Thousands of Balinese Hindus - joined by victims' relatives - performed an elaborate "purification" ceremony today amid the wreckage of last month's Bali bombing.
Onlookers climbed atop charred vehicles, cracked cement slabs and piles of rubble as men chanted prayers, children danced and women prepared offerings of food, flowers and sacrificed animals.
"The sadness of Bali is the sadness of the world," Co-ordinating Minister for Welfare Jusuf Kalla told the worshippers. "Terrorism on Indonesian soil is a clear and present danger".
Three simultaneous bombings on Bali on October 12th killed about 190 people - including many Britons, injured hundreds and devastated the island's economic mainstay of tourism.
Two ceremonies - one at the blast site and one at a nearby beach - were held to "bring life back to Bali and to ask for the forgiveness of God to rebalance the imbalances of the last month," explained one of the organisers.
Smaller ceremonies led by Balinese Hindus also were being held at the site of the World Trade Center attack in New York and in London, Sydney, Toronto and San Francisco.
AP