Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth:

In Buddhist thought and practice, death has always been a central concept. This book provides a careful and thorough analysis of the rituals and social customs surrounding death in the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka. Rita Langer describes the rituals of death and rebirth and investigates their ancient origins, analyzing social issues of the relationship between monks and lay people in this context. This aspect is of particular interest as death rituals are the only life cycle ritual in which Theravada Buddhist monks are actively involved. Drawing on early Vedic sutras and Pali texts as well as archaeological and epigraphical material, Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth establishes that Sri Lankan rituals are deeply rooted in their pre-Buddhist, Vedic precursors. Whilst beliefs and doctrines have undergone considerable changes over the centuries, it becomes evident that the underlying practices have largely remained stable. The first comprehensive study of death rituals inTheravada Buddhist practice, this is an important contribution to the fields of Buddhist studies, indology, anthropology and religious studies.

Rita Langer is currently Research Fellow in Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, UK.

Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
General	p. 1
The fieldwork	p. 6
Death and dying	p. 10
Contemporary Sri Lankan practice	p. 10
The role of monks (questionnaire C.1)	p. 10
The role of laypeople (questionnaire C.1)	p. 11
Excursus: jivadanaya	p. 12
Commentary on the practice	p. 14
The importance of the moment of death (questionnaire C.2 & 3)	p. 14
When things go wrong: on pretas	p. 16
Excursus: pirit chanting in contemporary Sri Lanka	p. 19
Some historical roots: time of death	p. 23
The Vedic and brahmanical material	p. 26
The Pali nikayas and some stories from the commentaries	p. 35
The Abhidhamma interpretation	p. 54
The funeral	p. 62
Contemporary Sri Lankan practice	p. 62
A laywoman's buried	p. 62
A monk's cremation	p. 66
Excursus: treatment of the corpse and its disposal	p. 69
Commentary to the practice	p. 73
The general customs	p. 75
Excursus: intermediate state (questionnaire B.1-3)	p. 82
Offering of the matakavastra	p. 84
Some historical roots: handling the remains	p. 88
The Vedic and brahmanical material	p. 90
The Pali nikayas and some stories from the commentaries	p. 99
Archaeological evidence	p. 115
Post-funerary rites	p. 125
Contemporary Sri Lankan practice	p. 125
Bana	p. 125
Seventh-day matakadanaya	p. 129
Excursus: treatment of the remains	p. 136
Two examples of later matakadanas	p. 141
Excursus: other options (questionnaire D.1-3)	p. 143
Commentary to the practice	p. 146
Food offerings	p. 146
Giving of merit	p. 156
Excursus: anumodanava (questionnaire A.1-3)	p. 163
Some historical roots: giving of merit	p. 165
The early stage: assigning merit	p. 166
The later stage: giving merit	p. 171
The Abhidhamma interpretation	p. 177
Inscriptions	p. 180
Proposed origins of the notion of giving of merit	p. 182
Conclusions	p. 186
Notes	p. 190
Questionnaire (English and Sinhala)	p. 213
Bibliography and abbreviations	p. 215
General index	p. 232
Index of cited passages, suttas and texts	p. 241
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Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth: Contemporary Sri Lankan Practice and Its Origins

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