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.