The funeral

On my way back to bangkok I heard from my dad that his friend (The guy that was showing me around thailand and letting me stay in his appartment block) Had died.This was shocking to me as last time I saw Him he seemed Ok. He had a fairly bad cough, but it wasnt any worse than the type of cough an avarage person will have every year or so.
A few hours after telling me, my dad chose to fly out to thailand. The funeral itself was a verry different experience to the funerals you get in the western world. This was a buddist funeral, I heard from a friend of ooy that they can last 3,5 or 7 days. This one was a five day event. The first day of the funeral (technicaly the same day I arrived in BKK) was the 2nd biggest day. It started with each person pouring water over the hand of the deseased.Then there was about 2 hours of praying. The final event was the body being put into the coffin and the lid being sealed shut. There were also offerings being given as the lid was being closed and a large proportion of the friends and family were crowded around the coffin.
In the evening of the first day, I went out to eat with ooy, her cousin and about 8 of her friends. She seemed surprisingly relaxed considering the circumstances.
The next three days Involved praying for the body to have a safe passage into the next life. the "final" day was the cremation. everybody gave an offering of a paper lotus flower and recived (what might be a symbolic gift, or just given because it was the rainy season) of an umbrella as they walked down from the steps. The son of the deseaced Am ,along with the house servant and Am's step brother became a monk for the day (24 hours) as a mark of respect. This included shaving their heads and wearing the traditional robes.
The real final day was the scattering of the ashes in the river, but I did not attend as this.
A few things that were interesting about the funeral were how relaxed the atmosphere was, in the west funerals are ften a silent affair with a song being sang every few minutes. In this funeral People were talking through the funeral. The mood was not quite as somber as a western funeral.