A Funeral in July

A Funeral in July

The mother of one of my co-teachers died unexpectedly. A week elapsed between the time of death and the cremation, on a date deemed by the monks to be auspicious. I participated in two mourning rituals, a service at my co-teacher’s home early in the week, and the service on the day of the cremation several days later.

I don’t have pictures from the service at my colleague’s home, thinking it wouldn’t be appropriate to take pictures at such an event. Soon after we arrived at the house, an evening meal was served, good ordinary Thai food, no special funerary foods as far as I could tell. Chairs were set up under an awning. We waited about an hour and a half for the monks to arrive. They chanted, the deceased woman’s husband made some remarks, and the monks chanted some more. Then the monks went inside the house, to the small altar at the end of a large room. Different groups of people went in and came out. I went in with my school principal and a few other colleagues when it was our turn. We kneeled, presented gifts to the monks, and bowed. I can’t remember if they chanted again. Soon after we came out of the room, the service seemed to be over and we went home.

The cremation was on a Thursday afternoon at this small building. It looks like a small temple, which I suppose it is, but it is also a crematorium.

The service was held in this space – I’m not sure what to call it. It’s a large meeting room with windows on three sides.

 The head monk who performed the main chant sat on (not at) the table you see at the front. The other monks (8 of them) sat on the window seat to the right. The vase of paper flowers were an opportunity to give money – you insert a bill into a slit in the flower stem. Again, there was a wait for the monks to arrive. While we waited, a group of musicians played twice – a drum, a trombone, two cornets, and cymbals. The music was loud, cacophonous and so terribly sad that I wanted to cry.

Students from our school were offering glasses of water on trays. Several electric fans were working to move the air, if not cool it. After the monks had finished chanting, there was another wait for the coffin to arrive and be carried up into the crematorium. It arrived on this wagon.

We were all given paper flowers to lay next to the coffin as we filed past. After that, most people left. We waited until we saw the smoke coming out of the chimney.