Tamang societies view death as a social creation. It is normally during
the death feasts that potential marriage couple form, so with that in
mind it is understandable that these death feasts are conducted
for adults only. At the ritual all connection between the dead and the
living are separated, from then on once the separation is complete the
living no longer have to fear the wraith of the dead.
Tamang
simultaneously engage Buddhist lamas who preside over elaborate rites of
death, sacrificial lambu who propitiate chthonic divinities and
exorcise harmful agents, and shamanic bombo who recapture lost shadow
souls, revive life-force, unveil an enigmatic divine, and reveal.
The Tamang take this very seriously, the whole point of this death
ritual is to keep the happy thoughts between the living and the dead
happy! If the deceased soul does not achieve a good rebirth then the
group that was responsible for completing that ritual are normally
plagued with bad luck. This is where the Lamas come into play; it is up
to them to ensure the safety of both the living and the dead. During the
funeral feast, the Lamas will call forth the 9 bla (shadow souls) that
inhabit the body. After removing them from the body he combines them all
together so that they form just 1 bla who can then be reborn.
It is imperative that this happens otherwise the bla will get angry and then everyone suffers.
As you can see, the topic of death rituals is very interesting, each
culture has their own reasons for doing it but at the end it is always
for the same reason. To maintain a good relationship between the living
and the dead.
