Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines Thai death rituals for the living and their material aspects. Special attention is paid to guest-host relationship established by the insertion of subjects into an ambivalent and liminal space of death.

Paper long abstract:

A long-standing, but until recently rather esoteric practice in Thai Buddhism is based on the belief that by undergoing a symbolic death ritual one to get rid of bad luck (khro), or even negative karma. By 'sleeping' in a coffin, or simply by being covered with a white cloth usually used for corpses, and undergoing a ritual that emulates parts of a 'real' funeral, people are hoping to overcome and prevent bad luck. This ritual - only performed in a few temples and contested by more orthodox monks - has recently gained popularity, was the topic of a successful Thai horror movie and has been the subject of ongoing media attention in Thailand and abroad. By looking at the connection between the materiality of the coffin and the white cloth as markers of the entrance into a space of death, this presentation shall conceptualize the insertion of the subject into this space as a guest-host relationship. Coffin and cloth here act as containing, but at the same time separating material entities deriving their power from a long history in Theravada Buddhist thought. By being a temporary guest in the realm of death, the ritual draws its power from ambivalence, disjunction and dislocation: attached bad luck, or spirits that have invaded the subject, can be 'cheated' and expelled by this symbolic death.