Thai Buddhist Funeral

More than one week ago now, one of my colleges unfortunately deceased after a one month stay at the hospital where she was treated for leukaemia.
She was only 28 years old and apparently knew about her sickness since high school. But still she decided to study 5 years of architecture and started working full-time after that. She never told anyone anything, which is understandable, so we were pretty surprised to hear about it.

It is a moment I would certainly not like to experience again, but nonetheless, living in such a different culture, it was for me interesting to see how Thais handle such kinds of moments.

She died in the morning at the hospital. At 9.30 am everybody in the office knew about it. The first step of the ceremony would take place on the same day at 4pm, this is why the news needs to spread very quickly in order to gather a maximum of persons. And I was truly amazed of how fast news can reach all the people she knew. Cell phones must probably be a good tool in this case, but I do not know how people were so efficiently informed before.

At 4pm thus, we were about a hundred to have reached the hospital for the bathing ceremony. A golden bowl full of scented water lies next to the corpse facing its family. The attendants are waiting their turn to poor some of the water on a hand of the deceased. No one was able to tell me why exactly they proceed like this, except that it is part of their tradition, but I understand it is supposed to bring good to the deceased in her next life. Indeed, Buddhists believe in reincarnation. The more good you do during your current life, the better the next one will be, until you reach the Nirvana, moment of inexistence. If you get bad luck in your current life, it means you are paying back for what you have done in the previous one.

The bathing ceremony is of course also the occasion to express sorrow to the present family.
The body was then placed into a coffin, which, unfortunately, had to be put in the back of a pick up as it was going back to her village in the north of Thailand, near Chiang Mai. A regular hearse would not be able to pass the mountains on the way.

I was pretty surprised to see how very few people cried. “Men don’t cry”, said another college. The scenery was completely different from a western funeral only by seeing people still smiling. We know the Thai smile and its 20 different meanings, but people, especially the family, seemed to handle the event with a lot of calm and serenity.

I could not follow the following ceremonies until the actual cremation as it happened in the north, but I tried to collect some information about it.
Every night until the night after the cremation, neighbours and relatives can come by at the house of the family to express sorrow and to distract them from loneliness and the fear of spirits by playing music or just holding company.
Meanwhile, as many monks as the family can afford will come and chant (or pray) around the coffin. The family will offer them food as part of the merit-making for the deceased.
This usually takes 3 days, but it can last for more, for example for such important personalities as the King’s sister for whom it lasted 9 months.

The coffin will than leave the house, for the final cremation preceded by the monks. Friends and relatives accompanying are actually engaged in a meritorious act by doing so. The coffin will than be placed facing the monks who will chant for the last time, before being placed on a pyre. Anyone can then light the fire by bringing candles, torches or incense. At this moment the spirit will leave the earth for good. The more he will have had the benefit of religious ceremonies the more his status will improve.
In the end, the ashes will be collected in an urn to be kept in some sort of cemetery or spread in the sea or on the fields.

I couldn’t see all this, but as it is important for Thais to participate to these kinds of merit-making ceremonies, the boss of our office organized one in a wat (temple) for the people of the office who wanted to attend.
We were many to participate in offering food to the monks of a wat nearby the office. They were 27 to then chant for the deceased. As you can hear it on the videos of the post: “bénédiction de nos nouveaux bureaux” (septembre), it is quite enchanting.

Sylvie

H1N1: ca ne rigole pas en Thailande…

A moins que le belge ait bien changé en 10 mois (oui oui déjà 10 mois que l’on est ici), j’ai du mal à m’imaginer que de grandes mesures de précautions ont été prises en Belgique contre la grippe H1N1.

En Thailande, fort de leur expérience/traumatisme de la grippe aviaire, des mesures de précautions émergent un peu partout. Tout a commencé il y a plusieurs semaines quand dans beaucoup de toilettes, des affiches ont été placées expliquant clairement a quelles occasions il faut se lever les mains (en gros quasi tout le temps), comment il faut se laver les mains, etc.
Début juin, a l’arrivée a l’aéroport de Bangkok après un court passage a Paris/Bruxelles, j’ai constaté que tout le monde devait passer des détecteurs de chaleurs. L’objectif étant d’identifier quels passagers avaient de la fièvre et devaient entrer en quarantaine.

Petit a petit on a vu des gens se balader en rue avec des masques protectifs. Pour aller en vacances en Indonésie, nous avons pris l’avion mais n’étions pas tous assis ensemble. J’avais deux thaïs comme voisins (des danseurs de salsa thaïs qui partaient en Indonésie pour une compétition de danse) qui, une fois assis à cote de moi, se sont laves les mains avec un gel spécial et ont ensuite mis un masque protectif. Je crois qu’ils ont vu à ma tête que je trouvais cela étonnant….ils se sont empressés de s’excuser pour leur comportement «nothing to do with you but with the flu… ».

Le week-end dernier, nous avons fait des courses dans un grand shopping mall. A chaque étage et a chaque arrivée d’escalateur il y a des gels spéciaux (qui ne demandent pas d’eau) pour se laver les mains et énormément de gens s’appliquent.

Depuis peu, il y a de plus en plus de gens contaminés en Thaïlande (enfin ca reste relatif, 3.000 cas et 14 morts sur 60 millions d’habitants) et le gouvernement a lancé la distribution de millions de masques, a ordonné la fermeture des écoles pour une semaine, a lancé la fabrication de millions de doses antivirales, etc.

Au bureau, mes collègues thaïs portent de plus en plus de masques et on commence à en distribuer dans les bureaux. Bref, les mesures de précautions augmentent de jours en jours et cela a bien entendu un effet sur nous…

Christophe

Voyage Indonésie

Louis et Véro nous ont fait le plaisir de nous rejoindre fin juin et nous sommes de suite partis ensemble sur l’Indonésie. Superbe pays de plus de 13000 îles dont on en a vu … 2 …
Mais pas les moins intéressantes: Java et Bali.
Ces îles semblent avoir peu en commun si ce n’est qu’un passé récent sous un régime Hollandais.

Bali est majoritairement Hindouïste et Java musulmane. La religion seule déjà différencie énormément ces 2 îles, tellement elle est omniprésente. Les Hindouïstes de Bali vivent au ritme des rites pour lesquels il leur arrive d’épargner toute leur vie et les Musulmans de Java vivent au ritme des appels à la prière (debout à 4h du mat’!).

Voici quelques photos de notre voyage en Indonésie prises par nous 4 pour que vous puissiez voir les merveilles qu’on peut y admirer.