Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China

The centrality of death rituals has rarely been documented in anthropologically informed studies of Buddhism. Bringing together a range of perspectives including ethnographic, textual, historical and theoretically informed accounts, this edited volume presents the diversity of the Buddhist funeral cultures of mainland Southeast Asia and China. While the contributions show that the ideas and ritual practices related to death are continuously transformed in local contexts through political and social changes, they also highlight the continuities of funeral cultures. The studies are based on long-term fieldwork and covering material from Theravāda Buddhism in Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and various regions of Chinese Buddhism, both on the mainland and in the Southeast Asian diasporas. Topics such as bad death, the feeding of ghosts, pollution through death, and the ritual regeneration of life show how Buddhist cultures deal with death as a universal phenomenon of human culture. Cover 1 BUDDHIST FUNERAL CULTURES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND CHINA 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Content 7 Figures 9 Tables 10 Contributers 11 Preface 15 CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Buddhist funeral cultures 17 DEATH AT THE CENTRE OF BUDDHIST CULTURE 17 THE DEAD BETWEEN ‘DOCTRINAL ABSENCE’ AND ‘ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRESENCE’ 19 IMAGINING DEATH AND THE RITUAL PROCESS 21 COMPARISONS, CATEGORIES AND DIFFERENCES 23 THE LOCALISATION OF BUDDHIST FUNERAL CULTURES 25 BAD DEATHS, GHOSTS AND POLLUTION 28 THE MATERIALITY OF FUNERAL CULTURES 30 DEATH AND THE REGENERATION OF LIFE 31 FUTURE RESEARCH PROSPECTS 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY 33 CHAPTER 2 Chanting as ‘bricolage technique’: a comparison of South and Southeast Asian funeral recitation 37 INTRODUCTION 37 CHANTING AS A BRICOLAGE TECHNIQUE 37 Bricolage 39 The toolbox of the performer: canonical and non-canonical chants 39 The toolbox of the researcher: canonical and non-canonical chants 41 THE ELEMENTS OF THE BRICOLAGE 42 The core of a funeral ceremony 42 Preliminaries and honouring of the Triple Gem 42 The offering Of the ‘refuse rag’ (Pansukul) 43 The giving of merit 44 Asking for forgiveness and religious wishes 45 Further elements 47 Abhidhamma chanting 47 Chants of protection – the Paritta sequences 50 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 51 Chanting as bricolage 51 Aspects of ritual performance 53 Some comparisons 54 CONCLUSIONS 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY 70 CHAPTER 3 Weaving life out of death: the craft of the rag robe in Cambodian ritual technology 75 INTRODUCTION 75 PAMSUKULA: THE RAG ROBE 77 The syncretic gift 78 Pamsukula as ritual 79 VITAL, NON-BUDDHIST SPIRITS 81 THE SIMA: ORDERING THE COSMOS 85 AGRICULTURAL FIELDS AND BASES 86 CONCLUSION: RITUAL TECHNOLOGIES AND THE AUTHORITY OF CONQUERING DEATH 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY 92 CHAPTER 4 Corpses and cloth: illustrations of the pamsukula ceremony in Thai manuscripts 95 INTRODUCTION 95 MANUSCRIPTS, MURALS AND FUNERAL CULTURE 96 ILLUSTRATIONS OF PAMSUKULA 98 CHANTING FOR THE DEAD: PAMSUKULA, CREMATION AND CORPSES 102 REPLACEMENT OF THE WHITE CLOTH WITH MONK’S ROBES 104 CONCLUSION 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY 112 CHAPTER 5 good death, bad death and ritual restructurings: the New Year ceremonies of the Phunoy in northern Laos 115 THE PHUNOY: FORMER BUDDHISTS AND RECENT CONVERTS 116 RITUALS FOR GOOD AND BAD DEATH 118 DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS: CHRONOLOGY OF A RITE 120 First day: the building of the phasat and the ‘bringing down’ of the Buddhas 121 Second day: the prayers to the dead in the pagoda 123 Third day: the ‘raising up’ of the Buddhas, ‘dead and born again’ 123 Fourth day: the tributes of the day following the celebrations 126 THE UNION OF THE INSIDE AND THE OUTSIDE: THE RENEWAL OF A PACT 127 CONCLUSION 131 BIBLIOGRAPHY 133 CHAPTER 6 Feeding the dead: ghosts, materiality and merit in a Lao Buddhist festival for the deceased 135 INTRODUCTION: CARING FOR THE DEAD 135 ONTOLOGICAL AND RITUAL FUZZINESS: FEEDING ANCESTORS, PROTECTIVE SPIRITS AND GHOSTS 137 THE PHIPHED AS VISITORS FROM HELL: TEXTUAL BACKGROUNDS OF THE FESTIVAL 143 Touring hell: Moggallāna and Māleyyadevatthera 143 Kinship with strangers: Bimbisara 145 MERIT, MATERIALITY AND FOOD 147 CONCLUSION 152 BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 CHAPTER 7 Funeral rituals, bad death and the protection of social space among the Arakanese (Burma) 158 INTRODUCTION 158 Gama pannat 158 CORPORAL COMPONENTS 159 DEATH IN BUDDHIST SOCIETY 161 FUNERALS (ASUBHA) 163 PLACING THE CORPSE IN THE COFFIN 165 THE DAY OF THE CEMETERY 166 FILLING THE ALMS BOWL 166 SEPARATING THE LIPPRA 167 DEPARTURE TO THE CEMETERY 167 THE PROCESSION 168 THE CEMETERY 168 THE LAST MEAL 169 ELEMENTS OF ANALYSIS 170 TREATMENT OF THE LIPPRA 170 ONLY ONE POSSIBLE WAY 171 ACTION ON KARMA 172 THE INVISIBLE WORLD: RITES OF PROTECTION AND SOCIAL COHESIVENESS 173 TIME AND SPACE 173 SUDDEN OR ‘GREEN’ DEATH 174 SPIRITS OF THE DECEASED 174 FUNERARY RITES IN CASE OF ‘GREEN’ DEATH 175 PURIFICATION RITE 176 THE CEREMONY 176 CONCLUSION 178 BIBLIOGRAPHY 179 CHAPTER 8 Theatre of death and rebirth: monks’ funerals in Burma 181 RITUAL REWRITING OF THE BUDDHIST CANON 181 Temporary substitute for death 181 LULLABIES FOR THE BABY AND LAMENTATIONS FOR THE DEAD 183 SHOWING IMPERMANENCE 185 Act 1: The brother and sister’s dreams 185 Act 2: The minister’s anger 186 Act 3: The fight between the dead monk’s sister and Sakra’s messengers 187 Act 4: The monk’s sister’s resignation 189 ALTERNATION OF SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS FORMS 190 SHOWING REBIRTH 194 Conceptual amalgams 194 Explanatory metaphors 197 Analytical reconstruction 199 REPRESENTATIONS OF SUPERIOR MONKS 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 CHAPTER 9 From bones to ashes: the Teochiu management of bad death in China and overseas 208 INTRODUCTION 208 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PRACTICE OF THE RITUAL IN CHINA 209 THE ADAPTATION TO THE THAI CONTEXT 215 THE AMBIGUITIES OF INTERETHNIC COOPERATION 222 THE MALAY HINDRANCE 224 BUDDHISM AS A CROSS-CULTURAL BRIDGE 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY 230 CHAPTER 10 For Buddhas, families and ghosts: the transformation of the Ghost Festival into a Dharma Assembly in southeast china 233 INTRODUCTION 233 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE GHOST FESTIVAL IN CHINA 234 THE FESTIVAL TODAY 237 Outside the monasteries 238 Inside the monasteries 240 TRANSFORMATION OF THE GHOST FESTIVAL: MODERN MONASTIC CRITICISM AND STATE CONTROL 244 CONCLUSION 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 CHAPTER 11 Xianghua foshi 香花佛事 (incense and flower Buddhist rites): a local Buddhist funeral ritual tradition in southeastern China 254 INTRODUCTION 254 HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS 255 A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF XIANGHUA FOSHI 256 XIANGHUA FOSHI AND XIANGHUA HESHANG (THE CLERICS) 257 XIANGHUA FOSHI TODAY 259 THE RITE OF XIANGHUA FOSHI 260 The classification of ritual sections 261 Ritual sections (1): structural sections 264 Ritual sections (2): sections for the deceased 268 Ritual sections (3): sections for the living 272 CONCLUSION 274 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 LOCAL HISTORIES AND RESOURCES 275 CHAPTER 12 Buddhist passports to the other world: a study of modern and early medieval Chinese Buddhist mortuary documents 277 INTRODUCTION 277 WHY ARE THERE FEW BUDDHIST ELEMENTS IN EARLY TURFAN TOMBS? 280 PASSPORTS TO THE OTHER WORLD 281 Buddhist elements in the first-period Turfan tombs 281 Lady Peng’s tomb 282 Buddhist burial culture 283 The attitude of Buddhism towards indigenous local religious beliefs and mortuary practices 283 The monk’s role in mortuary culture 285 THE SECOND-PERIOD TURFAN TOMB INVENTORY 286 THE PROBLEMS OF THE IDENTITIES OF THE BUDDHIST MONKS IN THE 2A TYPE INVENTORIES 288 Buddhist intervention in the Turfan tomb inventory: participation under a triangular structure of mortuary management 290 Diversity of mortuary management of the Turfan inventory during the second period 291 The examination of the name of the tomb occupant and the identity of the Buddhist monk in the inventories from the four family tombs 292 What do these inconsistencies and absences of essential information about the deceased and the Buddhist monk among the 2a type tomb inventories suggest? 293 CONCLUSION 297 BIBLIOGRAPHY 298 PRIMARY SOURCES 298 SECONDARY SOURCES 299 Index 303 The Centrality Of Death Rituals Has In Anthropologically Informed Studies Of Buddhism Been Little Documented. The Current Volume Brings Together A Range Of Perspectives On Buddhist Death Rituals Including Ethnographic, Textual, Historical And Theoretically Informed Accounts, And Presents The Diversity Of The Buddhist Funeral Cultures Of Mainland Southeast Asia And China. It Arises Out Of The University Of Bristol's Centre For Buddhist Studies Research Project Buddhist Death Rituals In Southeast Asia And China, Funded By The United Kingdom's Arts And Humanities Research Council. This Project Involved Extensive New Research In Thailand, Laos And China. Other Items From That Project Included Several Public Exhibitions, Extensive Stills Photographs, And Several Video Films. The Project-team Produced Two 30 Minutes Films On The Ghost Festival In Laos And China, One On Urban Funerals In Chiang Mai (thailand) And Several Shorter Clips Dealing With Funeral Cultures In Laos, Thailand And China. Most Of This Material (and An Extensive Bibliography On The Topic) Is Available Free Of Charge From The Project Website Located At The Webpage Of The Department Of Theology And Religious Studies (centre For Buddhist Studies) At The University Of Bristol-- 1. Introduction: Buddhist Funeral Cultures / Patrice Ladwig And Paul Williams -- 2. Chanting As 'bricolage Technique': A Comparison Of South And Southeast Asian Funeral Recitation / Rita Langer -- 3. Weaving Life Out Of Death: The Craft Of The Rag Robe In Cambodian Ritual Technology / Erik W. Davis -- 4. Corpses And Cloth: Illustrations Of The Paṃsukũla Ceremony In Thai Manuscripts / M.l. Pattaratorn Chirapravati -- 5. Good Death, Bad Death And Ritual Restructurings: The New Year Ceremonies Of The Phunoy In Northern Laos / Vanina Bouté -- 6. Feeding The Dead: Ghosts, Materiality And Merit In A Lao Buddhist Festival For The Deceased / Patrice Ladwig -- 7. Funeral Rituals, Bad Death And The Protection Of Social Space Among The Arakanese (burma) / Alexandra De Mersan -- 8. Theatre Of Death And Rebirth: Monks' Funerals In Burma / François Robinne -- 9. From Bones To Ashes: The Teochiu Management Of Bad Death In China And Overseas / Bernard Formoso -- 10. For Buddhas, Families And Ghosts: The Transformation Of The Ghost Festival Into A Dharma Assembly In Southeast China / Ingmar Heise -- 11. Xianghua Foshi (incense And Flower Buddhist Rites): A Local Buddhist Funeral Ritual Tradition In Southeastern China / Yik Fai Tam -- 12. Buddhist Passports To The Other World: A Study Of Modern And Early Medieval Chinese Buddhist Mortuary Documents / Frederick Shih-chung Chen. Edited By Paul Williams And Patrice Ladwig. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Machine generated contents note: 1. Buddhist funeral cultures of Southeast Asia and China Patrice Ladwig and Paul Williams; 2. Chanting as 'bricolage technique': a comparison of South and Southeast Asian funeral recitation Rita Langer; 3. Weaving life out of death: the craft of the rag robe in Cambodian ritual technology Erik W. Davis; 4. Corpses and cloth: illustrations of the pasukula ceremony in Thai manuscripts M. L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati; 5. Good death, bad death and ritual restructurings: the New Year ceremonies of the Phunoy in northern Laos Vanina Boute;; 6. Feeding the dead: ghosts, materiality and merit in a Lao Buddhist festival for the deceased Patrice Ladwig; 7. Funeral rituals, bad death and the protection of social space among the Arakanese (Burma) Alexandra de Mersan; 8. Theatre of death and rebirth: monks' funerals in Burma François Robinne; 9. From bones to ashes: the Teochiu management of bad death in China and overseas Bernard Formoso; 10. For Buddhas, families and ghosts: the transformation of the Ghost Festival into a Dharma assembly in southeast China Ingmar Heise; 11. Xianghua foshi (incense and flower Buddhist rites): a local Buddhist funeral ritual tradition in southeastern China Yik Fai Tam; 12. Buddhist passports to the other world: a study of modern and early medieval Chinese Buddhist mortuary documents Frederick Shih-Chung Chen.