Buddhist funerals

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Buddhist Funeral

By Alexandra Hebden

AO1- Describe a Buddhist funeral and ways in which the mourning period might be observed.

Funerals vary from culture to culture; some are simple and quite, whilst others are loud including party’s, celebrating life and death. However for Buddhist a funeral is usually a simple and private affair. There are many different types of Buddhist communities, and each one holds a different type of funeral, from a cremation, to a ‘sky burial’. Some of the main Buddhist communities are the Theravada Buddhists, the Tibetan Buddhists and the Mahayana Buddhists, each of them holding a different style of ceremony.

The Theravada Buddhists who mainly live in Thailand, encourage a dying person to read or chant passages from the Suttas, they do this to try and improve their Karma as they are very close to the time of their re-birth. After the death, the relatives, pour water over a hand of their dead family member, the body is then placed in a coffin. However he or she is not then just shut away in the dark, the body is surrounded by lights and incense, and sometimes passages from the Abhidhamma will be read over the body, by Bhikkus’s.

Traditionally the bodies are cremated, as was the Buddha. In Theravada Buddhist communities the cremation usually takes place about three days after the death, until his point the body lays in the home, visited by friends and family, and then at night some one would watch over the body. On the day of the funeral, the body is carried by the community elders, and Bhikkus, at the place of cremation the Bhikkus chant passages from the Suttas as the coffin is being placed upon a pyre, the mourners then light a fire under it, they usually then throw incense into the flame.

The Tibetan Buddhists traditionally read the Bardo Thodol to the dying to prepare them

for the passage into their next life. Monks carry on saying the Bardo Thodol for 49 days after the death to help the Anatta on its way. In the Tibetan Buddhists views they traditionally cremate the body of the dead like the Theravada Buddhists, however as the Tibetan Buddhists are based in countries with usually scarce amounts of fuel, and wood so the body is given a ‘Sky Burial’.

Three days after the death, the body is washed and put into the foetal position ...