50 Days

It was not the most auspicious way to begin a holiday trip, but my mom's first day in Thailand coincided with the merit ceremony for Nuch's father to recognize the passing of 50 days since his death.


This is a video of the monks chanting.

100 Days

Nuch's father's cremation has been set for April 29th - almost 5 months after his passing. The reason for the long wait is the availability of Princess Prathep who will preside over the ceremony, as is tradition for Thai National Artists.

In the meantime, his body is kept at the local temple.

Every 50 days, it's required to make merit where donations are made, and 10 monks chant a prayer to ensure his spirit remains at peace while he awaits the final stage of his funeral.

This past weekend was the marking of 100 days. Here's Nuch's mother paying her respect before the ceremony starts.


Nuch's brother, Pat, and the Thai equivalent of the funeral home director lighting candles to start the ceremony.


Pat and two of Nuch's cousins making donations.

The ceremony is pleasant and peaceful, as everyone comes together to share in K. Manit's memory and wishes him a safe journey on to his next destination.

These four Buddha fans (not sure what else to call them) remind us of the ultimate truth. There is - No Return, No Awakening, No Recovery, No Escape - from death...

but the Buddha has a loophole called "Chat Na". Otherwise known as the next life or reincarnation.

Cremation Ceremony

On April 28th, Nuch's father's body was prepared for its final day and the Royal Cremation ceremony. As a Thai National Artist, his cremation would be sponsored and presided over by a member of the royal family. In his case, it would be the very popular Princess, Prathep.

Here are some pictures from the April 29th, the day of the cremation.

This is what I would call the cremation altar. The coffin was placed here during the final ceremony, where people would say there last good-byes and make an offering of incense, candles, and flowers. The ceremony would be completed when the Princess lit the funeral pyre and the body and coffin would be moved to the crematorium behind the altar.



Earlier in the day and before the coffin was moved to the cremation altar, monks chanted and prayed for Nuch's father. These monks have a specially designed "monk fan" that shows they are Royal monks, which is a big deal.

Nuch and her cousin praying.

The 3 monks on the left are from the local temple, while the guy on the right is from the Royal temple. You can tell by his more elaborate "fan".

In between prayers, the monks take a break to have a breakfast that has been donated. Once again, you can see the royal monks with their specially decorated "fans".

After the morning prayers, the monks get up to leave. The monk on the right, who is smiling, is the head monk for this temple.

Later in the afternoon, the coffin is moved from the sanctuary to the cremation altar. I swear these guys almost dropped it. I didn't get a good picture, but because the cremation was sponsored by the Royal family an army of government officials was available for everything from moving coffins, serving drinks, and security. They even had three groups of laborers who each had their specific responsibility -one for taking care of the flowers, one for sweeping, and one for picking up trash. They consisted of about 15 people each and they all had different colored shirts. And to be sure, the sweepers never touched the trash and the trash picker uppers never touched a broom. All in all there were about 150 laborers and government officials on hand throughout the day, who spent 95% of their time looking for shade. I have no idea how Thailand can still have a problem with unemployment.

Once the coffin was placed securely on the cart, there was a small parade that went around the cremation altar 3 times counter clockwise. In Thai it's called "Ca-bu-wan Hae". Someone once asked me what the English word for Ca-bu-wan Hae is. Ca-bu-an is simply - Parade. The only word similar to Hae is a group of words or simply put "around a temple 3 times counter-clockwise".

When Nuch told that the Princess would be attending the cremation, I remember thinking to myself - what about the trash, traffic, and dogs? As I mentioned, an army of laborers were there to clean things up. Before the Princess arrived the police shut down all the roads leading to the temple, and to get rid of the herd of stray dogs that can be found in every temple throughout the country, the Royal dog catchers were set to work - to the utter enjoyment of some local kids (and myself).

This guy is trying to corner a black dog against a fence, while another guy is cutting off the flank.

Got one.

It didn't take long for the dogs to figure out what was going on, as one by one there friends started to disappear. This was the last dog standing.

With the dogs in the pound, the trash picked up, and the roads cleared it was time for the Princess to arrive and the ceremony to begin.

Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed while the Princess was present. However, I did get a picture of her personal Air Con units set up next her temporary throne chair that looked over the temple grounds. It's good to be the Princess.

Here's another picture of the cremation altar.

In another post I have a video of the ceremony from the Thai Royal new channel. Here is the chimney from the crematorium.

Here's a picture of Nuch and some co workers taken after the ceremony.

I was a little concerned about the dogs who were caught - would it be there last day on earth, as well. Fortunately for them, they were released after the Princess left. Here's a little guy enjoying his new lease on life.

Ashes To Ashes

The day after the cremation, I came back to the temple with Nuch, Pi Pat, and Nuch's mom to collect the ashes and the urn.



When we arrived, the royal monks were ready and waiting. Here is one of the monks collecting a saffron robe that we had donated. Of course, this is all new to me and although I knew why we were there, I had no idea what would happen or what we were expected to do. I was a little suspicious of the small bump in the cloth laid out on the cremation altar, where we were placing the donated robes.

When the cloth was removed, I was not too surprised to find Nuch's fathers bones lying beneath. That they were laid out in the shape of a body kinda caught me off guard. Apparently, this is the tradition.

While the monks chanted, we were asked to cleanse the bones by pouring scented water and spreading flower petals. Small coins were also mixed in and placed among the bone remnants.

Then, some pieces of bone from each of the body parts were taken and washed in small bowl. They were then placed in a ceramic urn.

The remains that were not put into the small urn were placed into a larger urn and then wrapped in a white cloth. Here's the government officials helping out again.



Once this was done, we walked across to the adjacent sanctuary where the two urns were placed in front of Nuch's father's picture. The large urn will be released into the Chao Phraya river during a ceremony next week. The smaller urn was placed inside a Buddha statue at another temple that is close to Nuch's house. His remains will be kept next to his parents remains - also in the same Buddha statue.


Here is Nuch, her brother, and her mother making Holy Water (not sure how else to describe it) while the monks are chanting.

After that we took the urns home with us, where they were kept in the Buddha image room over night.

Final Resting Place

This morning, we took the smaller of the two urns to Wat Mali, the family temple around the corner from Nuch's home. This urn, although smaller, is decorated and something that a tourist may buy by mistake thinking it's an oriental candy jar. The larger urn is a nondescript earthen pot.


The ceremony to place the urn inside the its final resting place began with some prayers and chants by four monks.




Here is the head monk handing the urn to Nuch and her mother. He is also the guy who married Nuch and I.


The would be placed inside the base of this Buddha statue. Normally, urns are placed in the walls of the temple or in miniature Chedis, but because Nuch's father's family is close to the monks here, they are allowed this special location.


On the base of the statue there's one piece of granite that can be removed so you can access the inside. Here is Nuch and her mother preparing the urn to be put inside.

One last prayer.

and then the monks said good bye.

To complete the ceremony this gold statue was placed on top of the granite cover to protect all who enter.