I was invited to a see a body cremated after lunch today. The funeral procession took the deceased to the crematorium that was outside our village by a kilometer or so. We walked into the woods where there was a clearing with a small building that had a very long smoke stack perched on top. After several Buddhist chants and sundry activities, the body was place into the furnace by close relatives. While this was happening a lady next to me quipped, “I hope the body was put in head first.” I found out later that the spirit of the dead would bother the living if the body was put in feet first.
“She didn’t have any protection by the spirit doctor to keep her safe. My mother died because of the ghosts on the mountain.” Seng frankly stated. This was her grandmother’s reasoning for her mother’s death.
It took Seng just five minutes to share this story with me. I recorded it in its entirety in my digital recorder. At home I downloaded the file into my computer and then began what I would call one of the most tedious (but also rewarding) tasks of my days-transcribing the audio file of Seng’s story on to paper (I do this because I can’t type very fast in Thai yet). I listened to the sound file a clause at a time and then wrote it down phonetically using the Thai script. Five minutes of audio represents a lot of words to write down.