Buddhism: Rituals of Death & Mourning (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (8062))

Ceremonies and Rituals Associated With Death & Mourning

How Buddhist Beliefs About Death Affect Funerals

• Buddhism teaches that when a Buddhist dies, their kammic energy leaves their body and is reborn in a new one

• Death therefore is not seen as an end, only a transition from one form to another

• Although Buddhists will naturally grieve the loss of people they loved, they also keep in mind what the Buddha taught about impermanence being a natural part of life:

  • Funerals are a valuable reminder of this teaching of impermanence

  • Nothing lasts, and people suffer less if they are able to accept this fact

• Funeral customs differ between the various Buddhist traditions and from one country to the next:

  • Some funerals may be noisy and elaborate, while others are simple and calm

Theravada Funerals

• In Theravada communities, very little money is usually spent on a funeral:

  • Instead the family and friends may donate to a worthy cause and transfer the merit to the deceased

• Rituals that transfer merit to the deceased may be performed by family members or other mourners:

  • For example, they might offer cloth to make new robes to a senior monk of a nearby monastery on behalf of the deceased person

• A shrine may display a portrait of the deceased person

• This will be accompanied by:

  • Offerings to the Buddha of candles, incense and flowers

  • An image of the Buddha, which is usually placed beside or in front of the shrine

• Monks often attend a funeral of a lay person:

  • They may give a sermon and perform Buddhist rites before the casket is sealed

• The deceased may be cremated or buried, although cremation is traditional and more common.

• A funeral procession is held where family members may walk behind the hearse (burial car)

• All mourners send good thoughts to the family and think about the impermanence of life

Buddhist monks at a Theravada funeral

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Monks hold a coffin at a Theravada Buddhist funeral in Thailand

Funerals in Tibet

• There are slightly different funeral practices in Tibetan Buddhism

• One traditional funeral practice is sky burial in which the body is left in a high place as a gift to the vultures:

  • This tradition developed for practical reasons: because the country was short of firewood and often too frozen for grave-digging

• Now it is more common to burn the body instead

• Revered teachers have always been cremated

• Their remains are placed in a Stupa to become a site of worship

• Whenever anyone dies, people hold ceremonies involving prayers and offerings of yak-butter lamps every seven days for 49 days after the death

Funerals in Japan

• In Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, the coffin may be placed with the head pointing west

• People at the funeral chant the name of Amitabha Buddha as they process around the coffin

• It is common in a Japanese funeral for relations to gather after the cremation and pick out the bones from the ashes using chopsticks

• Like funerals in Tibet, the remains may be kept for 49 days and prayers offered every seventh day