INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES SPRING 2016
These changes in ritual setting , and their urban contexts , have also taken place as a result of other developments in the town itself . Reconstruction of temples , for instance , has led to changes in the form and performance of rituals , whilst rivers and wellsprings , as the source of body purification , have also been altered as a result of river bank developments . Recently , the local government prohibited the disposal of body ash and ritual waste into rivers , thereby necessitating disposal exclusively by sea . At the same time , the bayan tree is traditionally a key part of the cremation ritual , planted as long ago as the fifteenth century as part of the sacred landscape of the royal palace in Tabanan town . Besides the existence of the bayan tree , the village temples still serve the community with several renewals in the use of building materials due to life of the buildings , weathering , and other factors ( Figure 9 ).
In regard to ritual festivals , relating to the cremation ceremony , there are several important sites associated with the ceremony that have their roots in ancient forms of philosophical ethics that form part of their religious beliefs . These places serve as key locations in the ritual itinerary , as follows :
1 ) The village temples ( the places to take holy water for purification of the deceased ); 2 ) The street intersection of the village ( the route of ritual procession ); 3 ) The Hindu priest ’ s temple ( the place where holy water for purification is used ); 4 ) The wellspring ( for purification of the corpse and related ritual equipment ); 5 ) The cemetery ( the area of cremation ); 6 ) Sacred bayan tree ( bayan ’ s leaf for ritual after the cremation ritual ); and 7 ) The rivers ( for transporting the ash after the cremation to the sea as an option to the offering ceremony ).
The levels of intensity , among the important places highlighted above , can partly be determined by the number of rituals occurring in the places of Tabanan village ( Figure 10 ). The village temples ( Dalem , Puseh & Bale Agung temple ) and the priest ’ s temple have high levels of activity , since the ritual of collecting holy water for purification takes place before , during and after the cremation . At the wellspring , rituals take place before and during the cremation ceremony , whilst at the cemetery , the street intersection and the sacred bayan Tree , the ritual only takes place once ; the day or so after the cremation . The rivers , on the other hand , could not be used anymore after the prohibition refereed to earlier , resulting in the community of mourners using the sea as a medium for transporting the ashes of the deceased . The location of the coast from the cemetery is approximately 9 km to the southwest . Significantly , the banning of the use of rivers by local government did not provoke resentment , on the part of the local communities , since there was general recognition of the urgent need to avoid polluting the rivers and preserving their environmental balance .
The route of the procession in the context of the cremation service
The uniqueness of the cremation ceremony , in relation to the historically important site of the Tabanan palace and its larger geographical location and symbolic importance , persists
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