[kj] Funeral pyre

[Rob Moss]

Two and a half Pete?

Nice insight to the culture. 
Hope all is well



On 3 Jul 2012, at 14:21, F Luke <fluke1 at live.co.uk> wrote:


> Went to a local funeral last week, gfs Dad died (its OK, im not looking for any sympathy replies).Got a phone call that he had died, so myself, the gf and her sister jumped in a car and went up to the village, a small village near Laos and Myanmar, got there and went into the house ands the coffin was in the front room and they took the lid off to have a look ,  the funeral was in three days time and the coffin was staying in the living room until then, we were staying in the adjoining room. Over the next few days, various people came to pay their respects, each removing the lid ans having a look.Monks came around and sang a few songs.

>   The day of the funeral arrived and more monks came and chanted, lifted the lid off again and tied some string to his wrists, carried to coffin toa truck, loaded it on the back and we all walked ahead of the truck pulling the string, the coffin was then unloaded to the pyre, where the lid was once again removed and family members poured a flammable liquid onto the body, making sure that it went into his mouth and that the eye sockets were full. The lid was replaced and wholes were made in the lid and more flammable liquid was poured in.

>   We stood back . Monks began chanting and it was ignited. We stood and watched it burn, then went back to the house where Monk threw Holy water over us, to make sure we didnt bring any ghosts back with us.

>   Three days later, we went back to the pyre, it was still very hot. We were there to retrieve any bones. We searched around the ashes looking for teeth and bones, removing them and placing them on a White sheet, I found a large bone and showed my gf, "Thats a good bit"She said "What bit is it" She asked. "I dont know" I said, so we asked the Monk.He studied it andsaid that it was a thigh bone. She was searching for teeth , its supposed to be good luck if you find someones teeth and keep them on your person.

>   I thought that it was going to be really gruesome, but it wasnt . It all seemed quite natural.

> I'd never seen a corpse untill this year, and now I ve seen two and a half corpses already this year

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