miniature furniture and houses are burned to enrich
the dead in the netherworld. With proper family of-
ferings, these spirits can be transformed into protec-
tive ancestors.
This legend of yulanpenis based on Chinese Bud-
dhist scriptures, but the idea of food offerings for an-
cestors also existed in pre-Buddhist India. An example
of this is the main feature of the s ́raddha feast, where
sacred rice balls, or pinda,were offered to ancestors.
In these Indian rites, a feast is provided for the Brah-
mans, and the merit of this act is transferred to the an-
cestors. This kind of direct and indirect ritual feeding
of ancestors has been incorporated into Buddhist an-
cestral rites such as yulanpenand other rites to feed
hungry ghosts.
In yulanpenand related rites, an altar outside the
main chapel was set up with food for the hungry ghosts,
and various sutras were recited in order to feed them
and provide prayers for the pretas’ possible future en-
lightenment. This kind of ritual act of pujana or, as
Lynn deSilva calls it, “spiritual nourishment” (p. 155)
was made for various revered objects such as the “three
jewels” of the Buddha, dharma, and san ̇gha, as well as
for parents, teachers, elders, and the souls of the dead.
The objects of offering were primarily food but also
included incense (fragrance), clothes, bedding for
monks, flowers, lights (candles and other bright lights),
music, and right actions. In these offering ceremonies,
the Buddha is symbolically invited into the ceremonial
place and given praise and offerings. Confessional
prayers are recited and certain MANTRA(e.g., nenbutsu,
DHARANI, or DAIMOKU,depending on which Buddhist
school one belongs to) are chanted in front of the Bud-
dha. The merit accrued from these offerings and sutra
recitations is transferred to the dead.
In Sri Lanka, the deceased who did not reach the
proper afterworld are feared by the living. Various sick-
nesses and disasters are alleged to be caused by these
floating spirits of the dead. In order to pacify such
ghosts, Buddhist monks are called upon to perform the
piritrites and to distribute magic threads and water to
those afflicted. These floating spirits are eventually
transformed into benevolent ancestors by the power of
the piritrites. Thai and Burmese Buddhists observe the
same rite, but it is called the parittaritual (Spiro, pp.
247–250). In Thailand, bun khaw saak(merit-making
with puffed rice) and org phansa(end of Lent) are held
annually in wats(monasteries), and offerings are made
to the ancestors collectively (Tambiah, p. 190). The
merit of such acts is transferred to the deceased, yet
Stanley Tambiah is reluctant to call these ceremonies
ancestral worship since they do not involve system-
atized or formalized interaction between the deceased
and the living. Nevertheless, he notes that the Buddhist
monks act as mediators between death and rebirth, and
they eliminate the dangers and pollution of death. In
Korea, Buddhist monks do not widely deal with death
rituals or rites of feeding deceased spirits and ances-
tors, unlike Thai or Japanese monks, even though Ko-
reans have similar beliefs in spirits as those of other
East Asian people. Shamans (Korean, mudang) largely
deal with these ancestral rites.Intermediate states and memorial rites
The timing interval of memorial rites for the dead
varies. In Sri Lanka, the rites (pujanas) are to be held
on the seventh day, three months, and one year after
the death day. These memorial rites are called mataka
danes,and monks are invited for the memorial feasts.
The ABHIDHARMAKOS ́ABHASYA and other Buddhist
texts describe the judgments said to be undergone by
the dead in the INTERMEDIATE STATES(Sanskrit, an-
tarabhava; Chinese, zhongyou) every seven days after
death, up to the forty-ninth day. The forty-ninth day
is the final date when the realm of REBIRTH—whether
in the hells, the heavens, or other realms—will be de-
cided. Thus it marks the end of first mourning pe-
riod for the living. In China, memorial rites for the
deceased assume the form of Ten Buddha Rites (Chi-
nese, shifoshi), which include seven weekly rites held
every seven days up to the forty-ninth day, and on
the hundredth day, one year, and the third year
anniversaries—in total, ten memorial rites.
In Japan, three to five more rites were added, in-
cluding rites held on the seventh, thirteenth, and
thirty-third anniversaries. Observing ancestral rites is
a major part of Japanese Buddhist practice, and death
related rituals and services, such as funerals and
memorial rites, have become the major source of
monastic financing. According to folklorist Yanagida
Kunio, the deceased souls, which are called hotoke
(buddha) or spirits (Japanese, shorei) are purified
through these memorial rites. Once pacified, they be-
come kami(deities) after the thirty-third anniversary
memorial rite. These deified ancestors eventually lose
their individual personalities as time passes and con-
verge into the collective group of divine ancestors,
which resides in the ancestral tablets (Japanese, ihai)
and in ancestral family tombs. In Japan, ihaitablets are
the most significant object in a Buddhist altar. They
are enshrined in Japanese homes, with the exceptionANCESTORS