ChineseThai funeral

Wow. I just possibly had the best night in the three weeks I've been here. It was incredible.

Walai and I picked up Tessany and drove to Burriram. Tessany is a kindergarten teacher, how she is involved with the Foundation, I'm not sure. This woman is a certified bad ass. Apart from knowing everyone in Isan (the northeastern part of Thailand), she has been teaching for 20 odd years, and she received numerous teaching awards, but one in particular. Now this particular award is pretty dang special. Only 12 people in the history of the award have received it (how long the award has been around I'm not really sure. But it's been around for a long time). Who did Tessany receive this award from you ask, well the King of course.

We get into Burriam and go to a food market. This thing is like a huge outdoor flea market of food. There are so many vendors selling so many different food items, along with clothes, shoes, and toys. Walai picks up some Chinese onion and sweet potato cakes before we sit down to eat. Taking into consideration the vegetarian of the group, Tessany and Walai opt for a soup stand. We get a soup that had the little seafood cake/tofu texture thing that we had at the restaurant on Thursday night. The soup was delicious in case you were wondering. The weird cakes, not so much. The sweet potato one was better then the onion one. Both had a weird texture to them. Not bad, not good. Weird. After eating we still had some time to burn so we walked around and got some treats for the girls. Tessany and I walked by a woman a her son selling woven animals. Tessany turned to me, gestured to the animals and informed me she would like to buy one for me. I politely declined, saying there was no way I could accept. She insisted so I picked out an elephant :) I invited Tessany over to the house one night this week that I am going to be cooking an American dinner. I am thinking fajitas.

We got into the car and drove to the funeral. It was held at a Buddhist temple. The archway was lit up with a lime green light. I wasn't sure about the picture policy in temples (I know that in the actually temple they are not allowed. But I wasn't sure if this was inside the temple, or the outside seeing as how everything was under big tents) or at funerals, so I didn't take any but I'll do my best to describe everything. 

After we walked through the green arch we meet the family of the woman who were all dressed in white (this is specifically Chinese). We then proceeded to walk around 150+ people, all of which turned to stare at me as I walked by. We sat in the back and I got a pretty good view of the alter. It had beautiful blue and green banners with gold Chinese characters on them. At least 50 wreaths made of flowers in every color (These are Thai) hung from the ceiling and stood next to the coffin, on which stood a large picture of the deceased and two candles. 

To the left of the alter was a small room where the monks sat. To my left was a giant dry erase board. Walai told me that each of the children will host a service for their mother, this was service 4/11. The funeral will last all week. Walai pointed out to my right a Little Tykeish chest of drawers and tv made of paper. I was informed that these would be burned at the last service so the deceased could carry them on into the next life. The service started. Several monks held paper fans in front of their face as they chanted. Walai told me they held the fans in front of their face so they could concentrate on the chants and meditating instead of the people in the audience. 

While the monks chanted, everyone pressed their palms together and bowed their heads. The chant was in Bali and Walai couldn't understand it, but we figured it was for the woman to have a safe passage. The chant lasted for about 5 minutes. After the monks finished their chant, three members of the family got up and gave the monks three pieces of clothing (monk clothing, not like a pair of pants or a shirt). The three pieces of a monks clothes represent something important that has to do with Buddhism. Like an idiot, I forgot my notebook and pen. There was so much information racing through my brain that I lost the rest concerning the clothes. After the clothes were presented, the monks chanted again for about 5 minutes and the service was over. 

The family had prepared food for everyone, so we again sat down to eat. Walai and Tessany had a Chinese/Thai soup with pork in it while I had 'Thai spaghetti" as Tessany called it. We all shared som tum (spicy papaya salad). For desert, green tapioca that looked like little green worms swimming in coconut milk and ice. It was delicious. After we ate, we said good bye to the family. I got an up close look at the paper chest of drawers. There was also a bed, car, and house. The burning would have been very interesting to see. Rode home in yet another food coma. This was an amazing experience I will never forget. I am so unbelievably grateful to Walai and Tessany for letting me tag along. The kindness they have shown me, I dont have words to express how incredible these two women are.