A Buddhist Principles Analysis and Funeral Traditions of Raman People in Koh Kret, Nonthaburi

Abstract

This thesis contained 3 objectives; 1) to survey the funeral ritual in Buddha’s time, 2) to illustrate the funeral of Raman Kohkret, Nonthaburi, 3) to analyze the Buddhist morale and belief in funeral ritual of Raman Kohkret, Nonthaburi province. It was qualitative research. From study, it was found that Thai Mon people who lived in Kohkret area, strictly followed their custom and disciplines especially the funeral ritual performance. There are two classifications of death; 1) regular death, and 2) irregular death. For first type of death, there are three steps of ritual, i.e., death informing to public, corpse bathing, corpse dressing, bringing the ripe areca-nut and coins in the dead’s mouth, betel leaf covering, funeral tying, funeral burial, casket removal, death carrying and hauling, burial, arrangement for cremation, cremation with a fire cloth throwing ceremony, returning from cremation site, ashes collecting, sending functional Bhikkhus. The irregular death is detailed in different from regular one, i.e., the quick burial without any merit performance by offering food for Bhikkhus, which will be arranged after 7 days, giving the raw food, the corpse unearth for burning must not be less than 3 years, except the corpse with contagious disease will not be cremated.