Ceremonies are also a daily part of life in Bali.  The Balinese customs and belief system is alive and very strong.  Bali is a remarkable mix of modern and traditional.  The government, the infrastructure and transportation, the economy and pop culture appear to be firmly anchored in the 21st century.  However, the very same inhabitants are driven through their daily lives by tradition, religion and customs established for centuries and millennia before our time.  How wonderful!  While most of the "modern" world has shed traditional culture as unnecessary and cumbersome, the Balinese have maintained the strength of their traditional culture and beliefs.  They are demonstrating to the rest of the planet how a traditional culture and set of beliefs CAN function in the 21st century.

There are many phases of a cremation ceremony, all taking places at different times and different locations.  There must be books written on the subject of "Cremation Ceremonies in the Bali Hindu Tradition".  One could spend a lifetime studying and attempting to understand the entire ceremony.  Here is only one minuscule glimpse: the moment when the body of the deceased is burned.  

The body is placed on a beautifully constructed structure.  One must have spent hundreds of man-hours building the structure.  In this case, the structure is an immense bull.  After a parade through the village (or through the capital city of Denpasar, as in this case) the structure (and the deceased) are burned.  Hundreds of people participate in the ceremony.