My very first post on this blog reported the death of Phrakru Udom, the abbot of Wat Phra Lao Thepnimit, Phana, Amnat Charoen Province. He was someone I had known off and on for 40 years, mostly off for the first 30 but we met frequently in the last 10 years. I recorded some of my memories of him here so I won't repeat myself. His cremation ceremony was held yesterday (Sunday) in the grounds of Wat Phra Lao and like almost everybody else in Phana, Pensri and I attended.
For the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of activity in the wat. Next weekend the annual boun wat or temple festival will be held. So the area in front of the ubosot has been decorated for that while the area between the main viharn and the crematorium has been decorated and furnished for the funeral. 'Furnished' because six marquees have been erected to shade people, seating provided, the monks' platform set up, and so on. Monks from all round Phana have been drafted in to help with the preparations and local lay people have also been assisting. The men moving furniture, the women providing food, the monks arranging various paraphenalia. It is very much a division of labour and I don't need to point out that there has not been much crossing of gender lines. That's all right by me, it seems a way of organising activities so that everyone knows what they are supposed to do and they get on with it. Crossing of gender borders does take place (when I sit in the wrong place at a ceremony, for example) and nobody actually minds.
On Saturday evening a lot of people gathered for the final evening chanting and when the ceremony had finished I took a few photos. This was the special sala that had been built to house the coffin:
This one was taken for me and was really a misunderstanding. I had asked Mr Ing, our local undertaker (and much else) if it was alright for me to take a picture. He took this to mean I wanted my picture taken. So this one is down to him.
In the photo above, the family of Phrakru Udom are performing a short rite with four monks before leaving the wat for te night.
I took a look at the arrangements that had been made for the monks to chant. The legless chairs were something I hadn't seen before and they clearly signalled the seniority of the ten monks who were going to do the chanting. You can see one of the seats on the right of the picture. On the other hand, the altar was quite unadorned, in contrast to just about everything else.
On Sunday, the cremation ceremony started at 2 p.m. A lot of people were in the temple compound well before that time but others kept arriving for the next hour or so. The ceremony proceeded much as any other Thai Buddhist cremation does, but on a larger scale. If you want to know how a family funeral is conducted, take a look at My Thai Friend where you will find detailed descriptions of the rites over three days.
As with a family funeral, people come to the temple and make an offering at the registration counter. This one was run by officials from the Tetsaban Phana.
Civil servants always wear their full-dress uniform (Prarajatan) and medals together with a black arm-band on an occasion such as this.The Governor of Amnat Charoen Province was presiding over the ceremony. He was sitting in the front row of the furthest marquee on the left, together with the District Officer, the mayors of Tetsaban Phana and Tetsaban Phra Lao and other VIPs. I took this photo from my seat, using a zoom lens. I was way back but cool and shaded under a tree. A lot of people preferred not to sit near me because also under the tree were some empty wheelie bins for rubbish, but they came round to the idea when they realised there was nowhere else available.
There were also a lot of people in white, mostly women. They had taken 8 precepts for the day. The marquee on the right, below, was where the monks were chanting.
The pile of robes were later presented to the monks who chanted by ten people whose names were read out. You may imagine my alarm when I heard my name read out. Nobody had told me this was going to happen. It took me a long time to make my way there, so I offered a set of robes some way down the seniority pecking order. The monk said, "Oooh, good, good! Geng, geng!" They don't normally say anything when an offering is made to them.
The royal flame arrived in a very special vehicle and all the civil servants lined up to form a double reception line. They bowed as it went past, but this dog didn't. He did seem to have had a shampoo for the occasion, though.
Finally, everyone filed up to place a symbolic addition to the funeral pyre. There was a small panic when flames started spreading along the base of the coffin, but then an announcement came over the loudspeaker that this was NOT the start of the cremation and someone extinguished it with a bottle of water.
Before I reached the coffin, the firecrackers were let off. There were 21 of them, befitting his status, I suppose. Mr Ing always supervises the firecrackers and he would be back in the evening to let off fireworks at the end of the mor lam performance.
It took me 30 minutes to shuffle up to the coffin platform, place my offering and leave down one of the two side stairways. For most of the time I was grasped firmly by a person behind me but we were so squashed I couldn't turn fully round to see who it was. When we had escaped the crush I did turn round and was wai-ed and thanked by a lovely little old lady.
It took a full 45 minutes for everyone to complete this ritual. I estimated that there were between 3 - 4,000 people there, and well over a hundred monks.
The whole ceremony had taken just over 3 hours. The longest funeral, and the grandest, I have ever attended.
A very detailed description of the funeral. Over the past few years I have become quite an expert on funeral arrangements and now I am familar with all the rituals.
A recent introduction has been for all the close family family members to line up near the steps to the crematorium and get introduced. The more titles one has, like school teacher, ajarn etc, the prouder the family feels.
I also know how you felt about suddenly being called out to present robes to monks. They never tell you. There you are, in a bit of a dream world, and suddenly your name is called out. Usually done in pairs unless you are giving the most important robes at the end to the abbot. Then it is just yourself. Waking oneself up, you walk to the foot of stairs and climb up the steep steps to the coffin. All very straight forward but it is still a big surprise to get called out.
I do it a lot now because of my titles-Professor Doctor. It really is a bit of a show-off for the family to say that someone of importance is there. These days I make sure that I dress correctly in case I get called up.
Posted by: Michael Hare | 26 January 2010 at 08:45 AM