Parading Bade Tower through the Sea

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Ngaben or cremation ritual held by the Padangbai customary village on Friday (Sep. 4) seems to become a rare spectacle because it was not carried out as the usual one. Implementation of the cremation ceremony by the family of public figure, Made Suryanatasari, is quite unique. It happens because paraphernalia of the cremation like bade tower and ox sarcophagus are paraded through the sea before arriving at the local customary graveyard.
Before getting to the middle of the sea, the procession of bade tower and ox sarcophagus is started from the three-way intersection at local village. At the location, the corpse to be cremated is uploaded onto bade tower. After that, people walk hand in hand about 200 meters to the south towards the sea.
“This tradition has been going on for generations. Every cremation at this village, the bade and ox sarcophagus are always paraded out to sea,” said secretary of local customary village, Made Nesa. He added that in this cremation ritual, the bade and ox sarcophagus must touch seawater before arriving at cemetery. However, he claimed not to know why they should be paraded out to sea as it is not mentioned in the literature and chronicle of local customary village. When reaching the middle of the sea, people parading the bade and ox sarcophagus revolve both paraphernalia.
Accompanied by baleganjur gamelan music, the bade and ox sarcophagus bearers are getting more excited to parade down the sea as far as about 200 meters to the east or toward the cemetery followed by hundreds of residents. Procession amid the sea takes place for nearly 45 minutes. The bade and ox sarcophagus are paraded slowly by dozens of people among dozens of traditional boats. This rare procession draws the attention of thousands of people and travelers around the Padangbai Harbor.
After the procession in the middle of the sea, the bade and ox sarcophagus are paraded to cemetery area. Ox sarcophagus is directly placed at the location provided, while the bade remains to be paraded around the location for three times accompanied by baleganjur gamelan music.
Chief of Padangbai customary village, Wayan Jandra, admitted that it has no special meaning. He asserted that the bade and ox sarcophagus are paraded through the sea because he alleged there was no road access to the local cemetery in the past. According to him, such tradition has been proposed to be eliminated, so that residents can carry out the cremation as the other common tradition across Bali. Parading bade tower and ox sarcophagus in the sea is very risky. If they sink and are broken, let alone to fall, they can no longer be paraded to mainland. By all means, the people organizing the cremation ceremony will be greatly harmed. However, the proposal was rejected by residents because they argued that procession through the sea has been handed down for generations.www.bali-travelnews.com
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