This study explores the Free Funeral Service Societies, a social movement in Myanmar
merging charitable work with Buddhism. Originating in late 1990s in response to rising …

This article examines the role of Free Funeral Service Societies in informing ongoing
changes in Burmese society in two aspects: economy of merit and civil society. This article …

Free Funeral Service Societies (FFSSs) 2 appeared in Myanmar in the late 1990s, initially in
response to rising costs for funeral services (and especially for funeral transportation) as a …

This chapter examines death in the Theravada tradition through the lens of funeral practice,
which incorporates normative discourses on death and suffering as well as karmic tales of …

How can people living in one of the poorest countries in the world be among the most
charitable? In this book, Hiroko Kawanami examines the culture of giving in Myanmar, and …

Across the Theravāda Buddhist world, funerals are often described as the most important
of the life cycle rituals. 1 Within the philosophical canon of Theravāda Buddhism, death …

Among Burmese Buddhists, and indeed throughout the Theravāda world, an invitation to
participate in rituals is often followed by a common intention,“let's make merit”(B.: kutho ya …

This book describes and analyses the structure and performance of Tibetan Buddhist death
rituals, and situates that performance within the wider context of Buddhist death practices …

Abstract In the Chinese Malaysian Buddhist community, when a person dies, funeral rites
are performed to ensure the well-being of the deceased. On reflection, some of these funeral …

This paper explores how conceptions of death and the ways in which such conceptions
shape responses to death determine ways of living as well as valued approaches to dying …