions, to find out the answers from a different perspective.

Anyway, what is Ngaben really all about? Have you seen Hindu followers in India doing the cremation ceremony? It is simply the same basically. However Balinese Hindu do it differently which is I strongly believe as the adjustment to the Balinese local culture. Yes I compare it with Hindu followers in India as the original source of Hinduism. This is my own version of Ngaben definition, it is a cremation ceremony so the body of the dead can be ‘returned’ (by burning it) to it’s origin which is called Panca Maha Bhuta (the five elements): the earth, water, fire, air and ether and the soul of the dead can be ’sent’ to the hell or to the heaven.

In other words, Ngaben ceremony is kind of a ticket/visa or even a green card for soul of the dead so they can enter the hell or the heaven. Well I put the hell first as I believe most people are sinners so most likely they are going to hell first rather than to heaven. Balinese Hindu believe that when people die their soul is staying in a special holy place called Dalem Puri Temple which located in the Mother Temple of Besakih. So before their families do the Ngaben ceremony, their soul will be there forever both as a ’servant’ or even to be tortured if they are heavy metal sinner when they were alive. Once the families do the Ngaben ceremony, the soul will automatically get a ticket to the hell or the heaven based of their ‘qualification’. How does it work? How is the ticketing process done? Sorry I can not explain further. I am not dead yet.

Is Ngaben expensive? It depends on who does the Ngaben. It can be as cheap as $500 and it can be as expensive as $100.000 or more. How come? What happen in Bali nowadays is they consider Ngaben as a media for show of force. Just like when they buy a car. For the poor, they will do what we call a mass cremation ceremony. All families of the dead (of the same village) will do the ceremony together so the cost can be minimized as one equipment will be used together by all the soul of the dead. For the rich people, they will do a private Ngaben ceremony. It is full of privacy though. Think like this, the poor soul will take a bus while the rich soul will take a limo. In every Ngaben ceremony, there is a ritual equipment called Wadah or the big tower in which the dead will be placed. It is considered as ‘the car’ to take them to the hell or heaven.

How the ceremony is done? First of all, there should be a dead ones. There will be a preceding ceremony to dig the bones of dead and placed them into a temporary place before placed into the big tower. So many ritual and offerings are going on during this stage. The second stage is placing the dead into the big tower and carrying it to the cemetery to be burnt out. The last stage is called Ngerorasin ceremony which is usually done after 12 days of the second stage. This last stage is to confirm that the ceremony is officially completed and make sure the soul got their ticket. Whether they are getting a ticket to the hell or heaven, it is not a business of their families. It is all up to the them now, the souls themselves based on what they have done when they were alive.

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