Crowd watches as offerings are placed with corpse in hollow bull figure at cremation
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- 1986
- Location
- Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2007. Terms of use
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for Bali, cremation, death rituals, funerals, Indonesia, mortuary rituals, offerings, and Ubud.
In the classroom
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A large crowd in the foreground watches as offerings are placed with a Brahman’s corpse into the hollow bull figure at a high-status cremation held on July 23, 1986.
In the rear right, several family members are seen standing on a decorated cremation platform, bending over the top of the bull figure. Most of the key participants are dressed in purple or yellow clothes, signifying the family’s high status as members of the Brahman caste. Prayers for the effective liberation of the deceased’s soul are said before the bull figure, which encases the corpse and offerings, is cremated.
