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View all search resultsImages: Rat cremation - “A unique Balinese ritual”
There is a local belief that you should not swear at a rat, even if the creature has stolen your dinner or ransacked your crops
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There is a local belief that you should not swear at a rat, even if the creature has stolen your dinner or ransacked your crops. The profanity, the belief goes, would only anger the rat and make it more destructive. That’s the reason the Balinese address rats with the honorific title of Jro Ketut.
In several villages across Bali, including Ababi in Karangasem, the locals took that belief to a new high by organizing an elaborate cremation ritual for rats. It was held at the end of ngrepyok, a two-month period during which the local farmers hunted the rats that menaced their crops.
“The last time we held a cremation for rats was ten years ago. This year the rat plague was so damaging that we decided to organize another one,” Ababi customary village chief Made Sudirta said.
The rite was based on the ancient lontar text Prembon Indik Ngaben Tikus.
