How Sinhala Buddhists Cope with Death: Funeral Ceremony as Mother/Social Worker, Community Worker, Psychologist, Psychiatrist and Spiritual Guide

In Buddhism, as practiced in Sri Lanka in its earliest form, religion has no place at events marking the stages of life – birth of a child (with no practice similar to baptism), puberty of a girl (koñahalu mangula) (a particularity of Sinhala Buddhism, with no similar event for boys), or marriage, each of them celebrated as a civil affair. When it comes to death, however, Buddhism comes to be involved heavily, the presence of monks, at home, or at the burial grounds, being the norm. Indeed this is one of the key occasions when the Buddha’s Teachings come to be personalized for the masses. First, it is of relevance and benefit to both the deceased and the survivors. Both aspects of death — the message of impermanence, and the opportunity to help the departed loved one — find expression in the Buddhist funeral ceremony. For the deceased, it marks the moment when the transition begins to a new mode of existence within the round of rebirths. For the living, death is a powerful reminder of the Buddha’s teaching on impermanence. It also provides an opportunity to assist the deceased person as he or she fares on to the new existence. But it also an opportunity to gain a little more maturity regarding life and death. This is a study in Oral History. The methodology thus used is that of participant observation. But it is more than the dualistic paradigm of a researcher doing research on subjects. The author of the paper is both researcher and among the researched. So his role may be said to be that of participant observer. While the paper is indeed a reporting of research findings, it is not merely that. The paper ends in a critical analysis. To that extent the author may be characterized as a developmental participant observer. The subject of how Buddhists cope with death come from his personal experience in relation to his father’s death, but yet it is an objective study of the ritual of the funeral ceremony. Methodologically speaking again, the paper may then be seen as one that bridges the cold academy with warm field work and between researcher and the researched. To the extent that the paper is in oral history, there is little theory building, and references to other academic studies. But the framework of the paper is no less analytical and theoretical. If the photos included in this essay may be seen to take away from the aura of academicity, it may be seen as adding colour and brightness to academic writing