A very important person in Bali passed away recently. She was the mother of a regional governor, and she also came from a very high caste.
We just happened to be in town on the day before her cremation ceremony and we got to see some of the preparations. I had never seen a cremation pyre taller than this one. It was really tall. The power company here in Bali had to remove all the power lines along the road to the cremation grounds because the pyre was so tall. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you may be able to see the ramp that leads to the upper portion of the pyre, that's how the body is transferred to the pyre.
The body is transported to the cremation ground in the tall pyre, but then for the actual cremation it is placed inside the bull and burned. Most people don't get a bull for their cremation. The bull signifies a person of wealth or caste, and the color (in this case black) also signifies the importance of the person.
