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Close view of burning cremation tower
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- 1986
- Location
- Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2007. Terms of use
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- Search LEARN NC for Bali, Brahman, bulls, cremation, death rituals, fire, funerals, Indonesia, religion, royal funerals, towers, and Ubud.
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The Brahman’s cremation tower is seen burning in its final moments. The tower’s dark wing decoration is visible at the right and flames rise where the tower meets the access platform on the left. The tower, in which the corpse was transported to the cremation grounds, is now empty.
Once the cremation figure and the transport tower are burned, funeral guests return home while the close family performs a few final rituals and prayers to insure proper passage of the deceased’s soul. Balinese hope that the sould will join other’s at the family shrine and be free to be reborn, perhaps as a new child in their own family.
