Here is a set of images from THE SUDI DANCE SCHOOL in UBUD from yesterday's dance recital, somwething of an upbeat alternative to what follows.
A several hour drive out into the country along sparsely traveled, newly blacktopped highways brought us to a spectacular view of a caldera inside of which loomed an active volcanic cone and a large pristine lake. The caldera housed a number of active villages whose inhabitant's primary occupation involved quarrying basalt rocks frequently used as foundation stones and/or volcanic ash used as fertilizer. Our goal, however, was an isolated village on the far side of the lake reached by first descending deep into the caldera and then zipping across the lake via motorboat.
We met the village headman upon arrival, were guided around the village (including a brief conversation with the current resident of the oldest house in the village, above) and through the local temple before reboarding our small skiffs for a short ride to the local cemetery. A giant and VERY old tree stands guard here over a set of ten graves. The bodies therein are merely wrapped in thin burial shrouds and left to rot naturally.
Any new body brought to the site releases the oldest body there, the bones of the deceased then being dispersed around the general area beneath the enormous sheltering tree. Each corpse is accompanied by all their earthly goods pied up around them. Sheltering umbrellas and random coins often are scattered about as well. Age old ritual customs still alive even in early twenty-first century Bali - unusual, unique and quite amazing!
A several hour drive out into the country along sparsely traveled, newly blacktopped highways brought us to a spectacular view of a caldera inside of which loomed an active volcanic cone and a large pristine lake. The caldera housed a number of active villages whose inhabitant's primary occupation involved quarrying basalt rocks frequently used as foundation stones and/or volcanic ash used as fertilizer. Our goal, however, was an isolated village on the far side of the lake reached by first descending deep into the caldera and then zipping across the lake via motorboat.
Any new body brought to the site releases the oldest body there, the bones of the deceased then being dispersed around the general area beneath the enormous sheltering tree. Each corpse is accompanied by all their earthly goods pied up around them. Sheltering umbrellas and random coins often are scattered about as well. Age old ritual customs still alive even in early twenty-first century Bali - unusual, unique and quite amazing!
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