Mortuary Practices and Funeral Rites

Slide 1:Mortuary Practices and Funeral Rites

Buddhist monks provided funerary services: Buddhist Services: A way to help the dead through these passages by transferring merit to them. The services were held in the home of the deceased or in a temple Monks chanted sutras when performing services The most elaborate service: Great Ceremony of Land and Water

Slide 2:Mortuary Function of Buddhist Institution

Buddhist temples were places to store coffins until burial could be arranged Buddhist clergy led funeral procession Buddhist temples often aided the practice of cremation, providing crematories, storing ashes�

Slide 3:Buddhism and Geomancy

Geomancers and Buddhist temples worked together in the provision for funerary services Buddhists handled the ceremonies that focused on the rebirth of the soul Geomancers handled the burial of the body Geomancers were not always �rustic masters and vulgar shamans� Some of them were prominent Confucian scholars

Slide 4:State Responses to Cults and Spirits

To cults Outlaw practices Regulate practices Define and codify Use power of example Promoted charitable graveyard To spirits Outlaw their shrines Recognition and reward Appeasement Exorcism Thunder rites