BUDDHISM IN SRI LANKA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA 161Once she becomes a nun, she will find her role very different from that of
a monk. Nuns play a very small part in the community's pursuit of merit.
They may be invited to chant at funerals, but that is the extent of their ritual
role. This limited role has both its drawbacks and its advantages. On the one
hand, nuns usually draw their support from their immediate families. If no
support is forthcoming, they must undertake work of various kinds to main-
tain themselves. If, on the other hand, the nun can obtain adequate material
support, she will find that she has more free time than the typical village monk
to devote to meditation and her own personal pursuit of merit.
For a woman who does not ordain, the center of her religious life is in the
home. She may donate to the monks a share of the food she prepares, adding
a religious dimension to her role in the kitchen. She may also use part of her
share of the family income to sponsor merit-making ceremonies, construction
of religious edifices, and so forth. If she has been initiated by a female ritual
specialist, she may practice private rituals for the prosperity or safety of herself
or her family. Most important of all, she may train her children to live by the
Dharma. Thai peasants have not been taught a great deal of political history,
and thus are not infected with the mind-set that tends to glorify the male role
in public affairs at the expense of the female role in the family. Buddhism
places a high importance on the role that parents play in the lives of their chil-
dren. Children are to regard their mother and father as their foremost teach-
ers, and to treat them with the same respect due an arhant. Thus her role as a
foremost teacher is where a Thai peasant woman will find her greatest source
of merit, free from the ritualized forms that the men have devised.
When death comes to a Thai village, all elements of the popular religion
come into play in the ensuing funeral. From the animist point of view, the
main concern is to keep the'spirit of the deceased from disrupting the life of
the community. Because the spirit is thought to hover around the dead body,
cremation is the preferred means of disposing of the corpse. Once the body
has been cremated, the spirit has its locus removed and is more likely to go on
to its next life. To keep the spirit under control before the cremation, the feet,
wrists, and neck of the corpse are bound, a hex sign and other charms are
placed on the chest before the coffin is closed, and people who attend the fu-
neral will often repeat a silent charm to themselves as protection against the
spirit. Although financial considerations often determine how long the funeral
will last, animist considerations can also play a role, the general rule being that
if the deceased died from violent or sudden causes, the funeral should be held
as quickly as possible, for the spirits of such people are especially troublesome.
Wakes are held to keep the body company at night, so that the spirit will not
feel neglected and start prowling around the village.
Brahmanical elements enter into the funeral arrangements primarily
through numerology. Monks are invited in even numbers, rather than the odd
numbers used for auspicious occasions, and the number four-the most inaus-
picious of all, as it is associated with death-is heavily used. Aside from the
numerology, the main role Brahmanism plays at this time is in coloring the
attitudes of people attending the funeral. Funeral rites, even the merit-making