Abstract: | In a Balinese village, families go to great trouble and expense for their extravagant cremation ceremony. They provide special food for mourners and offerings for the deceased. A shadow pupped show is performed, inheritances and distributed and musical processions of mourners walk the streets. The bones of the dead are uncovered, washed and arranged for cremation with accompanying prayer rites. During cremation, the village is filled with smoke from pyres shaped like bulls, as the souls of the dead are cleansed of impurity, then sent out to sea to continue their journey to heaven. The film documents and explains the intricacies of these funeral rites and Balinese-Hindu beliefs about death |
