_SIAMESE CUSTOMS FOR THE DYING AND DEAD._
When a Buddhist prince or princess is at the point of death, the
attendants, wishing to give the departing spirit as good a passport
into the spirit-world as possible, suspend every other care and
address themselves to the work of fixing the thoughts of the dying one
upon Buddha. To accomplish this they take turns in enunciating as
clearly as possible the name of Buddha generally employed when in
health――_P’ra Arahang_.
Whenever the writer has been present at the death of an adult member
of the royal family, this has been the name used. It is uttered as
often as eight or ten times in a minute. This is done, hoping that the
departed spirit will thus be helped to think of Buddha, and that that
will accumulate a large fund of merit to his credit which will become
of vast service to him in the spirit-world. It would seem to be a
service having much the same object as that of the “_extreme unction_”
of the Roman Catholics. It is continued from ten to fifteen minutes
after the pulse has stopped its beating and the lungs their heaving,
even until the body is cold and stiff in death.
When all evidence of hearing is gone the attending friends will raise
their voices almost to a stunning pitch, hoping that they may force
the departing spirit to hear the name of _P’ra Arahang_. When the most
loving friends have ceased to have any lingering hope that the dead
can hear them longer, then the continuous and deafening sounds of
_P’ra Arahang_ are exchanged for the most uncontrollable wailings,
which are so loud that they can be heard at a great distance. Then all
members of the family, including the slaves in the house within
hearing, join in a general outburst of crying and sobbing.
When a prince of high rank has just died, other princes, nobles and
lords, in the order of their rank, step up one by one and pour a
dipper of water upon the corpse. Certain officials in the household
dress the body for a sitting posture in a pair of tightly-fitting
short pantaloons and jacket, and over these a winding sheet wrapped
around the body as firmly as possible. Thus prepared, the corpse is
placed in a copper urn with an iron grating for its bottom, and this
is put into one made of fine gold, with an outlet at the most pendent
point, and a stopcock from which the fluid parts of the body are daily
drawn off until it becomes quite dry. The golden urn is then placed on
an elevated platform, while conch-shell blowers and trumpeters and
pipers perform their several parts with the greatest possible harmony
of such instruments. This act is called _Ch’on p’ra sop K’u’n p’ra
taan_――literally, an invitation to the corpse to be seated on the
platform.
When thus seated all the insignia of royalty which the prince was wont
to have about him in life are arranged in due order at his feet――viz.
his golden betel-box, his cigar-case, his golden spittoon, his writing
apparatus, etc. The band of musicians now perform a funeral dirge; and
they assemble daily at early dawn, at noon and at nightfall to perform
in concert with a company of mourning women who bewail the dead and
chant his virtues. In the intervals a company of Buddhist priests,
four at a time, sitting on the floor a little distant from the
platform, recite moral lessons and chant incantations in the Pali,
with loud, clear, musical intonations.
This service is continued day and night, with only the intervals for
the performance of the dirges and mourning women, and a few minutes
each hour as the four priests retire and another four come in and take
their place. This is kept up from week to week and month to month
until the time appointed for burning the corpse has arrived, which may
be from two to six or even eight months. The remains of a king are
usually kept from eight to twelve months. (In the present case the
remains have been kept seventeen months.)
In event of the death of a king his successor immediately begins
preparations for the _P’ramene_, which is the splendid temporary
building under which the body is to sit in state several days on a
throne glittering with silver, gold and precious stones, and then and
there to be committed to the flames.
The building is intended to be in size and grandeur according to the
estimation in which the deceased was held. Royal orders are forthwith
sent to the governors of four different provinces far away to the
north, in which large timber abounds, requiring each of these to
furnish one of the four large logs for the centre pillars of the
_P’ramene_. These must be of the finest timber, usually the oil tree,
very straight, two hundred feet long and proportionately large in
circumference, which the writer has observed to be not less than
twelve feet. There are always twelve other pillars, a little smaller
in size, demanded at the same time from governors of other provinces,
as also much other timber needful in the erection of the _P’ramene_
and the numerous buildings connected with it.
[Illustration: CREMATION TEMPLE: A TEMPORARY BUILDING.]
As sacred custom will not tolerate the use of pillars that have been
used on any former occasion, new ones must be obtained for the funeral
obsequies of each king. These four large pillars are very difficult to
find, and can be floated down to the capital only at seasons of the
year when the rivers where they are found are full. They are hauled to
the banks of the streams by elephants and buffaloes. The great
difficulty of procuring these pillars is one main cause of the usual
long delay of the funeral burning of a king. When brought to the city
they are hauled up to the place of the _P’ramene_ chiefly by the
muscular power of men working by means of a rude windlass and rollers
under the logs. They are then hewed and planed a little――just enough
to remove all crooks and other deformities――and finished off in a
cylindrical form. Then they are planted in the ground thirty feet
deep, one at each corner of a square not less than one hundred and
sixty feet in circumference. When in their proper place they stand
leaning a little toward each other, so that they describe the form of
a four-sided, truncated pyramid from one hundred and fifty to one
hundred and eighty feet high. On the top of these is framed a
pagoda-formed spire, adding from fifty to sixty more feet to the
height of the structure. This upper part is octagonal, and so covered
with yellow tin sheets and tinseled paper as to make a grand
appearance at such a height, but it would not well bear close
inspection.
Surrounding the _P’ramene_ there is a new bamboo fence ten feet high,
enclosing a square of more than two acres, with a gate midway on three
sides. On the inside of this fence are numberless bamboo buildings,
fantastically painted and papered, for the accommodation of the
priests and nobles, one side of the square being chiefly occupied with
buildings for the king’s own accommodation while attending the
ceremonies of the royal cremation. These are distinguished from all
others by having their roofs covered with crimson cloth, the peculiar
horn-like projections at the two ends of their ridges, and by the
golden drapery suspended in front and tastefully gathered up to the
several posts of the hall.
The whole area is neatly covered with bamboo wickerwork, the slats of
which the woof and warp are made being more than an inch wide, forming
thus one unbroken bamboo carpet, giving great elasticity to the steps
of all who walk upon it.
There are placed here and there upon this bamboo floor multitudes of
standards peculiar to the Siamese. Some are like the _Sawe-krachat_,
or royal umbrella of several stories high. Some of them are with
machinery exhibiting a variety of little paper figures in perpetual
action, imaging angels or devils. Here and there you will see a niche
with rude landscape views of the lower series of the Buddhists’
celestial worlds and of princely dwellings there, with delightful
pools and groves and many other sensual luxuries which a heathen mind
fancies a heaven of happiness must give its inhabitants.
Outside of the bamboo fence are buildings for the accommodation of
officers of the government and others who cannot find room within the
enclosure. There are also numerous playhouses for theatrical and
puppet-shows, masquerades, wire-dancing, etc., and, more interesting
to many, the great victualing establishment for all classes above the
vulgar, presenting a large variety of dishes and fruits, well prepared
and tempting to the appetite, all freely offered without price at all
hours of the day.
Thus much of a bird’s-eye view of what may be termed the mere shell of
the _P’ramene_.
The real _P’ramene_ is erected in the centre of the whole, in the
great hall directly under the loftiest spire, and in the centre of
this stands the _P’ra Bencha_, or throne, on which the royal urn is
placed in state. This is a splendid eight-sided pyramid, fifty or
sixty feet in circumference, its base on a floor twenty feet above the
ground. It diminishes by right-angled gradations upward some thirty
feet to a truncated top, and on its top is placed the golden urn
containing the remains of the late king most superbly decorated with
gold, diamonds and other precious stones. Some ten or fifteen feet
above this is suspended from the lofty ceiling a rich golden canopy,
and far up above that is a white circular awning overshadowing the
whole. Immediately under the golden canopy hang the sweetest and
whitest flowers arranged in the form of a large chandelier.
The _Pra Bencha_ is made brilliant by the skillful arrangement on its
several steps of the most showy articles of porcelain, glass,
alabaster, silver and gold artificial flowers and fruits intermixed
with real fruits, little images of birds, beasts, men, women,
children, angels, etc.
For illuminating the hall splendid chandeliers are suspended from the
four corners of the ceiling, assisted by innumerable lesser lights on
the angular gradations of the pyramid.
At the time of placing the royal remains in state on that lofty throne
nearly all the princes, chief nobles and officials in the kingdom
assemble just after the break of day to escort “the sacred corpse” to
its last earthly throne on the summit of the new _P’ramene_.
The golden urn is placed upon a high golden seat in a kind of
Juggernaut car drawn by a pair of horses assisted by hundreds of men.
This vehicle is preceded by two other wheel carriages, the first
occupied solely by the high priest of the kingdom, sitting on a high
seat, reading a sacred book of moral lessons in Pali called
_App’it’am_. The second carriage is occupied by a few of the most
favored children of the deceased. A strip of silver cloth is attached
to the urn and loosely extends to the two front carriages. This forms
the mystical union between the corpse, the sacred book and their royal
highnesses. The carriage behind the one bearing the royal urn carries
some fifty or sixty sticks of imported fragrant wood, richly gilded at
the ends, with which the body is to be burned. Each of these carriages
is drawn by a pair of horses, with scores of men to assist, all
pulling at a rope in front of the beasts.
Figures of elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, tigers and fabulous
animals, all made of bamboo wickerwork and having on their backs large
receptacles for priests’ robes, are drawn on small wooden wheels. In
front and in the rear hundreds of men dressed in white, with
pagoda-form white turbans eight or ten inches tall, purporting to be
angels, walk four abreast and carry glass imitation lotus-flowers.
The moment the procession begins to move the shells, trumpets and
pipes are sounded and the death-drums are beaten with a slow, measured
stroke until the royal hearse reaches the _P’ramene_. By ropes and
pulleys the urn is drawn slowly up with much ceremony and placed on
the splendid throne, to remain in state at least seven days before
burning, the strip of silver cloth extending from the lid of the urn
down the eastern and western sides of the pyramid nearly to the flight
of steps on the east and west sides of the building.
Then the chief priests of the city and from nearly all other parts of
the kingdom begin to assemble, a hundred or more at a time, on the
floor of the _P’ramene_ in sight of the holy urn, and rehearse in
concert lessons in Pali called _P’ang-soo-koon_, which are in
substance reflections on the brevity and uncertainty of human life,
the certainty of death and transmigration, the sorrows connected with
every state of mutability and the blessings of Nipan, where there can
be no more change. Having uttered audibly these short lessons, they
continue in a sitting posture, with downcast looks, a few minutes,
reflecting silently on the condition of the living and the dead, and
then retire, giving place to another hundred or more to recite the
same lessons. Thus they come and go until thousands of the chief
priests and others of lower rank have had the honor; and this is
repeated every day while the corpse sits in state and for three days
afterward.
All the princes and nobles and royal servants are dressed in white.
Every Siamese subject, noble or plebeian, man and woman, bond and
free, must then out of respect for the dead have his head entirely
shaven.
The multitudes of priests are sumptuously fed from the royal bounty
early every morning, and again before noon. Yellow robes are prepared
for them at the expense of the king’s private purse. To every chief
priest he gives a complete suit, and to every other priest some
important part of a suit, if not the whole. Besides the yellow robes,
the king has also in readiness vast provisions of bedsteads, fully
furnished with mosquito-bars, mattresses, pillows, towels, spittoons,
betel-boxes, cigar-cases, rice-kettles, lacquered trays, lamps,
candles, boats with little houses on them, and other articles which
the priests need in their daily calling. These articles he distributes
to them every day.
Another performance, usually more exciting than all the rest, is the
daily scattering of money broadcast among the thousands that have
assembled there for the sport. The king takes personally a very lively
part in it. The money and jewelry are usually imbedded in little green
limes or small balls of wood, to prevent them from getting lost among
the crowd. His Majesty, standing in his temporary palace-door, having
bushels of limes at his feet, each charged with one piece of money,
taking up a handful at a time, throws them, often so guiding his hand
as that some peculiar favorite shall have the best chance in the
game――some corpulent prince whom he wishes to set into ludicrous
motion by his efforts to catch the flying prize. To show proper
respect, every one, whether prince or prime minister or consul or
missionary, must exert himself to catch His Majesty’s gifts while
flying, and must go down on all fours grabbing after them at the feet
of the multitude if they happen to fall there. He manifestly enjoys
the sport, often laughing most heartily at the sight of the jumping,
scrambling and groveling eagerness of his lords to obtain the limes.
Sometimes the limes are hung on artificial trees called _ton
Kappapruk_――literally, “trees that gratified the desires of men.” They
are intended to represent the four trees that are to be found in each
of the four corners of the city in which the next Buddha is to be
born, and which will bear not only money, but seri-leaf, betel-nut,
oranges, clothing, gold, diamonds――in short, everything else that man
shall need for his comfort under his reign.
Four men ascend the mound in which these trees are planted to pluck
the fruit by handfuls and cast them to crowds of men who stand as
compacted as it would seem possible for them to live. Every throw is
instantly followed by a universal shout from the multitude and a rush
for the prize. And then they surge hither and thither like a forest
swayed by a mighty wind. The writer thinks he has seen ten thousand
men engaged at one time in this kind of sport. It takes but about
fifteen minutes to pluck all the fruit from these trees, and then the
game is over. It is a rare thing for a man to catch more than two or
three limes.
Still another mode of dispensing the royal gifts on such occasions is
to divide them into lots, with a slip of palm-leaf attached to each
lot and a copy of each on another slip, which, being rolled up or put
into the wooden ball or lime, is thrown out by the king to his favored
audience. He sometimes adopts a similar mode in dispensing his favors
to companies of the chief priests, taking care, of course, that only
such things as are suitable for priests are put into such lots.
Sundry Chinese, Malay and Siamese dramas and shadow-scenes are played,
and at early candlelight the _P’ramene_ is most brilliantly
illuminated within and without. About eight or nine o’clock in the
evening the fireworks are sent off, being occasionally ignited by the
king himself. You first hear the crackling of the matches, then you
see the sulphuric fire and smoke running up tall bamboo poles and
extending out into branches. Presently a dozen tall trees of fire
throw an intense light over all the premises. These quickly burn out,
and another flash brings into view beautiful fire-shrubbery. In a
minute or two they blossom roses, dahlias, oleanders and other flowers
of all hues, and the most beautiful, continually changing their colors
like the chameleon until they all fade out into darkness. You are
startled by the report of rockets sent up from various places in rapid
succession, a hundred or more, showing that the Siamese are not far
behind the times in this art. Immediately after this you will hear a
terrible roaring like the bellowing of a dozen elephants, with an
occasional crash like the bursting of a small engine-boiler. They are
the fireworks called _Chang rawng_, which means “bellowing elephants.”
Suddenly innumerable fire-birds begin chirping, buzzing, hopping and
flying in all directions. Some ascend high in the air and burst with a
small spluttering report. Mimic volcanic eruptions, attended with jets
of ignited sulphur and iron, ascending like waterspouts and falling in
showers of red-hot lava, are kept going until fifty or more have been
fired.
Before the burning of the body the golden urn containing the corpse is
removed from the top of the _Pra Bencha_, and the copper urn taken
out. This has an iron grating at the bottom overlaid with spices and
fragrant powders. All the precious articles with which the pyramid was
decorated are temporarily removed from it, and some eight or ten feet
of the upper part of it taken down to form a place of suitable
dimensions for the burning. Then the fragrant wood is laid in order in
cross layers on the platform, having a bellows attached to the pile.
Precious spices and fragrant articles, many in kind, are put among the
wood. A gunpowder match is laid from a certain part of the hall set
apart for the seat of the king, reaching to a spot made particularly
combustible in the pile of wood. These changes are made with
surprising rapidity.
All being ready, the king takes electric fire――which had been
preserved for such purposes for a long time――and touches it to the end
of the match at his feet. This kindles a flame in the midst of the
wood. Immediately the next in rank among the princes steps up and lays
his large wax candle, lighted from a lamp burning in the same
lightning fire, among the wood or on the top of it as seems to him
most convenient. The next prince in order of rank does the same, and
all the nobles and lords lay their wax candles among the wood. The
rank-order is soon lost in the hurry of the many who wish to
contribute their candles before it shall be too late. Hundreds of wax
candles, great and small, are laid on the wood ere the burning has
advanced too far to admit any more.
To prevent the flames from becoming too intense for the safety of the
_P’ramene_ and its appendages, strong men armed with long-handled
dippers are dashing water whenever and wherever required; there are
others armed with iron pokers, whose business it is to stir the fire
occasionally. The moment the wood is fired the funeral bands strike up
their dirges and the company of mourning women set up their wailing.
This continues only a few minutes. The time occupied in the burning is
not more than one hour.
[Illustration: TOMB OF A BONZE.]
The fire is extinguished before all the bones have been reduced to
ashes. A few of the remaining coals of the bones are carefully
collected and deposited in a neat and very precious gold urn. By the
time this is done the sun is set, and the _P’ramene_ is left in a
despoiled state until next morning. Nevertheless, the hall is lighted
and all the usual exercises go on through the night as before. Early
the next morning the _Pra Bencha_ pyramid is restored to its original
splendor and the little golden urn of precious coal is placed on its
summit.
All the ashes left by the burning are put in clean white muslin and
laid in a golden platter. They are then ceremoniously carried in state
to the royal landing, and, escorted by a procession of state barges,
attended by the funeral bands, carried down the river about a mile and
there committed to its waters.
The funeral obsequies of a king are continued three days after the
burning, and the ceremonies are almost the same as those in
anticipation of it until the last day. On that day a royal procession
is formed, somewhat like that of the first day, to bear the charred
remains in the little golden urn to a sacred depository of such relics
of the kings of Siam within the royal palace. Very soon after this the
servants of the king gather up all the articles which it is customary
to preserve for future funeral occasions――viz. the permanent gold and
silver stands, the golden canopy and the ornaments of the pyramid. But
the timber of which the _P’ramene_ and its appendages are made is
taken down and converted to other uses, usually the building of
Buddhist temples.[1]
FUNERALS AMONG THE PEOPLE.
These very costly funerals of the royal family and nobility are not
possible, of course, among the common people. The priests, however,
are generally sent for to attend the dying, and when there sprinkle
the suffering one with holy water, recite passages from their sacred
books and pronounce the name of Buddha repeatedly.
After death there is a season of weeping and wailing by the family,
and the body is then washed and wrapped tightly in white cloth. An urn
or wooden coffin covered with gilt paper and decorated with tinsel
flowers is brought, and the body placed therein.
Among the people the corpse is not kept long in the dwelling, and
instances have been known where the dying one was removed outside on
account of the superstitious fears of the family.
When the coffin is carried off, it is not through a door or window,
but a hole is cut in the bamboo wall, and sometimes the bearers run
around the house two or three times, lest the spirit should find its
way back and haunt the premises.
The cremation takes place in some temple-ground where there is a
permanent _P’ramene_. But occasionally the dying “make merit” by
bequeathing their dead body to the vultures. In such cases the flesh
is cut off with a knife and fed to these birds of prey, which haunt
the burning-localities in great numbers, and the bones only are
burned. Paupers and criminals are thus fed to the vultures or burned
without ceremony. All persons struck dead by lightning or carried off
suddenly by small-pox or cholera are first buried for some months, and
then dug up and burned.
The funerals of the wealthy last several days, and are connected with
feasting, fireworks and theatrical displays. The garb of mourning in
Siam is white, not black, and is accompanied with shaving of the heads
of all the immediate family and their servants.
CREMATION AT BEJREPUREE OF A MAN IN THE MIDDLE WALKS OF LIFE.
[From the _Bangkok Recorder_, May, 1866.]
The corpse was first to be offered to the vultures, a hundred or more.
Before the coffin was opened the filthy and horrible gang had
assembled, “for wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles
[vultures] be gathered together.” They were perched on the ridges of
the temple, and even on small trees and bushes within a few feet of
the body; and so greedy were they that the sexton and his assistants
had to beat them off many times before the coffin could be opened.
They seemed to know that there would be but a mouthful for each if
divided among them all, and that packs of greedy dogs were also in
waiting for their share.
The body was taken from the coffin and laid on a pile of wood that had
been prepared on a small temporary altar. Then the birds were allowed
to descend upon the corpse and tear it as they liked. For a while it
was quite hidden in the rush. But each bird, grabbing its part with
bill and claws, spread its wings and mounted to some quiet place to
eat.
The sexton seemed to think that he too was “making merit” by cutting
off parts of the body and throwing them to the hungry dogs, as the
dying man had done in bequeathing his body to these carrion-feeders.
The birds, not satisfied with what they got from the altar, came down
and quarreled with the curs for their share.
While this was going on the mourners stood waiting, with wax candles
and incense-sticks, to pay their last tribute of respect to the
deceased, by assisting in the burning of the bones after the vultures
and dogs had stripped them. The sexton, with the assistance of
another, gathered up the skeleton and put it back into the coffin,
which was lifted by four men and carried around the funeral pile three
times.
It was then laid on the pile of wood, and a few sticks were put into
the coffin to aid in burning the bones. Then a lighted torch was
applied to the pile, and the relatives and other mourners advanced and
laid each a wax candle by the torch. Others brought incense and cast
it on the pile.
The vultures, having had but a scanty breakfast, lingered about the
place until the fire had left nothing more for them, when they shook
their ugly heads, and, hopping a few steps to get up a momentum,
flapped their harpy wings and flew away.