Ubud, Bali Festivities: A Funeral, a Wedding, and a Dance

Walking around the streets of Ubud, Bali in Indonesia is such a cultural experience and one does not even have to pay a fee for most of these experiences. On this blog, I will be presenting three festive event in Ubud: a funeral, a wedding ceremony and a traditional Balinese dance show. Yes, you’ve read it right – a funeral!

l was just walking around with no destination during my free time when I stumbled upon a crowd of locals and tourists. What’s more interesting were the huge statues on the road. This seems to be a big event and everyone was taking photos and videos so I thought it was a celebration.

I asked a local and I was told that it’s actually for a cremation ceremony! This is one of the experiences I wouldn’t expect while in Ubud because it may take months to a year for another cremation ceremony. This ceremony can be for a royalty, a famous person or a mass cremation as such ritualistic Hindu event is too expensive for the common people.

I stayed there until the procession started. I learned that the tower which looks like a decorated altar carries the casket. Both this tower and the bull will be set on fire in a ceremonial cremation.

The procession started but it was a long way to the cemetery. Everyone can join the procession and watch the ceremony. Unfortunately, I was trying to get to the Monkey Forest before it closes (click here for my blog regarding the Monkey Forest). I somehow regret not witnessing the ceremony until the end. This is the dilemma when you wanted to see so much with limited time! I encourage visitors to join the procession until the end of the ceremony to see how they burn the statues which is their process of cremation.

During the funeral procession, a local gave me a precious tip that a wedding ceremony will happen the next day near the Monkey Forest in Ubud.

I set out the next day and found a huge gathering of locals dressed in their best traditional clothes. There was a procession and the women were carrying trays of nicely decorated flowers and fruits on their head, while the men watch on the side.

I am not sure whether I was allowed to enter the wedding venue. I realized that I was the only foreigner in the place. The guests were nice and they did let me in. I quietly stayed at the sides to take photos and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Although one can easily tell that I was not part of the group as I was improperly dressed. I don’t want to start commotion if they find that they have a gatecrasher around! To be honest, I didn’t know what was happening, whether they were saying their vows – I never found out. Everyone seem either busy or waiting for something. Most of the time, there was a man speaking over the microphone in their local dialect and everyone stood in attention.

I felt so lucky to experience this and be part of a big tradition. It was such an adventure to attend a wedding without an invite! If ever you get to witness such event, try to just be on the background so as to not disrespect the ceremony. This is my experience but I do not encourage just gatecrashing a wedding ceremony. You are free to watch the procession outside the compound and just let everything happen spontaneously. In my case, it may be because I was alone or that I look like them (as I'm Filipino and we have similar physical features). I feel lucky although I really don’t know why they allowed me inside the wedding site.

The Balinese Traditional Dance Performance was the only activity listed here that I had to pay for as this was set inside the Ubud Palace. You can buy the ticket at the Tourism office nearby for about USD 10. The dance performances run every evening for almost 2 hours. There may be occasions when they do not have a show so check prior your planned dates and book ahead.

There are other Balinese traditional dance performances portraying different stories of their rich Hindu tradition. On this night, I got a seat for the Legong Dance.

The Legong Dance is a royal court dance and you will surely feel like a royalty watching inside the Ubud palace. The dancers all wear colorful costumes and hair dresses. The entire dance drama was worth more than what I paid for. The professional dancers all performed exquisite dance moves which were slow but complicated, and the facial and eye expressions were mesmerizing as if they were on a trance! On each side were men playing the gong instruments which gave that ethnic vibe.

Here is a short clip of the show and here you will see how expressive their eyes and movements are. (Apologies for the shaky hands though!)

Whether or not you planned your trip to Ubud, there will surely be a surprise waiting for you. All you need to do is walk around and talk to locals. They will be so nice to give you a tip on where and when the next big event would be.

Photos taken using Sony NEX-C3D
The YouTube clip is mine as well from my unofficial YouTube channel