In any society, funeral rites are related not only to the religious aspirations of the dead but also to the religious commitment of his family or of the social group he belonged to. That is why funeral rites reveal certain aspects of the community of a population and why they form an important subject in cultural anthropology. The purpose of this article is to examine some aspects of funeral rites in Japan compared to those in other Asian Buddhist societies. In all of these societies, when death occurs in a family, Buddhism plays far more of an active role than it does for other important occasions in the lives of its followers. For example, Japanese as well as Sinhalese have different kings of ceremonies for celebrating the birth of a child, attaining the age of puberty, becoming engaged to be married, etc., and many of the ritual elements in these ceremonies come from folk religion. Buddhism does not enter into these ceremonies and Buddhist monks have no roles to play in them. When there is a death in a Buddhist family, however, Buddhism is the main influence on the ceremonies. The participation of monks in the funeral service is indispensable. Of course, their role is not the same in every Buddhist society.
The other important point is the necessity of commemorating the dead ancestors. This aspect of the religiosity of Asian people completely depends upon Buddhist teaching mixed with popular customs. In this article, the author also tries to see the difference and similitude of some rituals in these societies concerning dead ancestors.
雑誌名
Nichibunken Japan review : bulletin of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies
巻
8
ページ
105 - 125
発行年
1997-01-01
ISSN
09150986
書誌レコードID
AA10759175
フォーマット
application/pdf
著者版フラグ
publisher
その他の言語のタイトル
日本ならびにアジアのその他の仏教社会における葬式儀礼
出版者
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
Funerary rites in Japanese and other asian buddhist societies
IJ0806.pdf
(1.42MB)
