Funeral Traditions around the World
Funeral memorials may seem predictable, at least from an American perspective. Here in the U.S., planning a funeral involves finding a suitable church or other location, writing a eulogy, inviting guests and selecting a funeral plot, among other common practices.
Around the world, however, funeral planning varies widely, as do with the traditions attached to funeral memorials. Here’s a look at three different international approaches to planning a funeral:
Sky Burial in Tibet
Tibetans assign little importance to a dead body; they see it as nothing more than an empty vessel. Tibetan Buddhism teaches that humans are reborn dozens of times on their way to enlightenment. Once the soul has left the body, Tibetans attach no significance to the remaining flesh, beyond its reminder of the impermanence of life. Looked at from this perspective, their tradition of “Jhator” is an act of compassion for nearby wildlife. (For years, the Chinese did not have the same understanding of Jhator funeral memorials – they banned the practice from the 1960s until the 1980s.)
In a Jhator ceremony, a body breaker, called a “rogyopa,” takes apart the body so it may be consumed by nearby wildlife, most often birds of prey. (Literally, Jhator translates to “alms for the birds.”) The rogyopa cuts the body in certain places and leaves it on a mountaintop, far away from areas occupied by humans. In addition to supporting Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, the Jhator tradition may have come about for purely practical reasons; Tibet’s high-mountain soil is too hard for a traditional burial, and because much of the country is above the tree line, there is rarely enough vegetation to fuel a cremation.
Here in the United States, environmental advocates recommend a somewhat similar form of funeral memorials: green burials. In a green burial, the body is wrapped in biodegradable cloth, such as linen, and simply placed in the ground to return to nature.
Fire Burial in Bali
On the Indonesian island of Bali, funeral planning means following a variation of the Hindu burial ceremony, “Antyesti.” First, the body is cleaned. To communicate the person’s death, the Balinese light lanterns along the pathway to the home of the deceased. The body is placed on a table, along with food to sustain the soul on its journey to the afterlife.
Following this ceremony, the Balinese engage in a unique form of funeral planning: To preserve resources, they hold bodies in mass graves until there are enough for a mass cremation. Once this is the case, the bodies are dug up and cleaned. The entire village decorates a huge float to contain the deceased. This flower-adorned float is the central point of a procession through the village to the main square, where the cremation takes place. Finally, the Balinese send positive funeral messages for loved ones by partaking in an enormous feast to celebrate and remember the dead.
Again, American funeral planning has a similar tradition: cremation. Today, around thirty percent of all Americans are cremated.
Cave Burial in Hawaii
Hawaii doesn’t have much space for cemetery grounds, so traditional Hawaiian culture dictates that funeral memorials should be kept in a different subterranean location: caves. Maui’s coast in particular still contains many such burial caves. In his 1915 publication The Natural History of Hawaii, William Alanson Bryson describes Hawaiians’ funeral memorials as nighttime affairs, in which bodies were tied into a fetal position and hidden in caves to prevent their bones from being used for arrow points and fishing hooks. Hawaiian kings’ remains were treated slightly differently; the bones considered most important, such as the skull, leg and arm bones, were wrapped in kapa, or bark cloth made of the mulberry tree. This bundle was then tied with a cord and hidden in the most remote, secret caves.
How we honor our dead speaks volumes about who we are. Around the world, people of different cultures take numerous approaches to funeral planning, but they have one thing in common: They all aim to send loving, respectful funeral messages for loved ones.
[ photo by: leadfoot ]
Tags: funeral memorials, funeral messages for loved one, funeral planning, planning a funeral