There is no single Buddhist funeral. What happens when a Buddhist dies depends almost entirely on where, and the differences are larger than in almost any other area of Buddhist practice.

This is because funerals are where Buddhism accommodated existing custom most extensively. The tradition arrived in cultures that already had elaborate death rites, and rather than replacing them it supplied a framework — karma, rebirth, merit — within which the existing practices could continue.

What is common everywhere #

Three things recur across every tradition.

Merit is made on behalf of the deceased. Offerings are given — to monastics, to the poor, to the temple — and the merit is formally dedicated to the dead person. The doctrinal basis is somewhat awkward, since karma is in principle personal, and the commentarial traditions have worked hard on it: the usual explanation is that the deceased, if in a state able to rejoice at the offering, generates wholesome mental states of their own, and it is this that benefits them.

Whatever the explanation, merit transfer is the single most universal Buddhist death practice.

Impermanence is taught. Funerals are occasions for teaching, and the teaching is the obvious one: this happens to everyone, including you. Monastics commonly give a talk making exactly this point, sometimes bluntly.

Chanting. Texts are recited — the Metta Sutta, the Abhidhamma matikas, the Heart Sutra, or the appropriate liturgy — both for the deceased and for those present.

Theravada #

Before death, monks may be invited to chant at the bedside, and the dying person is encouraged to recollect their own generosity and virtue. See Caring for the Dying.

The body is usually kept at home for several days, with chanting, visitors, and food offered to guests. In Thailand the period is commonly three to seven days; longer for people of status, and a royal funeral may be delayed a year or more.

Monks are invited to chant, typically the Abhidhamma verses — the choice is traditional rather than semantic, since almost nobody present understands the Pali — and to receive offerings. Forest tradition monks may give a talk on death.

The transfer of merit is marked by pouring water slowly from a vessel into a bowl or onto the ground while the dedication is recited, an old Indian gesture of giving.

Cremation is the norm. The body is carried to the cremation ground in procession, sometimes with considerable noise, and in Thailand with a distinctive ornamented structure for people of standing.

Afterwards, merit-making continues at intervals — commonly the seventh day, the hundredth day, and the anniversary, though local practice varies.

Tibetan #

Practice is oriented to the forty-nine days of the bardo.

At the moment of death, ideally, a lama performs phowa — the transference of consciousness, directing it out through the crown of the head. Practitioners may also have learned to do this for themselves.

The body is left undisturbed for as long as circumstances allow, on the traditional understanding that consciousness has not immediately departed. Touching the body, particularly the lower parts, is avoided; the crown is touched if anything.

The Bardo Thodol is read aloud to the deceased at intervals through the forty-nine days, describing the stages of the intermediate state and instructing the consciousness how to respond. See The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Rituals every seventh day for seven weeks, on the understanding that rebirth may occur at any of these points.

Sky burial (jhator) is the characteristic Tibetan disposal: the body is taken to a designated site and given to vultures, usually prepared by specialists. The plateau has little firewood and often frozen ground, which makes cremation and burial impractical, and the practice fits the doctrine — the body is a discarded vessel, and giving it to the birds is a final act of generosity. Cremation is used for lamas, water burial in some regions, and burial for those who died of infectious disease.

East Asian #

The most elaborate rites, reflecting the fusion with ancestral practice. See Buddhism in China.

China. Wake, chanting, and the burning of paper goods — money, houses, cars, servants — for the deceased’s use. The seventh-day intervals are observed for forty-nine days, and the Ksitigarbha Sutra is commonly recited, Kshitigarbha being the bodhisattva of the lower realms. The Ghost Festival in the seventh lunar month, deriving from the story of Maudgalyayana rescuing his mother from the preta realm, is a major annual observance for the dead.

Japan. The most institutionally developed. A wake (tsuya), then the funeral, at which the priest confers a kaimyo — a posthumous Buddhist name, which formally ordains the deceased as a disciple. The length and elaborateness of the kaimyo traditionally varies with the donation, a practice that has attracted considerable criticism.

Cremation is effectively universal — over 99% of Japanese funerals — and is followed by kotsuage, in which family members transfer the bones from the ashes to the urn with chopsticks, passing them from person to person. This is the origin of the Japanese table taboo against passing food chopstick to chopstick.

Memorial services follow at prescribed intervals: the seventh day, the forty-ninth, the hundredth, then the first, third, seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, twenty-third, twenty-seventh, and thirty-third anniversaries, after which the deceased is generally considered to have merged with the ancestors. The household butsudan, the Buddhist altar, holds the memorial tablets.

This system is the economic foundation of Japanese temple Buddhism and the reason for the phrase soshiki bukkyo, funeral Buddhism.

In the West #

Buddhist funerals in Europe and North America vary by community.

Immigrant communities generally maintain the practices of the country of origin, adapted to local regulations — crematoria rather than open pyres, and time limits on keeping a body at home.

Convert communities often construct a simpler ceremony: chanting, a talk, a period of silence, dedication of merit, and personal tributes. There is no established liturgy, and practice is being worked out.

Practical constraints bite. Sky burial is illegal essentially everywhere outside its home regions. Keeping a body at home for several days is restricted in many jurisdictions. Open-air cremation is generally prohibited, though a legal case in Britain in 2010 established the possibility for Hindu practice.

Common questions #

Are Buddhists cremated or buried? Cremation is the strong norm, following the Buddha’s own funeral, and is near-universal in Japan and general across Theravada Asia. Burial occurs, and sky burial and water burial are Tibetan practices.

What should I wear to a Buddhist funeral? White is the traditional mourning colour across most of Buddhist Asia; black is now common in Japan and in Western contexts. Modest dress is expected. Asking the family is entirely acceptable.

Can a non-Buddhist attend? Yes, everywhere. Following others’ lead on bowing and offering incense is the usual etiquette, and no one will mind a guest who declines.

Does merit transfer actually work? The tradition says it benefits the deceased, with the explanation given above. It plainly benefits the living, and several traditions say so explicitly — the practice gives the bereaved something to do that is wholesome.

What about organ donation? Positions vary, and the disagreement turns on the Tibetan concern that the body should be undisturbed while consciousness departs. The fourteenth Dalai Lama has supported organ donation as an act of generosity; some Tibetan teachers advise against disturbing the body for several days. Theravada traditions are generally supportive. There is no single Buddhist position.

What about suicide? Buddhist traditions regard it as a serious matter — it breaches the first precept and, in the tradition’s analysis, the state of mind involved is unlikely to condition a fortunate rebirth. Funeral rites are nonetheless performed, and the tradition’s general disposition is towards compassion for the person and their family rather than condemnation.

Sources & further reading #

Bryan J. Cuevas & Jacqueline I. Stone (eds.), The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations (University of Hawai’i Press, 2007) — the scholarly survey across traditions. Rita Langer, Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth (Routledge, 2007) — on Sri Lankan practice and its origins. Mark Rowe, Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism (University of Chicago Press, 2011). John S. Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton, 2004) — on the founding funeral and the relic cult. Margaret Gouin, Tibetan Rituals of Death (Routledge, 2010).