From the birth unit,i was curious to find out about the birth rituals in India which i found intriguing, so i decide to look in the death rituals in India as well to compare and contrast them as well. In the United States we do the dominant social practices such as cremation and funeral burials. The cremation rate in the U.S is about 37% and the cremation rates in India are 48%. The way that India care for the dead is much different than our typical funeral burial. In the culture of Hinduism, most of the body are cremation that is why the percentage is much higher the U.S. Young children and saints are buried because they are considered pure. They believe that cremation allows the body to leave the body and move unto the next chapter in life. These rituals happen most of time either dusk or dawn. When these cremations are happen they usually happen around the time after the death or as soon as possible.
The process of the funeral ritual is called Antyeshti. After the death/funeral of their loved one, they mourn for another thirteen days. In the process of mourning the family not considered pure. They do not eat certain foods and attend certain religion occasions. In the shraddha ceremony, is a ceremony specifically for male only. " It is intended to nourish, protect, and support the spirits of the dead in their pilgrimage from the lower to higher realms, preceding their reincarnation and reappearance on Earth."
The main part of the ceremony is when they bath the body,dressed in fresh cloth, and bedecked with flowers. This reminds me of the home funerals that we saw in the movie because every person that we saw being buried the family members had dressed them and put lots of flowers around in their casket. After fixing their physical appearances, the Hindus put drops of Ganges water in the person's mouth which comes from the river. They then carry the body to where it will be cremated by doing call and response chanting and singing. The eldest son of the family or oldest child then lights the funeral pyre where the body is burned. To renounce their life it is important to crack the skull so that the soul can move on to the next life. At the end of the ceremony a priest or family member recite something from the scripture in memory of the person who is deceased. ""As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones."After three days have passed the eldest son then picks up the ashes and puts them into the Gange river or any other sacred river.
The 3rd, 5th, 7th or 9th day after the death of the person are important, as all relatives gather to have a meal of the decease's favorite foods. A small amount of the food is offered before their photo and later, it is ceremonially left at an abandoned place, along with a lit diya. The overall message of their ceremony is to show reverence to a deceased person. The death rituals have been increasing from the last year.
In the Hindu culture, they will bring their sick loved ones home with them to die peacefully instead of hospitals. It is Hindu custom for the family to build a shelter and perform a fire ritual (homa) in order to bless nine brass pots and one clay pot. In absence of a shelter a fire is made at home. Relating back to the cremation only men can attend it, women are forbidded.
Unlike our social dominant practices it doesn't seem that money is an issue in India. Everything done during in the ceremony there isn't a money factor that causes the family to have to worry about things. Its all religion based. In the U.S, families are always worried about how much they could afford to pay for a casket for it to be nice and affordable. Caskets, funerals, burials, etc are very expensive where we come from. In India they use their own products and materials to create their own funeral burials.
http://hinduism.iskcon.com/practice/604.htm
http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-traditions/funeral-traditions.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyre
http://www.funeralwise.com/customs/hindu
http://www.funeralwise.com/customs/hindu/beliefs
First off, I really like how you tied this into your last project for the Birth Unit. Many people agree that death and life are highly relative and yet, so many people don't like speaking or witnessing death rituals. That idea that you've followed in discussing this seems to follow along with the idea of the course very nicely.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in class, you said that "money doesn't matter" in terms of the funeral and here you said that a family uses their own materials. From this I gather that it's safe to assume that a family doesn't feel the pressure to buy or create some standard, fantastic coffin/casket for the decease to outdo everyone else. Interesting.
Leah -
ReplyDeleteI really was interested by the information you provided in this blog post. It seems as though the way Indian people deal with death is much more personal. I found it fascinating that young children and saints are buried because they are pure. This part really caught my attention, "Unlike our social dominant practices it doesn't seem that money is an issue in India. Everything done during in the ceremony there isn't a money factor that causes the family to have to worry about things. Its all religion based." In our culture a lot of people associate death with religion. However, do you think in our culture religion is a reason to raise the price? Or do you think there is no comparison between India and the United States, since our country is extremely wealthy? Good job!
I loved this, I was actually really interested in the topic you chose to do your project on. I think that the Hindu culture focuses more on the morning and celebration of the deceased life rather than appearance of the burial ground and or cost. I thought it was interesting that they crack the skull in order to release the soul from the body , even though it seems a little gore-ish it makes sense. Its almost as if a person's soul is trapped in the vessel(they're body) once they die so they need to be released. Religion really plays a huge role in the Hindu culture and its shown by they're social dominant practices.
ReplyDelete"In the Hindu culture, they will bring their sick loved ones home with them to die peacefully instead of hospitals. It is Hindu custom for the family to build a shelter and perform a fire ritual (homa) in order to bless nine brass pots and one clay pot. In absence of a shelter a fire is made at home. Relating back to the cremation only men can attend it, women are forbidden."
They're social dominant practice with funerals seems to be a home funeral, which seems far fetched in the states and most people don't know about them.
I liked your project because when you were taling about hinduism, I also did a little research in the topic which made me very interested because i found a little bit of information but too hear more stuff on it was a big help also to my prject
ReplyDeleteLeah -
ReplyDeleteI really liked how for the project you do focused on India again to give more information on the same place after the last presentation you gave on birth. Since you focused on birth before (the start) and now death (the end) it just all fits in very well for your project. I found it interesting that after a funeral of a loved one they wouldn't eat certain foods and mourn for 13 days (which in America is a bad luck number). I also found it interestuing that in India the burials contain somewhat of a Home Funeral and a Cremation.