The Buddhist Funeral

Mindy was invited to attend a funeral of someone's mom who passed away this week in Chiang Klang. The son of the woman who died is actually a strong Christian and one of the few in the village. Mindy asked Julie and I if we would want to go with her b/c it was something we should probably see. i definately wanted to go. b/c we got back from sagat on time, we were both able to go with Mindy. actually, it was more of a "family" event since our whole clinic staff went together with the pastor, ajan ganochai and his wife and son. mindy told us to "wear something dark or black." so we did. thai funerals are typically at night! this is different. they also last several nights depending on how much money they family has to keep the funeral going. there are festivities and entertainment that come with the funeral as i found out when i got there. so we park on a small street with more impoverished looking homes. immediately when i step out of the car, i hear loud music being blasted down the street that is traditional thai instrumental music. just think about the King and I and the traditional music they played with the cabin/theater scene. that's pretty much like it. mindy said you can always spot where the funeral is by the music and the yard with all of the chairs out front. we did. there was a huge blue tent set up and many white plastic chairs were set up under it. under our feet was nothing but dirt. the house was old and wooden with many peices of wood missing. the roof was made of hay or some type of grass on it. the door was open to the house and you could see insence burning inside with the smoke rising from candles and some type of shrine decorated with christmas tree lights. inside the house was where the monks were supposed to arrive and do their chanting. apparently, depending on how much money the family has, is how many monks you get. all of these things help bring merit to the person's life and help them so they will have a better after life, according to the buddhist tradition. i sat outside on a plastic chair next to the girls from the clinic and everyone just waited. there was a huge table set up in front of us where family members were sitting behind like a registration desk or something for people to pay money to them and sign in. seriously! there was a huge chalk board outside to our left that had someone periodically signing in someone's name and how much money they contributed. everyone sees how much each person there donates! i think it's to help pay the costs of the funeral. then in front of us was a huge entertainment system, equipped with a TV, DVD player and stereo system with a microphone! this was all outside! the TV is there to entertain the guests while they wait. they didn't turn it on while we were there. maybe it's for the day time, i don't know. but i guess people come for several days of the funeral and need it after a while. the house was the home of the diceased woman. i asked noi if i could go inside the open door. leave it to me to ask. :) she asked and then said we could. so julie, me and noi went inside the house. i wanted to see the shrine inside. i heard that they always creamate bodies and put them in boxes. we took off our shoes before stepping into the dilapidated home and stepped on boards inside that you could see straight through to the dirt floor beneath. it was very dark and a very small room. they had obviously cleared out an area for when the monks were to arrive.

while we were waiting on the monks, thai women came up to us asking us if we wanted water. later on, they served people dinner outside. i happened to notice one of the women was really a man dressed up like a woman. i have been meaning to blog you to tell you this is really common here and culturally accepted. usually the men dressed up as women are thai prostitutes, but i'm not sure about all of them. the first one we saw was at the beginning of the trip in bangkok, and i just absolutely refused to believe it was true when julie told me. however, it has become really easy now for me to see them after seeing so many in thailand.
back to the funeral- so the monks came and sat inside the house. everyone in the audience outside put their hands in the praying position as if they were waiing the monks in their honor. only the buddhists did that. the whole group of christians kept our hands in our lap. we listened to many minutes worth of chanting that is done in indian i hear. the buddhists in thailand borrow the chants from india, so they are speaking another language other than their own. i saw some men in the crowd who appeared to be moving their lips as if they knew the chant. i guess it is mere memorization. we were there a good while and after the monks left the funeral, it was a good time for us to get up and leave too. it was a very unique experience, but not the most uplifting one.

sitting to my right at the funeral was this man... i'm going to blog about him next. there is a special story there. :)