Last Rites

I am grateful for the prayers, thoughts and concerns that were expressed in response to my post. My aunt finally breathed her last breath in the presence of family members last Thursday. Her suffering has ended and a new journey has begun for her. Mum and I left KL for Bagan Sungai Burung on Friday afternoon. The drive there was quite horrendous during the last leg as the trunk road leading from the PLUS exit to Sungai Burung is really bumpy (worse than Kuching by a factor of 3) and eerily devoid of vehicles. By the time we arrived at the village, it was around 6:00pm. Went to pay my respects and proceeded to make myself useful by folding paper offerings.

The funeral was quite unique. To me, it was kinda like a party with a buffet line. It's amazing that a funerary post like this can turn into a food post. Well, dinner was served at 7:00pm-- stewed duck, fried duck, fried suk yu (blanched and salted Mabong), stir-fried vegetables, Kung Pao cuttlefish, baked catfish, and seafood soup. Soon after dinner, the ceremony started. It was by a "troupe" from Penang. The members were multi-talented as they could all do prayers, chanting, opera and play musical instruments. Quite skillful but not very professional. Halfway through a ceremony, the guy's handphone rang with a cheerful CNY ringtone, and he just left the kneeling family members there to take the call!

As the chanting went on, food was continually served by the funeral parlour staff. It started with soya bean tong sui followed by char siew pau. Then came the chu cheong fun with chicken curry. Later was bubur cha-cha + black glutinous rice + red bean tong sui. By the time the fried bee hoon with fish curry came, I was stuffed. The ceremony was kinda like a show. Opera was infused into the liturgy. At certain points, they would act out scenes of filial piety, putting on their saddest facest and crying in order to make the family members wail even louder. At one point, the was a kejar-kejar scene around a 4-exit paper gateway. And during the bridge-crossing part, there was a very impressive portrayal of the Earth Treasure Boddhisatva and Chung Kwai. And the whole time, I was munching on peanuts and downing 'em with Carlsberg.

In the city, these things normally only go on till 11:00pm, but for my aunt's case, the rites only stopped at 1:30am. After they burned the paper mansion, car and other offerings (the tongues of flame reached up to the height of the electrical poles!), me and my mum went to find a place to get some shut eye. We slept in a dilapidated house across the street and boy, I was too tired to care. The next day, chicken rice was served for breakfast together with the leftover food from yesterday. More rites ensued and my aunt was buried in a cemetery nearby. My uncle donated some of the pak kam to MCA Youth, Wanita MCA, PKR and DAP. I have no idea what his political inclinations are. At the end of it, the funeral guy announced:

OK people. It's done. Go for tuo chiak!

Yes, people. More eating. This time it was at a seafood restaurant. Had steamed prawns, thai-style fish, fishball soup, mixed vegetables, and vegetable curry. The drive back was smooth and we somehow still found the energy to go shopping at Alamanda at night. :P. I found my "bottom" too, a pair of Esprit jeans. Hehehe.