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<P>Dear TLC and friends of Roxanna Brown:</P>
<P>I went to the final night of Roxanna's 5-night funeral ceremony on Saturday
(26 June) at a small temple in central Bangkok. (The non-cremation cremation
took place on Sunday afternoon, but I didn't attend.) Though the temple was
located a short taxi ride from Chatuchak Weekend Market, it was in one of those
off-the-beaten-track and extremely local parts of town that always amaze me when
I end up in one. This is the Bangkok that hasn't been inundated with horrific
highrise condominium projects or ugly shopping malls. (As we twisted and turned
through the narrow backstreets, our driver helpfully pointed out a local
casino!)</P>
<P>The temple was small and unpretentious and in true Thai fashion, several
other funeral ceremonies were happening concurrently. Ours was a small and very
Thai gathering, including the head of Bangkok University, Surat Osathanugrah's
wife and several other people in the upper echelons of the university. My friend
and I were the only two "farangs" present. (This entitled us to the dubious
honor of being seated inside the little sala on the "special guest" wooden
chairs facing the coffin.)</P>
<P>Jaime welcomed us and walked us through the incense/obeisance etiquette (one
stick of incense instead of the usual three for reasons I don't know).
Understandably he was looking pretty exhausted, but at the same time seemed
happy to be surrounded by members of his Thai family.</P>
<P>Four monks were on hand for the initial three rounds of chanting, followed by
a snack and a final chant. I'd always thought you needed odd numbers of
chanting monks at ceremonies but learned that odd numbers are only for
felicitous occasions (house blessings, marriages etc.). The protocol for sad
events like funerals requires even numbers of monks.</P>
<P>Dunno if anyone's interested, but I took a few pictures for those who knew
Roxanna and/or have never attended a Thai funeral. The coffin itself was hard to
shoot because of all the bright lights surrounding it, but I think you can get a
sense of the general ambiance of the ceremony which is totally different from a
US one.</P>
<P>Five years ago I wrote a piece called "Four Barstools and a Funeral" in the
Asian Wall Street Journal about another Thai funeral I attended that made ahuge
impression on me. It's on my website, http://gampell.com/wong.htm, should anyone
care to read it.</P>
<P>Jennifer Gampell</P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><FONT face="Courier New"
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