Sidemen: Beautiful Village and Ngaben Surprise Session

After seeing amazing subak system in Jatiluwih, I have big hyped in Sidemen. I read rave review about this small village in Karang Asem. My first stop was go to Samanvaya hotel in Sidemen. Going to Sidemen village, you have to pay attention that on the way from Denpasar you have to turn left from the main road. You will find a lot of villa over there.

This villa Samanvaya is small and have great view on the valley. I don't feel stunning with the view, maybe it is because the cloud and rain had made short visibility on the view. On the positive note, If I lived in this area I can have a peaceful village life. You can bike, hike or just hanging around on the culturally village.

Beautiful valley of Sidemen

When I was there, there is a big ceremony of mass Ngaben. Ngaben is is a funeral ritual performed to send the deceased to the next life. They will put the body on sacrofagus and they will move around to confuse evil spirit. On the way, they performed musical and in the end they will burn it. This symblosize to freed the soul from body to be reincarnated to the next life. One time before modern world around early 1900,  the dead person widow also run to the fire.    They believe that body is just temporary sanctuary of being, while the soul is immortal.

Music Angklung for Ngaben Procession

Ngaben usually cost a lot of money and need to be done in auspicious day. That day the village gather and made mass ceremony. This happened quite rare for random time that I choose. It happened in the beautiful village with mount and nature in backdrop. This bring sacred feeling of the place, somehow I feel in love again with Bali. I saw on the mount there is Pura in the top of it.

The Women bring offerings to gods

I take a long walk in the mount. It is high and steep, I took 15 minutes to the top. I got dizzy, and there was no view because of the cloud. But I feel quite satisfied with the serenety of the place. The temple was closed because of the Ngaben, and I will return here someday.

The village of Sidemen

Next destination is Puri Tirta Gangga and Puri Ujung. On the way to the centre of Karang Asem we went from middle of Bali. On the way from Rendang, Selat give us wonderful view. Sibetan is one of  the village we get through famous for its snakeskin fruit (salak). Unfortunately, we only see the tree but it is not the harvesting season.