I was invited to attend a funeral for a friend's mother who had passed away.
On a personal note, I hadn't attended a real, traditional Lao Buddhist funeral and cremation from start to finish. So indeed this was the opportunity.
What ended up happening was that I found out, like many others who were there, that in fact the temple had scheduled two funerals at the very same time.
The event was not somber. It was stoic with moments of revelry but more than anything it was respectful.
For example, as the coffins were being brought in all attendees stood up in silence.
Another example, during part of the ceremony, people lined up to place a paper flower and incense on the coffin. And even though the two deceased and their two parties were separate, everyone from each group did this task for the other's deceased.
It was fascinating to see and not one bit of it entailed sadness or tears.
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