Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth

Contemporary Sri Lankan Practice and Its Origins

Rita Langer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781134158720
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhismus

In Buddhist thought and practice, death has always been a central concept. This book provides a careful and thorough analysis of the rituals and social customs surrounding death in the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka.

Rita Langer describes the rituals of death and rebirth and investigates their ancient origins, analyzing social issues of the relationship between monks and lay people in this context. This aspect is of particular interest as death rituals are the only life cycle ritual in which Theravada Buddhist monks are actively involved. Drawing on early Vedic sutras and Pali texts as well as archaeological and epigraphical material, Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth establishes that Sri Lankan rituals are deeply rooted in their pre-Buddhist, Vedic precursors. Whilst beliefs and doctrines have undergone considerable changes over the centuries, it becomes evident that the underlying practices have largely remained stable.

The first comprehensive study of death rituals in Theravada Buddhist practice, this is an important contribution to the fields of Buddhist studies, indology, anthropology and religious studies.

II
THE FUNERAL

Contemporary Sri Lankan practice

A laywoman’s burial

1. At about 10.00 a.m. a group of six people start out from the village. Near the station we buy milk powder and sugar. A short train ride is followed by a longer bus and three-wheeler ride. White flags along the roadside signal the way to the funeral house.¹ A white poster across the road states in large letters: ’All conditioned things have the nature of decay’.² More white posters and rows of metal chairs are in the front garden.³ Metal posts covered with a roof of corrugated iron provide shade. A group of men are sitting there, chatting and chewing betel.⁴ The men wear white sarongs and white shirts. Our arrival arouses a certain amount of interest. Women in white sarees come closer to watch us. The immediate family lines up in front of the house to greet us formally. The dead woman’s daughter and son-in-law are in their seventies. The daughter gives a brief account of the death of her mother. We are told the mother was about 94. We enter the front room, which is bare of all furniture. In the centre is a wooden coffin, folded open.⁵ An awning has been put up over it. The deceased is dressed all in white, her hands folded over her chest. Arching over the coffin are two enormous, artificial elephant tusks. At the head end a tall oil lamp is burning. We spend a few minutes in silence in the front room. Then we move on to the adjoining kitchen where women are gathered. The presents of milk powder and sugar are placed on the kitchen table.⁶ A door leads to the garden behind the house. Fields with trees slope down. The house is small; the walls have never been plastered. Only extended family and close friends are present. The dead mother came originally from our village. Apart from the daughter there are several sons in their late sixties. The granddaughters walk around with trays of fizzy orange drinks.

2. It is nearly noon. Preparations start in the courtyard behind the house. Men build an awning as protection from the sun. Women bring out utensils for cooking. Jobs are allocated and a certain amount of light-hearted banter accompanies the work. Enormous pumpkins and an impressive quantity of beans are washed. The women cut the pumpkins up, sitting on the floor, holding long knives between their toes. Big slabs of dried fish are washed and cut. Bowls of red lentils must be picked through for small stones.⁷ Men prepare small fireplaces made out of bricks. Soon there is the smell of spices being roasted and ground. Women take turns scraping out coconuts. More and more huge clay pots turn up and get filled.

At lunchtime a break is announced and men and women walk over to the neighbours’ house. The house is bigger and comfortably furnished. The funeral party is welcomed by the neighbours. Most of the surrounding houses belong to the extended family. A lunch has been prepared and the variety of dishes is great. People sit down wherever there is space and eat together. After lunch everyone walks back to the funeral house. Work is resumed with more concentration and less banter. Behind the house the actual cooking starts. The front of the house is being prepared for the monks’ arrival. A white cloth is tied underneath the corrugated iron roof. A floor mat is spread out under the roof. Four metal chairs are covered with white cloth. They are put on the mat facing the house. To the side, a small table is set up and covered with a tablecloth. Four bottles of fizzy orange and a parcel wrapped in a brown paper bag are placed on it. A tray with betel leaves and other utensils is arranged. In front of the chairs a rug is rolled out. In the meantime the place starts to fill up. The immediate family straighten their sarees and sarongs. The newcomers are mainly outsiders or remote relations. By about 3.00 p.m., a crowd of approximately one hundred people has gathered. Elderly people wear the traditional Sri Lankan formal clothes in white.

3. At about 3.45 p.m., four monks arrive in a van.⁸ People move closer and stop chatting. The monks approach the house, the most senior first. One by one they step onto a coconut mat in front of the house. A male family member squats down in front of them. He pours water from a plastic bowl over their feet and pats them dry with a towel. They take their seats on the four arranged chairs. The family kneels down in front of each monk to pay their respects. The rest of us remain standing. Inside the house the coffin is now closed. Six men lift it up and move near the door. The exact time to carry the coffin out of the house has been determined astrologically. Someone checks his watch and signals that it is the right time. The coffin is carried over the threshold and put down on the stand outside. The monks are facing the closed coffin and the house. On the other side of the coffin a floor mat is being spread out. The immediate family sits down. A jug with water and an empty bowl is put in front of them. The layman who conducts the funeral proceedings greets the monks and visitors.⁹ The ceremony proper starts and people sit down on the floor. The salutation to the Buddha is chanted, followed by the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts. The abbot of the local temple says a few words. Instructed by him the daughter kneels down in front of the monks. She offers the brown parcel containing a white piece of cloth. While she is doing this everyone chants together three times:

imaṃ matakavatthaṃ bhikkhusaṃghassa dema!

We offer the ‘cloth of the dead’ to the community of monks!

This is followed by:

tambūlagilānapaccayadānaṃ bhikkhusaṃghassa dema!

We offer this gift of betel and refreshments to the community of monks!

Immediately afterwards the monks chant twice in a sombre voice:

aniccā vata saṃkhārā uppādavayadhammino

uppajitvā nirujjhanti tesaṃ vūpasamo sukho.¹⁰
Impermanent are conditioned things; it is their nature to arise and fall;
having arisen they cease; their complete stilling is happiness.

The abbot, the most senior monk present, dedicates the merit to the dead mother. He instructs the relatives to pour the water into the bowl. The family members take hold of the jug and start pouring very slowly. The abbot chants; everyone repeats after him:

Idaṃ me ñūtīnaṃ hotu! Sukhitū hontu ñūtayo!¹¹

May this be for my relatives! May the relatives be happy!

The family continues to pour the water. All four monks chant together:

Yathā vārivahā pūrā paripūrenti sāgaraṃ,
evam eva ito dinnaṃ petānaṃ upakappati.
Unname udakaṃ vaṭṭaṃ yathā ninnaṃ pavattati,
evam eva ito dinnaṃ petānaṃ upakappati.¹²

Just as the rivers full of water fill the ocean full,
even so does what is given here benefit the dead.
Just as water rained on high ground moves [down] to the low land,
even so does what is given here benefit the dead.

The bowl begins to overflow. The monks continue the chanting:

Icchitaṃ patthitam tuyhaṃ sabbaṃ eva samijjhatu,
pūrentu cittasaṃkappā maṇi jotiraso yathā.
(repeated and followed by:)
Icchita patthitam tuyha khippa eva samijjhatu,
sabbe pErentu cittasa|kappA cando paṇṇaraso yathā.

May all whatever is desired and wanted quickly come to be.

May all your wishes be fulfilled like a radiant wish-fulfilling gem.

May all whatever is desired and wanted quickly come to be.

May all your wishes be fulfilled like the moon on the full moon day.

Everyone says, ‘Sādhu! sādhu! sādhu!’ The abbot begins the sermon. A quotation from the Pāli scriptures provides the theme for his talk. The concluding part consists of religious wishes. ‘By the force of this merit may the next rebirths be good ones! May Nirvāṇa be attained!’ The dead mother and all who are present are included. Everyone says, ‘Sādhu! sādhu! sādhu!’ The funeral conductor conveys everyone’s gratitude. Permission is given to the monks to leave. The brown paper bag and the four bottles of fizzy orange are packed into the waiting van. The monks leave at about 4.30 p.m. The funeral conductor introduces various speakers next. About six to eight people give short speeches. They are friends and colleagues of family members. At the end the dates of the two follow-up ceremonies are announced: the sixth-day preaching and the seventh-day alms giving. For a brief moment the coffin is opened. The granddaughters start weeping. People jostle closer to take a look. It is the final farewell for the women. The daughter touches her dead mother’s face lightly.

The coffin is closed and the bearers swiftly carry it away.¹³ A white parasol is held over it. Grains of puffed rice are thrown. Only men walk in the procession; the women and some men stay back. Two men make preparations in the deserted front room. A small fireplace is built out of bricks on the floor. The fire is lit. A new clay pot is filled with milk. The milk is brought to the boil. It overflows and spills onto the floor. A sprig from a lime tree lies nearby. Very little attention is paid to the proceedings.¹⁴ The women have gone back to the courtyard. Banana leaves are cut into circular ‘plates’ and washed. The funeral meal requires the finishing touches.

4. The distance from the funeral house to the cemetery is about one kilometre. The country road to the cemetery is marked with white flags. At the entrance to the cemetery an arch has been erected. A poster like the one at the entrance to the funeral house hangs from it. A path is marked by a fence made of young coconut leafs. It leads to the open grave where the gravediggers are waiting. The coffin is carried clockwise around the open grave three times. The procession follows still holding the white parasol and throwing puffed rice. The coffin is placed alongside the open grave, head to the west.¹⁵ Once more it is opened. The white tassles are hanging down into the open grave. The sun is very low now, the shadows are long. Men pay their last respects in silence. One of them addresses the group, ‘If anyone has anything to say he should speak now.’ Everyone remains silent. The coffin is closed for the last time and lowered into the open grave. Two of the gravediggers stand in the open grave and receive the coffin. After they have climbed out people start throwing handfuls of earth on to the coffin. The gravediggers finish off with spades, forming a mound.

Decorations are being cut from the flowers of young coconuts. Two king coconuts are cut open. One of the gravediggers jokingly takes a sip before placing them at the head and foot of the mound. Two oil lamps are lit and placed in protective bamboo pipes on the grave. People leave the cemetery collecting the white flag sticks on their way to the house. Sunset is close. Back at the funeral house a small table has been prepared in front of the house. Bottles of liquor, soft drinks and biscuits are arranged, all covered with a table cloth. This is the gravediggers’ ‘payment’. The women begin to serve the funeral meal on the banana leaves. Some people start eating; others discuss transport arrangements. As dusk is brief people are anxious to be on their way before dark.

A monk’s cremation

1. For days death notices at the station had announced the time and date of the cremation. They show a picture of the dead monk, the abbot of a temple in a neighbouring village. At about 2.00 p.m. we walk into town to the level crossing. A number of three-wheelers race along the main road, each of them taking two or three monks to the temple. Orange flags along the roadside mark the way over a little river and through the paddy fields.¹⁶ Turning off the main road we pass small groups of people heading for the temple. Hundreds of flag bands across the road have turned the lane into an orange arcade. The entrance to the temple premises is marked by a tall orange gate. At the top is written ‘All conditioned things are impermanent’. Before we go to the temple we turn right into the playing-field nearby.

At the far end, the funeral pyre has been erected in the east-west direction.¹⁷ Four layers give it a stepped pyramid shape. It is made out of wooden poles and orange fabric. Each layer is decorated with a curtain and has tassles at all four corners. It looks surprisingly solid and resembles a temple. We cross the field to take a closer look. No one is near the pyre.¹⁸ There is an opening of about a square metre at the west end covered with a curtain. A fence surrounds the pyre leaving a gap where the opening is. Eight silverpainted clay pots are placed upside down on the poles of the fence.¹⁹ At the other end of the playing-field a stand for the coffin has been put up. It is covered down to the ground with a red cloth. At both sides mats are spread out on the floor. There is a sun roof made of corrugated iron on metal poles. A white cloth has been tied underneath. It is decorated with strips of orange plastic. At the west side is a wooden lectern with a number of microphones. Big loudspeakers look down on the place from lamp posts.

About 150 to 200 metal chairs have been arranged in an L-shape around the stand for the coffin. They, too, are under corrugated iron sun roofs. We turn back and enter the temple premises. There are a great number of posters (printed on orange and white cloth). The temple is relatively large with a temple school for monks (pirivena) attached.²⁰ A big crowd of about 300 to 400 hundred people has gathered. Groups of monks in orange robes mix with groups of laypeople in white. The wooden coffin is already closed when we arrive. Two monks sit near the coffin.²¹ The slight delay of the proceedings is due to the fact that some monks from Kandy have not yet arrived. Upon their arrival a processions begins to form.²²

2. Young men smartly dressed in white trousers and shirts walk in front. They wear orange sashes over their shoulder and carry long poles with a round-shaped disc at the top.²³ Two groups of six are walking in single file. A senior monk holding a fan and a picture of the dead abbot leads the procession. He, too, has an orange sash added to his robes and a strip of cloth serves as a belt. He is followed by six laymen carrying the coffin. An orange canopy is held over it and puffed rice is thrown all along the way. The monk walks very slowly on long strips of white cloth spread out in front of him. A number of young men behind the coffin collect the cloth. They rush to the front of the procession and skilfully throw it to their colleagues in front who spread it out again. Their sarongs are tied up, they are sweating. The coffin bearers are careful not to step on the white cloth between them.²⁴ The most senior monks are the first to follow the coffin; then come the junior monks.²⁵ The older laypeople, dressed in formal white sarees and sarongs, walk behind the monks. Some people walk alongside the procession; others join up after it has passed.²⁶

Very slowly the orange and white procession starts to move clockwise around the temple. After the third circumambulation it leaves the temple premises. The entrance to the sch...