Outdoor Cremation

Post by **parrot** » August 15, 2015, 1:44 am

Soon after we arrived in Udon in 1996, we attended a funeral where the body was cremated on a pile of logs outdoors. That was a pretty good way to Thai culture......a hot, sweaty day....body taken out of the coffin and placed on top of the funeral pyre. After the family made paid their final respects to the deceased, a few quarts of kerosene were spread over the logs and a large tire......and off he went.
We attended another such funeral about 10 years ago......in a small rice-farming village near SakhonNakhon.

I'm surprised that such funerals still take place......in the latest case, in Tak Bai in far south Thailand. Ten people died when a bus (probably a songteaw) carrying university students and others careened into a tree on the side of the highway. A single funeral was held for the 7 students......outdoor style. Over 1000 people attended the funeral service.

I'm not a fan of attending funerals......but despite attending many many many since we've lived in Thailand, I usually learn something new about Thai culture each time I attend one.
http://www.thairath.co.th/content/518331

Post by **Shado** » August 15, 2015, 7:00 am

Agree that attending one of the outside cremations is certainly an experience. One of the first funerals I attended in Thailand was for my wife's aunt. The pyre location was at a little used pavilion set way back off the road. You had to know how to find it. It obviously wasn't used too often. It this particular case the local wat crematories were already scheduled for ceremonies and the outside funeral pyre was a result of too many folks needing cremating at the same time.

Post by **pf-flyer** » August 15, 2015, 7:03 am

When my wifes uncle died in 1973 I attended the funeral with my wife and when it came time to do the cremation they carried his body for several kilometers thru the dense woods to the land that he owned and built a pile of logs and put the body on top and cremated him in a similar fashion. The tradition is that the Monk is cremated on the temple grounds. The temple in our village does not have a cremation furnace so they built a structure of cement blocks and filled it with charcoal and set the coffin on top and after the ceremony that soaked everything with kerosene and lit the fire. I also learn something new every day in the Thai culture.

[img][attachment=0]Funreral for a Monk.jpg[/attachment][/img]