Village Discussion about Crazy Uncle

Since returning from the New Year Celebrations in Lhasa last month, a lot of things has happened. One of the most recent events is about an old man called Crazy Uncle. In fact most people do not even know him. Below is what I heard about Crazy Uncle in the village meeting and the discussion around him.

A village meeting was held yesterday in the village square. I went to the central square early, but I have no idea what was going on and I wondered what might happened. I heard that few people from our village went to the mountains to collect herbal plants, and in a cave they happened to find an old man who has passed away. They did not know anything about the old man but they assumed he was a hermit living in the cave. They brought back his body to the village and asked if anyone knows this person. Some villagers and lamas came to see but they could not identify the person as well. It turns out that a few very oldest people in the village know this person. It is said that the old man was called Crazy Uncle and he left the village many years ago perhaps to lead a life of a hermit. This explains why he was seldom seen by people in the village. But even the old people in the village do not know really know about Crazy Uncle’s past.

Some people assumed that Crazy Uncle was a tantric practitioner but it is not certain. Moreover, no one knows Crazy Uncle’s level of attainment as a tantric practitioner, and this has to do with how his body should be treated. There is thus a dispute on how to treat his body properly, as in the Tibetan tradition there are different funeral rituals for different people, depending on the identity and social class of the dead. I do not know much about death ritual and funerary practice and this is what I heard from others.

Death rituals has been widely recorded in the Tibetan religious and secular religious. There are tantric exegesis, popular narratives, and practice manuals that talks about death rituals, and a variety of rituals practices are included. Particularly, tantric teachings such as the “Thirteen Spells” and those in the famous The Tibetan Book of the Dead talk about practices that is related to preparation of death through meditation and other practices. In these teachings and practices, mention was made to core Mahayana concepts such as the empty nature of all things and the bodhisattva ideal. Death in the Tibetan tradition is explained in relation to the five elements and “wind” or the energy of human life in the human body. The dissolution of the five elements in order, the five primary winds, and the five subsidiary winds will lead to death. It is stated that there is an intermediate state called bardo, a concept of a long history, with an origin in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. The idea that there is an intermediate state between life and death is generally accepted by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. There are rituals and prayers related to this state that are believed to be able to help the deceased in the bardo to enter rebirth by offering protection against fear usually experienced by the soul. Also, there are several methods to treat the dead. Cremation is one of the most popular and the most commonly practiced. People from the upper classes such as kings and ministers may be buried or cremated, and usually Buddhists should be cremated, though preservation of the corpse started to becoming popular in the seventeenth century.

The practices described above are common to most schools. Because no one really knows about Crazy Uncle, it was suggested that a more general method should be used to treat his body. Ritualists in the village were called to join the discussion. Following the general tradition, prayers may be chanted by lamas at the village monastery to help the dead in the bardo. After that, the body may be cremated. Some people have a different view, suggesting that Crazy Uncle’s body should be buried. No final decision was reached at this time, and the lamas and the village heads are still negotiating. I assume perhaps similar mourning rituals like that conducted for those died in the hailstorm last year will be conducted.

It might be interesting to compare the Tibetan death rituals with other traditions that I read from the books. I heard that the Lahu people in the neighboring Yunnan would practice rituals such as recalling a wandering soul, propitiation, and exorcism when dealing with spirits. The Yi people, also in the Yunnan region, is a minority group. The Yi people today still rely on shamans to perform a great variety of rituals. Their funeral rituals are accompanied by chanting. The shaman wears special clothing such as a bamboo hat and a cloak when performing rituals and the articles used in rituals are required to be “pure”. The funeral rituals in medieval Japan was greatly influenced by Buddhism and funeral service was central to Japanese Buddhism. There was continued dispute on if funerals should be conducted, involving a discussion on key Mahayana concepts such as “no-self”. Memorials services were conducted every seven days during the intermediate period after death. In the Japanese Buddhist tradition deathbed rituals that involve contemplation in order to reborn in the Pure Land were common. In Japan today, scattering ashes has been a controversial practice.

Having hearing all these, on my way back from the meeting, I was thinking of the teaching of impermanence and emptiness, which is the true nature of the reality. Last year when the hailstorm hit the village, many fellow villagers lost their lives. But this is life. Also, I am thinking of leaving the village to take a look at the outside world and go studying, for as a doctor it would always be good to keep studying.