{"id":193,"date":"2011-09-24T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=193"},"modified":"2013-09-24T20:44:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T20:44:37","slug":"an-akha-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"An Akha Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Akha Funeral<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Akha were originally a Tibeto-Burmese minority group who, in order to escape persecution in the 19th<\/sup> century, migrated south into southern China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.\u00a0 Most are subsistence farmers who, by virtue of being late migrators, live in the more hilly, less accessible, and hence poorer parts of the region. There are 1-2 million Akha people divided into many \u201csub-groups\u201d (classification techniques vary); 60,000 live in NW Laos.\u00a0 Traditionally they are animists, believing in ancestor worship and the spirits of the forest.\u00a0 Traditional Akha villages have a spirit gate at each entrance through which people who stay in the village must pass \u2013 this keeps unwanted forest spirits in the forest.\u00a0 Their ancient history is oral, and preserved in 10,000 lines of poetry memorized by \u201cPimas\u201d, the designated story-tellers of the Akha.\u00a0 Only recently has a written form of the language been created.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Akha leadership struggles for recognition and support in their host nations; some seek autonomy.\u00a0 About one-fourth of the Akha people have been converted to Christianity, also creating concern among its leaders, as conversion to any other religion undermines Akha traditions and culture.\u00a0 Laos does not allow active missionary work.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Akha<\/a>

Akha women and children in NW Laos.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last month, our guide and friend in Muang Long in NW Laos, Tui Chaddala (see newsletter #6), again created an unusual and magical opportunity for us.\u00a0 We had told Tui that while we were on a \u201cshopping\u201d trip for authentic cultural items, any chance to see unique cultural events would be most welcome, whether business-related or not.<\/p>\n

Next day, quite by chance, we arrived at an Akha village (Puli<\/i> sub-group), Pha Home, on the third day after an important 75-year-old elder, Pha Home\u2019s coffin-maker, had died. \u00a0We had missed the first two days when the body is wrapped in black and red fabric, the extended family is called to join, and a team of young men is sent into the forest to cut down an appropriate tree for the coffin (the Akha have government permission in a nearby forest reserve for such needs). We stumbled upon the event on its third day, after family and friends were assembled, and just after a water buffalo had been roasted to feed everyone for the ceremony\u2019s duration.<\/p>\n

\"Maren<\/a>

Maren in front of an Akha Spirit Gate with a human figure showing the people\u2019s side of the gate, NW Laos.<\/p><\/div>\n

Upon our arrival, Tui, who knows some Akha language, checked with the villagers who nodded that it was OK to go up to the mourner\u2019s house; we assumed our presence might be inappropriate, especially given the Akha belief that spirits directly affect daily life.\u00a0 Maren took a few surreptitious photos of the colorful scene with her camera resting on top of the case and set on the no-flash, low-light setting.\u00a0 People were in full ceremonial regalia – Akha women in headdresses covered in silver ornaments, jackets with embroidery and more silver on the back, pleated low-slung skirts, and a trapezoid-shaped shirt, most often tied just under the breasts. \u00a0In Akha culture, women’s breasts are not sexualized, and are often bared, particularly on older and nursing women. \u00a0Men wore loose indigo-dyed cotton pants and jackets with silver buttons down the front, and some wore red headdresses wrapped many times around the head so as to make a brim about 3″ wide.<\/p>\n

\"Akha<\/a>

Akha women in full regalia in the town of Pha Home, NW Laos.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tui discovered that one of the sons of the deceased, Mr. Champa, was an acquaintance of his, and Mr. Champa quietly said we could join the family\u2019s funeral party that day.\u00a0 We were then offered the traditional 2 shots of lao-lao (distilled rice whisky) and cigarettes, which we dutifully smoked (cough, hack!<\/i>) to shared laughter. \u00a0Tui told Mr. Champa that it was Maren\u2019s first cigarette, and she was smoking it in his father’s honor – he thought that was a hoot! \u00a0Around us was a great deal of laughter and conversation.\u00a0 Younger men were playing cards and gambling on the patio under the stilt-raised house; dogs were running around sneaking bones and tidbits of fat; chickens were hunting for rice grains and anything they could beat the dogs to; kids were yelling, chasing, crying, and generally being kids.<\/p>\n

\"Akha<\/a>

Akha men in full regalia, Pha Home, Laos.<\/p><\/div>\n

After perhaps an hour, Mr. Champa invited us into the house and room where his father lay in state. \u00a0The body was wrapped in red cloth, and an altar had been placed next to his head where people stopped to pray and chant and offer rice, meat, lao-lao, eggs, and other items in his honor and that he might need in his afterlife.\u00a0 We were invited to sit with the village chief and some other headmen of the village. \u00a0A daughter-in-law of the deceased offered us each two more shots of lao-lao followed by a cup of water. \u00a0Before drinking each shot, we poured a small amount into an old rusted tin can full of cigarette butts as an offering to the coffin-maker. \u00a0Same with the water. \u00a0That signified that we were officially a part of the funeral party. \u00a0Mr. Champa then announced that we were welcome to take as many photos and videos as we\u2019d like \u2013 a stunning opportunity that we never expected to receive.\u00a0 Being allowed to photograph any rite of passage, particularly an Akha funeral, is unheard of.\u00a0 We promptly set to work photographing everything possible.<\/p>\n

\"Akha<\/a>

Akha women.<\/p><\/div>\n

An hour later we heard a hullabaloo, and all of the people, led by the young women, headed off to greet the cutters and shapers of the coffin just a short way into the woods. \u00a0We followed, slipping on the muddy trail and eventually giving up all attempts to stay clean. \u00a0We reached the coffin, which had been carried in two pieces, top and bottom, through the woods by strapping them onto long bamboo poles with rattan ties.\u00a0 The mourners each walked between the two coffin pieces, placing an offering of a paste of rice and spices onto the crude coffin halves. \u00a0This cleansed the coffin of forest spirits who may have followed the coffin back to the village. \u00a0Then, with a shaman chanting throughout, the relatives offered lao-lao and cigarettes to the\u00a0dozen-plus men who had gone to the forest to cut the tree and roughly form the coffin. \u00a0There were probably about 150 people all told in a tiny clearing made by chopping down some bushes – the ants that lived there were not pleased, and climbed up legs and bit when possible. \u00a0As non-locals, we were strictly forbidden from touching the coffin as we might have introduced foreign spirits into the scene requiring deeper cleansing – who knows what might have happened then!\u00a0 We followed the coffin and the line of ululating mourners through the forest back to to the roadside village, and, with night falling, returned to our guesthouse in nearby Muang Long.<\/p>\n

\"Procession<\/a>

Procession past rough coffin pieces with offerings to cleanse them of forest spirits.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"After<\/a>

After spiritual cleansing, the rough coffin top is carried back to the village.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next morning we visited two other 200-300 person villages, slipping on the trails after each monsoon rain burst.\u00a0 Maren had a particularly exciting \u201cpirouette\u201d and spent the rest of the day with a mud-decorated skirt.\u00a0 However, our minds kept returning to Pha Home and the opportunity to immerse ourselves in what seemed like a \u201cNational Geographic\u201d moment.<\/p>\n

\"Younger<\/a>

Younger son making offering to his father, who is covered in red cloth.<\/p><\/div>\n

We talked to Tui and said that, given Mr. Champa\u2019s blessing to film the rare event, we would rather see the funeral than to go trekking, as planned, to another village; the funeral was something we would probably never get a chance to see again. So in the afternoon, we returned to Pha Home.\u00a0 Mr. Champa smiled broadly and raised his hands in the traditional Lao \u201csabaidee.\u201d\u00a0 We were welcomed with more lao-lao and cigarettes \u2013 Maren gently refused the cigarettes this time. \u00a0All afternoon we studied a team of about 15 men who trimmed and smoothed the coffin until it was as thin as possible.\u00a0 They even used an electric planer (!) to assure a quality finish. \u00a0The finished coffin is a striking artifact, with it\u2019s boat-shaped bottom, and eerily out-of-this-world wooden flanges that reminded us of sails.\u00a0 Meanwhile, a different type of wood was carved into two “feet” to hold the coffin upright, and a man thinned and smoothed long rattan strips to hold the coffin closed. \u00a0Off to the side, Akha women were using a bow to fluff fresh cotton to use to line the wooden coffin for the deceased\u2019s comfort. \u00a0After the coffin was shaped, each relative took a handful of fluffed cotton and stabbed it with a machete or other tool into the inside, both top and bottom, of the coffin until the cotton stuck.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The coffin is trimmed using hand and electric tools to create the best shape as befits a coffin maker\u2019s final resting place,<\/p><\/div>\n

We were then motioned upstairs. \u00a0Maren managed to squeeze into the room, but Josh and Tui didn’t make it in as the room was so crowded.\u00a0 Maren videotaped the entire process of moving the body into the coffin amidst a constant and loud discussion that appeared to be about how to do it correctly.\u00a0 It seemed that for each talker there were two opinions! \u00a0First the cousins and important friends and villagers placed small (about 12″ x 8″) pieces of handspun handwoven cotton cloth on the bottom of the coffin. Then, the body was lifted in on the mat it was laying on. \u00a0(In the heat and humidity, it was clear why the body must be placed in the coffin on the 4th day.)\u00a0\u00a0The red cloth was pulled back from the head, the black fabric wrapping the body was opened just enough to see the forehead, and then the cousins, shaman, etc., touched the forehead\u00a0with cotton pieces (we later learned they were ritually wiping away \u201ctears\u201d from the deceased\u2019s eyes) they then placed on his chest.\u00a0 The head was then rewrapped, the red cloth put over again, then more white cotton fabric placed over the body. \u00a0His mattress cover (minus the filling) was used to help tuck him gently in, and then the top of the coffin was put in place.<\/p>\n

\"Carving<\/a>

Carving out a spot for the deceased’s head to rest.<\/p><\/div>\n

Women were chanting and ululating in the corner of the room while his body was placed in the coffin.\u00a0 Suddenly, there was a piercing scream and a richly adorned woman collapsed in the corner and had to be carried out of the house on the back of a man. \u00a0What we had assumed was a family member overcome by grief turned out to be a woman shaman whose head was accidentally touched by a mourner in the crowd. \u00a0The Akha believe that the head is a sacred part of the body and it shouldn\u2019t be touched by others. \u00a0The shaman was whisked away followed by a dozen women and men (and the usual gaggle of children) to have her face and head cleansed.\u00a0 Darkness had fallen as they were sealing the cracks between the two coffin pieces and painting bright decorations on the rich wood coffin; it was time for us to return to our guesthouse.<\/p>\n

\"Cotton<\/a>

Cotton being bow-fluffed to create a soft bed for the deceased.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cotton<\/a>

Cotton being affixed to the coffin inside.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next morning Mr. Champa invited us again up to the room with the body in state. \u00a0The coffin had now been painted with stripes and zig-zag patterns using store-bought acrylic paint in red, blue, and green.\u00a0 A bright red pyramid, perhaps 8\u201d tall and representing the coffin-makers heart, was placed upside-down in the center of the coffin\u2019s lid.\u00a0 A shard of wood made from the same tree-type of his pre-deceased wife\u2019s coffin was wedged between the rattan ties and the coffin; this assured that the two would be together in the next world.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The body being lifted into place in the cotton and fabric lined coffin.<\/p><\/div>\n

After sharing a modest meal of the water buffalo, fried pork, and rice, Mr. Champa proceeded to tell us he was very grateful for our being there to document the funeral.\u00a0 Most funerals now do not have a traditional coffin due to cost and the rarity of the right types of trees. \u00a0He said that not only would he have photos for himself and the family of the event, but now, any Akha who did not know how to conduct a traditional funeral could come and look at the photos and video to learn how to do so. \u00a0He said that no one at the funeral knew of another funeral where falang <\/i>(westerners) had attended.\u00a0 We, of course, expressed how honored we were to both witness and photograph the funeral; we would always remember them and the funeral as a special and rare opportunity to see a slice of real Akha tradition. \u00a0Mr. Champa said that his father had never been outside of Laos in his life, but now, with our photos being taken home, his father’s spirit would be able to travel to see America.\u00a0 Everyone thought that was a wonderful thing!<\/p>\n

\"Coffin<\/a>

Coffin being tied together with rattan.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then another hullabaloo arose outside. \u00a0A pig was being ritually slaughtered.\u00a0 The squealing pig was held in place while the shaman directed the oldest son of the deceased where to stick the pig. \u00a0A piece of banana leaf was held between the pig and the knife, then the son quickly shoved the knife in and the pig bled out. \u00a0A hole was then dug in front of the pig’s nose and several fern fronds were woven together in a specific design, with cowry shells laid in lines along the stem of the bottom-most fern. \u00a0At this point the entire courtyard went silent.<\/p>\n

\"Cowry<\/a>

Cowry shells ritually placed on the fern frond in front of the sacrificed pig\u2019s nose.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fully<\/a>

Fully decorated coffin surrounded by the deceased\u2019s belongings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"You<\/a>

You can see the whiter piece of wood representing the deceased\u2019s wife.<\/p><\/div>\n

The eldest son repeated after the shaman for all the locals to hear the names of the 57 consecutive ancestors of the coffin-maker and then the name of his father. \u00a0This was the first time the coffin-maker\u2019s name was included in the list of ancestors.\u00a0 A bowl of rice and salt was poured over the pigs nose, and the ceremony concluded. \u00a0The pig was quickly gutted, seared, cooked over an open flame and distributed in small pieces to all the villagers not related to the deceased. \u00a0The relatives were not allowed to eat any of this pig at all. \u00a0Meanwhile, while the pig sizzled on the fire and the young people returned to gambling games and laughter, the youngest son sat quietly in place, alone, clearly mourning.<\/p>\n

\"Meal<\/a>

Meal of water buffalo, pork, and rice with Mr. Champa and village elders.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the pig was cleared away, everyone came down from the house, two bamboo poles were tied together with large sturdy lengths of rattan, the coffin was brought down from the house (amidst a thousand loud directives), and the procession took off for the cemetery complete with bags of the dead man’s possession: clothes, rattan chair, hat, basket, machete, etc. \u00a0We were not allowed to go to the cemetery unless we were committed to follow the tradition of the mourners who were required for the next 6 days to remain inside the elder\u2019s home eating only rice, salt, and water. \u00a0About 370 photos and 25 videos later, our experience was done. Mr. Champa was most grateful for a DVD of all the festivities, and we felt ecstatic to have witnessed this rare event.\u00a0 We are deeply grateful to Mr. Champa, Tui, and the entire community of Pha Home for inviting us to join in this unique and powerful experience.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The women and other family members carrying the deceased\u2019s belongings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The coffin on its final journey.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next day we visited 3 other villages. \u00a0The first was a Hmong village where a 5-year-old girl had died. \u00a0We were, again, welcomed by the village members into the mourner\u2019s room.\u00a0 The drummer nodded and bowed at our entrance, missing only a single beat, and then returned to his task.\u00a0 The body lay on a platform against the far wall about 4 feet above the ground. \u00a0A person in the dark room set out a wooden chair for each of us to sit front and center.\u00a0 This funeral was hard; no one was gambling or celebrating or preparing colorful rituals.\u00a0 There was only the soft shaman\u2019s chanting, a constant drum beat, the eerie drone of a kaen (reed organ), and the crying pleas of the family who repeatedly touched the small body and then held there hands in front of themselves as if asking \u201cWhy?\u201d\u00a0 In the dark and humid hut, our eyes welled up.\u00a0 The pain was exposed and raw, unjust and cruel. \u00a0Again, however, the community was present, talking, playing music, shucking corn, and being a community together. \u00a0All present \u2013 parents, villagers, and even this couple of wandering falang<\/i> – were invited to mourn and feel the deep and profound loss and the power of what we cannot control or understand.<\/p>\n

\"Hmong<\/a>

Hmong family grinding corn off of the cob just across the way from the girl\u2019s funeral.<\/p><\/div>\n

The contrasting funerals gave us pause.\u00a0 In one home death was celebrated in full regalia, and in another it was mourned in deep grief.\u00a0 Such festivity and beauty; such pain and fragility.\u00a0 The warm glow of long-burning coals; the quick extinguishing of a bright spark.\u00a0 The mystery of death and life was exposed; the earth accepts us regardless of age or status. \u00a0That is what we surely share; that is the proof that we are all one human family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Akha Funeral The Akha were originally a Tibeto-Burmese minority group who, in order to escape persecution in the 19th century, migrated south into southern China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.\u00a0 Most are subsistence farmers who, by virtue of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}