Observing a number of cultural conflict ending up in prohibiton of conducting funeral and cremation ceremony in village cemetery, the residents of Pasek decided to build a crematorium which is made available to anyone from any religion any clan, The Chairman of Maha Gotra Pasek Sanak Sapta Rsi (MGPSSR) Prof. Dr. I Wayan Wita Sp.Jp informed in the opening ceremony of Pesamuhan Agung III MGPSSR on Sunday (December 7th) at Widyagraha Kepasekan, Peguyangan Kangin, Denpasar.
Wita said that the main reason for building the first Hindu crematorium in Bali is the fact that funeral has frequently initiated cultural conflict in sensitive areas. “How can that a funeral becomes a problem? This is definitely embarassing. How do our fellows from other religions would think about prohibition of funeral or cremation?” he said.

The crematorium named Santhayana occupies 600 square meters of land at Kedua Village, Denpasar, only a few hundred meters away to the north of Widyagraha Kepasekan. “Mystical feeling comes from its location bordered by a river and surrounded by trees,” said Wita. The construction has been started back in June 2008 and is estimated to take 1 billion rupiah. At the moment the first phase with one fire place and Prajapati shrine is completed. Inauguration took place along with the opening ceremony of Pesamuhan Agung III.  “The crematorium has started to operate at affordable price of one million rupiah, with space for negotiation available to the poor,” Wita continued.

Wita has no worries about potential conflict between MGPSSR with other cultural bodies in Bali about presence of the crematorium as it has been discussed and therefore supported by leaders of many clans. “Out intention is to solve problem, not to initiate one. We want to have a decent solution to our cultural problem, therefore utilization of the crematorium has to be agreed by every related parties,” said Wita.

In addition to those affected by cultural penalty, usage of the crematorium is also made available to all Hindus including those originating from outside the island, unidentified corpses from hospitals, as well as those in different religion. “At the moment we have had an agreement on usage of crematorium for Indonesian Hindu Labor Union with 60,000 members,” he said.

Chairman of Bali Chapter of All Indonesian Hindu Union (Parisadha Hindu Dharma Indonesia – PHDI) I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana has explicitly expressed his support to the presence of the crematorium. “This is an intelectual answer to our recent cultural problem, which will get an even more appreciation in the future,” said Sudiana.