• Death - The Last Taboo
  • What is death?
    • What is death?
    • The face of death
    • Signs of death
    • Defining death
    • Safety coffins
    • Stethoscopes
  • Decomposition
    • Decomposition - Body Changes
    • Decomposition - Forensic Evidence
    • Decomposition - Succession
    • Decomposition - Corpse Fauna
    • Decomposition: fly life cycle and development times
    • Decomposition - glossary and references
    • Stages of decomposition
  • What happens after death?
    • Morgues and mortuaries
    • Who works at a morgue?
    • Who ends up in a morgue?
    • Autopsies
    • Interactive Autopsy
    • Body disposal - legal procedures
    • Preparing the body for disposal
    • My options after death
    • Preparation for death: stories
    • Preparation for death - Dorin Hart
  • Disposing of the dead
    • Disposing of the dead - an introduction
    • Disposing of the dead - Burial
    • Disposing of the dead - Exposure
    • Disposing of the dead - Preservation
    • Disposing of the dead - Cremation
  • Remembering the dead
    • Mourning - an introduction
    • Mourning - Victorian Era
    • Mourning - Society Islands, Heva ceremony
    • Mourning - Oro Province, Papua New Guinea
    • Mourning - Indigenous Australia
    • Mourning - Jewish mourning
    • The AIDS quilt
    • The Days of the Dead - Mexico
    • Ching Ming
• About the Museum
• What's on
• Visiting the Australian Museum

Image Gallery: Balinese village cremation

Balinese religion is based on respect for and worship of God and ancestors, and is a combination of Hindu elements and indigenous Balinese culture. After death, the body must be dissolved and returned to its original elements. The cremation ritual is a purification rite which frees the roh (soul or spirit) from its temporary earthly house and facilitates its journey to its next existence.

Recently exhumed bones

Village women make offerings

Women carrying offerings

Village funeral procession

Tower containing remains

Tower containing human remains

Lions set alight

Collecting the ashes