Death

Preparing the body If someone in a Karen village dies, all the persons' neighbors and friends will stop work for the day. Working right after someone has died is prohibited. In Karen this is called, “deupgasalaw ma." It means, "a prohibition for the spirit of the deceased which has passed away. " Everyone in the village will stop work to come attend the funeral of the deceased. During the first step in the process, the close relatives of the deceased will come together to bathe the corpse and then dress the deceased in clean new clothes. Next, the deceased will be wrapped in a mat for threshing rice and his personal belongings will be gathered together. A long bamboo pole will be split into four sections of equal size and laced through the mat, each piece being tied together to seal the body up tightly in the mat. The Karen have a special name for these sections of bamboo which, in English, translates to, " the wood for pinning the corpse"--slightly less poetic. Next, close relatives will take some of the deceased person's clothing and hang it on these bamboo poles, along with some provisions of rice. This clothing and the rice left with the deceased is called, "bpwa see ah geu," which means "the corpse's belongings." The purpose of these things is to ease the deceased's journey as they travel to the after world.

Chanting (eutabpwasee) Evening marks the time for chanting in order to send the spirit of the deceased off on its way. The singing will be done by men, young and old, and the lyrics will be on the subject of death. Participants will walk around the deceased and their pile of personal belongings chanting. Women are prohibited from singing these songs, but they are allowed to walk with the men. One exception to this is in the event the deceased was a pregnant woman. In this case Chanting will be done to send off her spirit, but only males will be allowed to attend the ceremony. Songs of this type are called, “tarokwa.” If the deceased is a young man or woman, then a small hut will be constructed in their honor on a mountainside near the village. Clothing, rice and other essential personal items will be left at the hut for the deceased. These things are known as "seur lay." There is also a particular type of song specifically for these young people who died before their time, known as “Tayeurlaw," which means “a meditative chant, searching.”

The ceremony for delivering the deceased's personal belongings (Aw lo) Before disposing of the corpse (sometimes buried, sometimes cremated), a set of essential personal items and food stuffs must be gathered together for the deceased. This will include all items essential for carrying out one's normal every day affairs in the afterworld, such as: a shoulder bag, a knife, a pot, a bowl, a cup, matches, potatoes, rice and banana seedlings, tobacco, betel nut and pepper, etc. All of these items will be placed in a container and, when the time comes to dispose of the corpse, then these items will go along with the procession. After the corpse has been disposed of, then the container will be placed under a tree. An iron hook will be used to snag the collar of the master of ceremonies, and tug him back home, following the delivery of the deceased's personal belongings. It is believed that in the after life one will have to work in the same way that one worked while still alive here on earth. Thus, a person's personal belongings must be passed on to them for use in the spirt world. If the deceased does not receive these items then trying to eek out a living in the spirit world will be an arduous struggle.

Prohibitions following the disposal of the body After the deceased has been disposed of, it is customary for everyone in the village to stay home from work. The amount of time the villagers must stay at home will depend upon the amount of days between death and disposal. If, for example, a person died and was disposed of the next day, then the villagers would stay home for one day. If the person was dead for three days before he/she was disposed of, then the villagers would stay home for three days, etc. This prohibition is known as, “deunageurgraw," which means, “the ghosts of the deceased's prohibition.” This is because the Karen believe that after a person dies, their ghost still remains in the area around the village for a while, wandering around. Thus, anyone who wanders outside of the village during this time may be spotted by the ghost of the deceased who may snatch that person's spirit, making them fall ill. Plants and fruits for the deceased In the event the deceased passes on in the middle of the year, or before he/she has had a chance to taste the fruits of their labor, the relatives of the deceased will take a little of each of the fruits and plants gathered during the harvest that year and leave them at a particular point in the deceased's field, or under a tree near where the corpse is. This custom has the dual purpose of both giving the spirit of the deceased a chance to eat the produce from their land, making them happy and bringing them peace, and also keeping the deceased from coming to visit his/her relatives to ask for more. The present Resulting from all the change occurring in society these days, seeing a funeral ceremony performed following all the ancient traditions is becoming harder and harder to find. For example, the mat used for wrapping the body of the deceased has now been replaced with a coffin. Also, many of the religious rites performed, such as the singing done for the spirit of the deceased, ("eutabpwasee") have almost disappeared altogether. Few of the younger generation see the importance or value of these things. Part of this may be due to the fact that the traditional ceremonies take a lot of time to perform. They run late into the night and all through the day. As society moves faster and faster and people have less time, the time required for these ceremonies must be diminished. Much of the important portions of these ceremonies have been changed or shortened to adapt to people's tightened schedules. http://akha.hilltribe.org