Religion in Bali by C. Hooykaas

On the open air crematorium the soil must be purified ritually before the arrival of the funeral
cortege, which in its course always evokes much hilarity. The final purification of the dead body
is due to the Holy Waters and the Fire. Ashes are confided to streaming water, considered to
conduct them to the sea.
The first cremation is not the end of the ritual for the dead. At least a second one should follow,
after twelve days. It may last years before the expensive last one is held, at which then not only
the soul is granted its final liberation but at which its kanda mpat share the same privilege.
Where does the soul go? To heaven, to begin with, but since the Balinese have several juxta
posed and super imposed heavens, according to an existent manual on care of the dead, it
depends on the length of a formula spoken by the padanda in which heaven one comes to enjoy a
new life. Perhaps this idea is old fashioned now; death ritual is in movement. Some treatises
prescribe the same ritual as that which a new priest undergoes at consecration but others have
struck it.
After a sojourn in heaven one is reborn and in a historical writing we find an expression of the
grief of children at discovering the fact that their parents have been reborn as leeches (y). Their
preceding life on earth will have suggested this result. This application of the law of karma
makes an Indian impression but typical Balinese is the thought that frequently one is reborn in
the circle of the blood relatives. Then the consulting of a balian will reveal which grandparent's
soul has found its site in the baby asked about.
Judging from the manuals of the padandas these priests strive to give complete liberation and
banishment to the souls.
As a rule a Balinese is an agriculturist, living in a compound on which he has several buildings.
There is always a separate corner, his house temple, where he worships those forbears who as a
result of cremation have become gods. A man of some means has a special pavilion in which to
put a corpse on its bier before burial or cremation.