“Mass cremations or Ngaben Massal (or sometimes in Balinese referred to as ‘Ngerit’) have become a way of life in village Bali – it represents …

A few weeks ago Ubud was shocked to hear of the tragic death of Cokorda Putra Widura, a  prince from the Ubud palace who was …

The arching bamboos poles, ornately decorated, that transform the streets of the island are back. It’s the Galungan and Kuningan season again. penjor are as …

Truckin’…

by Leslie Caplan I walk downtown where sunlit smiles soar down like birds and land on the faces of people walking by. I go over …

Diana Darling attends a press conference for the upcoming cremation at Puri Ubud. On Friday afternoon, Puri Ubud convened a press conference about the upcoming …

But this bit of monster meccano set assembly always has everyone holding their breath. First you have to wrestle what must be a ton of tiered roofs up the ramp while not destroying any of the delicate tinsel paper cut out filigree stuff. Then you have to get 20 guys to manoeuvre it exactly into place so that when it goes up it more or less slots unto the base (for obvious reasons it is never designed to be a tight fit). Then you slowly carefully hoist it up with teams of men pushing on long poles in concert….

by Catriona Mitchell It’s Galungan! And outside it’s almost as quiet at Nyepi (Balinese New Year’s Day, when the whole island shuts down): not the …