People gathered initially in the sala (public hall) of the temple, where there was an elaborate display of flowers and offerings. Not surprisingly, the more prominent that people were in life, the grander their cremation ceremonies would be at death. The temple located at the district center, Wat Bot, was the site of a much grander funeral ceremony for the former district head.
Marines and was not served by a circumambulation of participants. for a Buddhist Lao-American Marine, Corporal Kemaphoom "Ahn" Chanawongse, who was killed in Iraq. In 2003, monks led a burial procession at Arlington National Cemetary in the U.S. Monks may play a part in leading a coffin to burial even in a very different setting from that of village of urban Thailand. Lao Khwan villagers and several monks waited at the village temple. In the early morning the deceased man in his coffin was ferried across the river on a small raft accompanied by several relatives. This essay describes a funeral at each of these locations: at the Lao Khwan village temple, a funeral for a man who died in the hamlet across the river from it, and at the Wat Bot district temple, a funeral and cremation for a former long-time district officer.Īnother funeral was held for a young village woman who died some time ago but who was buried pending preparations for the cremation ceremony for which she was exhumed. In Thai, the monkhood is termed the sangha, and monks are called phra or bhikku. That temple was the site of a school and also a place where monks came to study for ranks in the monkhood. Wat Bot is the site of several government offices and stores, as well as the large district Buddhist temple on the opposite shore. The district center, Wat Bot, about a 10-minute walk away, was located on the east side of the river. It was located on the west side of the river, as was the district temple. It had a senior monk, several junior monks, and novices in residence. It had a small temple that served it and several other nearby villages.
Lao Khwan village spanned both sides of the Khwae Noi River.
I will describe funeral and creation ceremonies that were held for three of the deceased-two in the village and another on the grounds of the larger district temple-and the central involvement of monks. Several deaths occurred during that time. In 1965–1966, I was living with my wife and our two young children in the village of Lao Khwan (Wat Bot District, Phitsanulok Province) doing anthropological research with particular attention to health and illness beliefs and behavior. However, please be advised that the following article contains descriptions and photos of funerals, cremation, and the deceased. Given the subject matter of this article, we have tried not to show images that readers would find disturbing.
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