FUNERAL RITES
Departure of the Soul--Cremation--Amusement of the dead man's
soul--The lay figure--Feasting--Doleful dance--Transmigration of
the soul--Expensive ceremonies--Offerings before the lay
figure--Dancing and contortions--Martial dances--Solo dances--The
animal to be sacrificed and the lay figure--Chasing the animal
from the village--Tearing out its heart--The yak driven over a
precipice--Head shaving--A sacred cave.
THE Shokas ascribe death to the departure of the soul from the body, and
to this notion is due the curious reverence they show for the spirit or
memory of their dead. I witnessed a funeral ceremony quaint enough to
deserve record.
A man had died a painful death, the result of an accident. His friends
were immediately sent for, and the corpse, having been smeared with
butter (_ghi_), was dressed in his best clothes. They bent his body
double before the rigor set in, and placed him on a hurriedly constructed
wooden hearse. He was covered with a blue-and-gold embroidered cloth, and
a white one over it. At sunrise, the funeral procession left the house
for the place of cremation. First came a row of ten women, their heads
covered with a long strip of white cotton cloth, one end of which was
tied to the hearse. Among these were the near relations of the deceased,
including his wife and daughters, crying and wailing the words, "_Oh
bajo! Oh bajo!_" (Oh father! oh father!), the rest of them sobbing and
making great show of grief. The deceased having been somewhat of a
favourite in Garbyang, the villagers turned out in force to render him
this last tribute, and they took their place in the procession as it
slowly wound down the cliff towards the river. The hearse was carried by
two men, and each male Shoka following bore a log or bundle of firewood.
We reached the Kali. The body was temporarily laid on the bank of the
stream, while all the men, with heads uncovered, collected large stones
and pieces of wood. With the stones a circular crematory oven, five feet
high, six feet in diameter, with an opening on the side facing the wind,
was erected by the water-side. The wife and daughters of the departed,
with their hoods turned inside out and with covered faces, squatted down
meanwhile by the hearse, moaning and keeping a small fire alight. When
all preparations were made, the oven being heaped up with logs of wood,
the body was untied from the stretcher and lifted by two intimates of the
departed on to the funeral pile.
[Illustration: WEEPING WOMEN UNDER WHITE CLOTH]
All valuables were removed, his gold earrings, his silver locket and
bracelets; and a large knife was used for some purpose or other which I
could not quite see, except in slitting the lobes of the corpse's ears to
remove his earrings more quickly. Branches of pine-tree were deposited on
the body, and a large pot of butter was set by its side. A brass bowl of
_chökti_ (wine) was poured on the head, and then, in profound silence,
fire was set to the pile.
A few white puffs showed that it had caught fire, and then a dense column
of black smoke rose from it, filling the atmosphere with a sickening
smell of singed hair and burning flesh. The wind blew the smoke towards
me, and I was enveloped in it for some moments, during which I could see
nothing of what was going on, and I felt my eyes smart and my nostrils
fill with the smoke and the stench. Gradually a tall flame, over twenty
feet high, leaked out, consuming the body and showing me, as the
atmosphere cleared, the Shokas down by the river washing their hands and
faces to cleanse themselves of what they look upon as unclean, the
contact with a corpse. Retracing their steps to the village, the women
cried and moaned, carrying back to the house the clothes of the deceased
and his brass bowls.
[Illustration: SHOKA FUNERAL PILE]
[Illustration: WOMEN DUSTING AND CARESSING THE LAY FIGURE]
Reaching home, it was incumbent on them to provide lavishly for the
amusement of the dead man's soul. A lay figure crudely constructed of
straw and sticks was attired by them in the clothes of the departed, and
covered over with Indian fabrics embroidered in gold and red and blue,
and a turban was stuck on the head, with a _panache_ made of a branch of
fir-tree. The _Kalihé_ was at the side of the image. When the fire was
extinguished, a visit was paid to the cremation spot by the relatives of
the deceased, and such pieces of bone as the knee-joints, elbows, and the
larger vertebræ of the spine, usually left undestroyed by the flames,
were collected and deposited inside the clothes of the image. Wheat,
rice, and flour were purchased in large quantities and cooked to provide
food for the multitude of friends who remained the guests of the family
during the whole time of the funeral. A sheep a day is usually killed and
eaten on such occasions, and cask after cask of _chökti_ (wine), _zahn_
(a liquor distilled from barley, rice and wheat), and _anag_ (from
fermented grain of various kinds) are emptied by the mourning crowd. The
women folk of the dead man mourned round the effigy, resting their heads
on it, crying and imploring the beloved one to return to life. Other rows
of women, with their hoods turned inside out in sign of mourning, danced
gracefully in circles round the dressed-up figure, left the house by one
door in the basement, described an arc in the open, and returned by
another door, while men were dancing a doleful dance outside the house.
Beating of drums went on the whole day--languid and sad at moments;
excited, violent and rowdy at others, according to the mood of the
musicians and the quantity of liquor consumed by them. On each day of
these proceedings, which lasted for three or four days, rice, baked
wheat, and wine were placed before the effigy, until, when it was assumed
that the soul of the dead had had a sufficiently amusing time,
arrangements were made for its transmigration from the lay figure into a
live sheep or yak. If the deceased is a man, the animal chosen to
represent him is a male; if a woman, a female; but no ceremony of this
sort follows the cremation of children under ten or twelve. In the case
of the old man whose funeral I witnessed, a sheep was chosen, instead of
the time-hallowed yak, the procuring of which from Tibet used to be a
very costly business. The use of a sheep for these sacrifices is quite a
recent innovation, brought into fashion by the greatest Shoka trader in
Garbyang, called Gobaria, whose intention it was to put down the
unnecessary waste of these ceremonies; but many pious Shokas, I was
assured, are not satisfied with so small an offering as a single sheep,
and slaughter two or even more on these occasions.
[Illustration: WOMEN DANCING ROUND THE LAY FIGURE]
[Illustration: DANCE IN FRONT OF DECEASED MAN'S HOUSE]
After several days' dancing and gorging indoors, a crowd collects, to the
sound of the drums, outside the habitation. The lay figure is from the
room transported either directly outside the dwelling or to some
picturesque spot in the woods. This is generally on the fourth day. Bowls
with food are placed in front of it, and the dancing is begun, to a
curious sentimental strain, with a graceful series of contortions, by
girls and women waving large pieces of white material. The legs keep time
with the arms, and each leg is alternately bent at the knee until it
nearly touches the ground. The head is inclined to the right or left, and
thrown backwards or forwards according to the beating of the drum. The
circular motion in the dancing begins first very slowly, and the speed
then increases by degrees, abruptly ending in odd and suggestive
postures. During the intervals of dancing the relatives go round and
round the lay figure, dusting and fanning it with their white cloths.
[Illustration: THE GOAT WITH SOUL OF DECEASED BEING FED]
In the afternoon the men join the performance, and though their dancing
has practically the same characteristics and motions as the women's
dance, it is usually so much more violent that it almost partakes of the
character of a war-dance. They hold in their right hands a sword, in the
left a circular shield, and some of the younger men show great skill in
the rapid manipulation of their blades, twirling them round their heads
and behind their backs. There are solos, duets and trios, in which the
drummer or drummers take part, and when the dancing is collective, they
head the procession, contorting their bodies and beating their drums with
a stick on one side and the palm of the hand on the other.
[Illustration: GOAT, WITH SOUL AND CLOTHES OF DECEASED]
The whole crowd is constantly regaled by the family with corn baked with
sugar, roasted Indian corn, rice, sweets, _ghur_ and _miseri_, when the
lay figure is supposed to have had its fill. While the mob eat, the
ladies of the house return to the effigy with quick beating of the drums,
and again double themselves up in solemn lengthy curtsies. Perhaps the
most interesting, because the most accomplished, were the solo male
dancers, each performer displaying his own particular genius. The drummer
beats his drum whimsically--fast and slow alternately, with no rule--just
as it pleases his fancy, and the dancer always keeps time with him in
all his frenzies and eccentricities, so that his movements are sometimes
so slow as to be barely noticeable, and at others so rapid that his arms
and legs can no longer be distinguished. I happened to witness no less
than six funerals simultaneously in Garbyang, and a collective war-dance
of as many as three hundred men. It went on during a whole day and the
greater part of the following night, torches and a big bonfire burning.
[Illustration: SENDING THE GOAT AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE]
[Illustration: MARTIAL DANCE ROUND LAY FIGURE]
Eventually, amidst firing of guns, howls, yells and deafening hissing of
the assembled crowd, the animal to be sacrificed is dragged before the
lay figure. Long coloured ribbons are tied round its horns, and the ends
left hanging by the side of its head. Sandal-wood is burnt under the
beast's nostrils, which is supposed to induce the soul of the departed to
enter and establish itself in the animal. The clothes, the turban, the
shield, the jewellery, are torn from the figure's back and piled on to
the goat, which is now the impersonation of the deceased. It is fed until
it can hold no more, wine and liquor being poured down its throat, and
large dishes of all possible delicacies being placed before it. The women
relatives devote to it their tenderest affection, and shed tears over it
in the conviction that it holds the spirit of their lost protector.
Stuffed with food, and stupefied by the alcohol, the beast submits,
emotionless and immovable, to the wild caresses, prayers, and salaams
showered on it. Again the hissing, whistling and yelling begin, and a
rush is made for the animal, which is seized by the horns, the neck, the
tail, wherever it can be caught hold of, and dragged, pushed, beaten, and
at last chased out of the village, but not until after the clothes,
shield, sword, turban, and ornaments have been torn from its back. It is
eventually handed over to the Hunyas or Jumlis or Humlis, who on these
occasions benefit by the simplicity and superstition of the Shokas, and
who throw it down, rip the body open, and pull out the heart, or twist it
in the inside with a jerk that kills instantly. This method applies to
sheep or goat.
[Illustration: TEARING OUT THE HEART OF THE GOAT]
When a yak is sacrificed, very much the same rites take place up to the
moment when the lay figure is deprived of its clothing and the yak
invested with it. It is similarly beaten and dragged about, and left on
the top of some mountain, the crowd calling after it, "Go! go! We have
feasted, fêted and fed you. We have done all in our power for your
welfare. We cannot do more! Go now!" With this the yak, with the soul
that has been driven into it, is left to its own devices, and as soon as
the Shokas have departed, is driven by the Tibetans over a precipice, it
being against their faith to draw blood from a yak. In the fatal leap the
animal is smashed to pieces, and the Tibetans, collecting the remains,
gorge themselves with the prized meat of their cherished yak.
[Illustration: YAK DRIVEN OVER PRECIPICE]
As a mark of reverence the Shoka men remove their caps not only while
following the corpse to cremation, but also during the feasting, the male
relatives themselves even shaving their heads; and this practice is
occasionally extended to the whole male community in the case of a
particularly respected villager dying. The women remove their jewellery,
and, as already noted, turn their hoods inside out.
When all is over, some restitution of his property is made to the dead,
and odd articles, such as brass bowls or a gun or a shield or sword, are
placed in a sacred cave, which none dare desecrate by entering to remove
anything. These caves are high up on the mountain-sides, and are said to
be full of sacred offerings, which have accumulated there in the
centuries.
I expressed the wish to see the cave on the mountain side above Garbyang,
but the natives politely asked me not to do so, as the visit of a
stranger to this sacred spot might bring misfortune on the Shoka living
community. Therefore I abstained from going rather than cause
unpleasantness.