Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China

Cambridge University Press, 4/26/2012
EAN 9781107003880, ISBN10: 1107003881

Hardcover, 312 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English

The centrality of death rituals has rarely been documented in anthropologically informed studies of Buddhism. Bringing together a range of perspectives including ethnographic, textual, historical and theoretically informed accounts, this edited volume presents the diversity of the Buddhist funeral cultures of mainland Southeast Asia and China. While the contributions show that the ideas and ritual practices related to death are continuously transformed in local contexts through political and social changes, they also highlight the continuities of funeral cultures. The studies are based on long-term fieldwork and covering material from Theravāda Buddhism in Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and various regions of Chinese Buddhism, both on the mainland and in the Southeast Asian diasporas. Topics such as bad death, the feeding of ghosts, pollution through death, and the ritual regeneration of life show how Buddhist cultures deal with death as a universal phenomenon of human culture.

1. Buddhist funeral cultures of Southeast Asia and China Patrice Ladwig and Paul Williams
2. Chanting as 'bricolage technique'
a comparison of South and Southeast Asian funeral recitation Rita Langer
3. Weaving life out of death
the craft of the rag robe in Cambodian ritual technology Erik W. Davis
4. Corpses and cloth
illustrations of the pasukūla ceremony in Thai manuscripts M. L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati
5. Good death, bad death and ritual restructurings
the New Year ceremonies of the Phunoy in northern Laos Vanina Bouté
6. Feeding the dead
ghosts, materiality and merit in a Lao Buddhist festival for the deceased Patrice Ladwig
7. Funeral rituals, bad death and the protection of social space among the Arakanese (Burma) Alexandra de Mersan
8. Theatre of death and rebirth
monks' funerals in Burma François Robinne
9. From bones to ashes
the Teochiu management of bad death in China and overseas Bernard Formoso
10. For Buddhas, families and ghosts
the transformation of the Ghost Festival into a Dharma assembly in southeast China Ingmar Heise
11. Xianghua foshi (incense and flower Buddhist rites)
a local Buddhist funeral ritual tradition in southeastern China Yik Fai Tam
12. Buddhist passports to the other world
a study of modern and early medieval Chinese Buddhist mortuary documents Frederick Shih-Chung Chen.