Although Thai funerals, like most rituals, include fixed practices, they also
allow for some variation. Certain activities can be elaborated or simplified by
a family to reflect their economic status—or their attempts at upward mobility.
In Thai death ritual, more is more. The longer and more costly and elaborate
the funeral, the more the status of the family is raised.
Funerals last for three, five, or seven days and (ideally) take place at
least one hundred or more days after death. Criminals and the very poor are
still cremated within a few days of death. Upon death, a body is usually
embalmed (though not as thoroughly as in the United States) and kept in
either a morgue or at the temple where the funeral will be held. Most temples
have a special building for this purpose, usually called the saalaa saathit,
or “the dwelling hall.” At any given time, this structure (usually one large
room) will contain quite a few coffins awaiting cremation and will usually
be surrounded by flower wreaths, candles, and small offerings from relatives.
Immediately outside the hall is a small area with chairs where family members
and friends can come and listen to monks chant prayers at set times
during the one hundred days. This period leading up to the actual cremation
is a time when friends and family can make merit for the deceased; this
is their final chance to help the dead accrue a little more merit toward his or
her next life.
Keeping the body for more than one hundred days is a sign of status
and affluence, since the family must pay for the privilege of using the saalaa
saathit and for the monks,services. In general, the economics of funerals
112 DEBORAH WONG
seem quite contradictory to anyone except a Thai: the passage from life to
death is marked as much by the display of affluence as by Buddhist ritual.
Funerals are big business, and temples that host many funerals will usually
have a separate office to handle all the details and payments. Any money
paid to the temple, however, is technically regarded as an offering rather
than as the settling of a bill, and families will speak of how they will thawaai
(ritually offer) money to a temple in exchange for the monks,prayers and
sermons. The conflict between doctrinal Buddhism, which forbids monks to
handle money, and temples as profitable businesses is an old one, and it has
been discussed elsewhere;10 the funeral business is but another manifestation
of such contradictions between doctrine and practice.
Any temple with a crematorium will have at least one or two halls (i.e.,
three-walled rooms with adjacent sitting areas) next to the crematory tower
itself. Temples that have made a business of funerals can have anywhere
from five to over thirty such halls surrounding the crematorium. Inside each
hall is a small platform for the coffin and a long raised area where monks sit
to chant. Depending on the number of guests and wreaths expected, the
chosen hall can be either cramped or quite spacious, and its rental price
depends on its size as well as on extra services such as additional flower
arrangements and so forth. Busy temples must schedule funerals very carefully,
and it is not unusual for several funerals to be going on at once, or for
a particular hall to be booked with two funerals back to back.
When a death occurs, family members decide on a particular wat for the
funeral events, and this decision may be based on any number of factors,
such as the proximity of a wat to their home, cost, whether or not the family
has connections with the military or police (discussed below), and the family^
perceived status. Almost immediately, they must contact the wat and
make a number of arrangements. Wats that host lots of funerals have a special
office just for this purpose, usually in the area of the funeral halls; here
the family schedules the many events that make up an entire funeral, from
monks,chanted-prayer sessions to the cremation itself. They also choose the
type of coffin, the hall size (i.e., they must decide how many guests will
attend), the flower arrangements, the food and drinks for attending guests,
and so on. Some wats have a book of sample photographs for the family to
peruse, showing different kinds of coffins and flower arrangements. Every
decision—whether the guests will be offered weak tea or soda to drink,
whether the coffin will be rather plain or elaborately carved and painted,
etc.—affects the total cost of the funeral, and wats usually have all of this
available in itemized form. Funerals are about money, and each decision not
only affects the total cost, but makes statements about the family’s (and the
deceased’s) wealth and status.
MON MUSIC FOR THAI DEATHS 113
When all of this has been arranged, the coffin sits within the chosen hall
for the entire three, five, or seven days of the funeral. The coffin is usually
unattended except during the evenings, when the family members co