One of our teachers, Kru Sutipan, passed away on Monday. They say it was from drinking and smoking so much. He actually moved to another school in February but had been teaching at my school for over 20 years. His body was moved to the temple in our village and the funeral took place here. When my parents came to visit, he volunteered to act as their guide, showed them around the school and took us out to lunch. I was pretty surprised and touched because we talked every once in a while, but we weren't very close.
K. Sutipan was originally from Bangkok and it took our teachers a while to contact his family. It seems like he wasn't very close with his family, and our teachers organized most of the week-long funeral. His younger sister and some relatives made it out here Thursday though and were present for the cremation ceremony on Friday.
I went to the funeral almost every night. On the first day, the room was pretty bare because things were just being set up. That night, there were a couple wreaths of flowers that Thai people give to honor the dead. By Thursday night, the wall by his coffin was full of them.
Every night, five monks came and prayed.
One monk gave a long speech and then five principals from five different schools knelt in front of each monk and presented them with presents and bouquets of flowers, and they prayed again.
Trays of cups and small bottles of holy water were passed around. During the prayers, we slowly poured the water into the cups as a way of letting K. Sutipan's spirit know we were here.
One night, I actually tried to paid attention to the monk's eulogy and I understood more than I thought I would. On the other hand, although I understood key vocabulary, I didn't understand the key words that linked them together. For example, the monk actually brought up K. Sutipan's drinking problem but said that we should focus on the positive aspects of his character. However, what I thought he said at first was, K. Sutipan's drinking problem can be seen as a positive aspect... haha. Confused, I asked the math teacher and she clarified for me.
Thai people believe in ghosts or spirits. One of the teachers joked that during the day we laugh about it, but at night we take it seriously. The last night, I caught a ride home with two teachers who live close to me. I told them they could drop me off at the top of the hill where they turn up a small road to their house instead of going out of their way. My house was only two houses down. I could easily walk, I said. No, no, they insisted. We'll send you to your house. Otherwise, K. Sutipan will send you...
The cremation ceremony was held during the day on Friday. We're in the middle of rainy season. It had stayed pretty dry all week but it rained all day on Friday. Many people from the community, other schools, and the Education Service Area Office were there to send him off. K. Sutipan taught physical education as well as boy scouts and his body was dressed in his scout uniform. On the day of the cremation, many teachers wore their scout uniforms and brought groups of their students, also dressed in scout uniforms. We walked from the temple to the cremation site, and as the funeral procession passed, the scouts stood in formation and saluted him.
The coffin in the funeral procession
The cremation site
Teachers in their scout uniforms saluting
Students in scout uniforms saluting as the fire is lit for cremation
Once the fire is lit, the ceremony is over. It's not uncommon to see all dry eyes at funerals in Thailand. But there's a feeling of finality when you see that fire burning. I was sitting next to the science teacher who is always happy and positive and never seems to get angry or sad. She was sober but made it through the entire ceremony. After the final salute, she broke down and cried into her scout cap, the kind of crying where you can barely catch your breath. I had to struggle to keep from crying too. After one minute, she regained her composure and carried on.
