spirituality - lesson 18: death

detail of 'the book of the dead' an ancient egyptian funerary text life is so valuable that it is at the very core of our moral actions. death is therefore a powerful force in life and like birth is the most significant point in each of our lives. for humans the difference between life and death is a concept that goes back 40,000 years. back then of course the definition of death was easy; more so than it is today. the growth of medical knowledge now tells us that if the heart stops beating the person is not necessarily dead and someone can be in a coma for months and yet still be living. but whilst the definitions of death may have changed the ritualistic attitude towards death and the value of life is one that is universal and the metaphysical existence of an afterlife remains beyond the understanding of science. it is also true that each culture needs an idea of the meaning of death. what the purpose of death is and what happens afterwards provides an understanding that helps responding to death. how a person feels when approaching death and those around them will be influenced by social and / or spiritual beliefs. perspectives on death are so various that we could probably create a whole course on the subject (we probably will). in this lesson we shall take a look at just a few customs related to death from cultures across the world and through history... burial confucian society places importance on the four cardinal points, believing they have mystical powers. koreans are therefore buried standing vertical in coffins made of 6 planks of wood. the four sides represent these cardinal points of the compass, whilst the top and bottom represent the sky and earth. in dhalwangu, yirrkala and liyagawumirr clans of the nothern territory in australia have a tradition of coffins made from hollowed out tree trunks. log coffins are

decoratively painted in pattern that are related to the family of the deceased and refer to the hazardous journey of the soul. they are mounted upright above the ground and left until nature's forces have worn them away. on a practical level a community must decide what to do with a body after a person has died. the attitudes to how the body must be treated vary from culture to culture. from a grand mausoleum such as the taj mahal to the cutting up of the body for birds to eat in some tibetan tribes, disposal of the body holds important meaning culturally. ritual disposal of the body provides a focus of mourning at any scale, from a small funeral to a state affair. monuments provide an opportunity to perpetuate the dead's identity. whilst the body decays the name remains and the memory of where their body last lay. this idea is clearly reflected in the indian taj mahal which was built as a tribute to wife of the mughal emperor shah jahan. likewise christian gravestones do the same job. in italy, there are a many capuchin crypts, in rome, for example, there is one beneath the capuchin church of the immaculate conception. this crypt contains the resting bodies of monks and most intriguingly it's walls are decorated with their bones. creating patterns of flowers, circles, triangles and more, the bones are nailed throughout. a large clock made of vertebrae, foot and finger bones shows only an hour hand, representing the idea that time has no beginning or end. for the capuchin monks it was a huge honor to be buried in this crypt, but even more so to have their bones used as decoration. in other cultures the external monument is not as important. the tibetan communities who fed the body to the birds reflected their belief that the soul had left the earth and so the body did not matter any more, and that the birds, being animals of the sky could transmit the soul to the heavens. environment contribute to ritual also, the tibetan monks live in mountains and so digging a grave is not easy. similarly seaside communities will often perform sea burials, returning fishermen's bodies to the elements. interestingly there have been 150 space burials until now! that is, there are 150 remains of people currently orbiting earth.

illustration from a copy of the bardo thodol, a tibetan funeral text. the text is recited by lamas over a dying or dead person. the name translates literally as 'liberation through hearing in the intermediate state'

engraving by master en for the 'ars moriendi' ('the art of dying') 15th century european christian books which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death and on how to 'die well'

aboriginal log coffins

female mourners in northern papua new guinea

the terracotta army of emperor qin shi huangdi, china

the crypt at the capuchin church of the immaculate conception, containing the bones of over 4000 monks preparation for an afterlife

years of archeology has found the placing of tools, ornaments, bartering goods and food in burial grounds all over the world; from the placing of stone tools in the burial pits of prehistoric man to the terracotta army of emperor qin shi huangdi in china. for cultures that believe in the afterlife the burial of artefacts along with the body hold huge importance. in some cases the person's life dictates what is buried, for example a warrior might be left with his swords. in most cases we can be true in believing that grave goods are meant as a kind of survival kit for an afterlife. the idea of an afterlife is perhaps one of the most inspiring ideas of mankind. whilst we can not truly know, humans have seen their bodies changed and develop through a lifetime whilst individual identity remains largely the same. so it seems it is only natural to wonder if this development continues after death. generally grave goods reflect the idea that the afterlife is a prolonged continuation of this life and that the object we need here and now will also be needed in the next stage. they also reflect the belief that social status survives not simply the soul. the idea of the afterlife being a place of reward or punishment appears much later in human history and since then has became a moral influence on the world and a way of shaping societies. grief and mourning is a biological reaction to death. as humans we instinctively feel emotion as a result of the passing away of a loved one or respected figure in the community / society. in every culture crying (or wanting to cry) is an instinct that follows a death. other responses are influenced by personality, family, culture and spiritual beliefs. for example; in judaism the mourning period is one week long and is called shiv'ah. participation is only for the seven first degree relatives; father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, or spouse (children and grandparents are not included). in collingwood bay, northern papua new guinea, female relatives made their grief visible by plastering their bodies with white clay. they also wear clothing made of grey seeds which should be worn for a year. a wife will then symbolically throw the item away, meaning she may now remarry. in some cultures mourning is not done. take for example the baha'i who regard death as the messenger or joy for the deceased. they have a complicated burial ritual that involves the body being buried no further than one hour away from where it last stood. the body is washed and wrapped in a shroud before being recited the prayer for the dead. however once this ceremony is perform there is no mourning rituals at all. name taboos in many tribes in south america, australia, east africa and north india there are certain beliefs surrounding saying the name of someone who has recently died. (it is interesting to note that these areas are so far spread across the world and yet the rituals are all very similar.) it is believed that by naming the deceased their soul or ghost will return to the community and become an unwanted presence. each tribe have their own way of overcoming this. for example the masai of east africa change the dead person's name and so if he is referred to with in the community the ghost will not return as he does not recognise his new name. other tribes simply ban the name either for a certain period of time or until the body is decayed, for others the name is banned forever, including any word that reassembles it. so if someone was once called 'tree' the community would

then have to call a tree by another name. in this case it has an extreme effect on the language. when words have to be continually changed over time generations are speaking differently to their predecessors.

masks
in some cultures masks are an important form of decoration and in particular representation in the burial procedure. we are perhaps most aware of this in ancient egyptian ritual, the most notable mask being that of tutankhamun. the more elaborate the mask, or the most craftsmanship that went into it's creation is indicative of the person buried. the purpose of the burial mask was to provide the dead with a face for the afterlife. during the 17th century a different sort of death mask became popular in intellectual circles. a cast would be made of the dead person's face and them used to create a portrait. the replicas were characteristic of the subtle distortions of features and the dead flesh loses tension. these death masks were used as effigies at funerals or as identification records. for some more death masks of historical figures. more

aztec death mask C. 1400 AD, inlaid with turquoise - an offering to the god queztalcoatl or tlaloc

a chancay burial mask, peru, circa 1400AD

burial masks from the tome of lorn sican , peru

personification of death
practically every culture throughout civilization has created a figure for death. in the most ancient civilizations death was usually a feminine figure, and then from classical greek era to the present death is more usualy referred to as masculine. the universal personification of death is attributed to the tendancy of humans to try and understand the world as a humanlike entity. in this case death becomes less frightening and more palpable in the form of a human (although there are some cultures that use imagery of animals also). in modern western culture the image of the grim reaper is prevalent and it is a result of the violent plague in the middle ages of europe. the figure is preserved in art and literature as a 'momento mori' (remider of death), and reflects the fragile and transient nature of human kind. let us now take a look at a few examples...

yamaraja is one of the mahajanas, the twelve persons authorized to properly maintain the human civilization. he is a deity of death in the hindu book of vedas. yamaraja takes a living entity who has committed a sinful life to a place of judgment, where the life, air, desires and senses are released and yamaraja decides what type of body the entity will receive next. usually yamaraja is picutred as very good looking, yet fearful and often in black.

maalik (ezra'eil) or azrael as it is more commonly known, is a name created for the angel of death in muslim and islam theology. although there is reference to the angel in the qur'an, the name azrael does not appear. he is one of the four archangels of islam and keeps a book in which he writes names in at birth and erases them at death. his job is to sever the connection between soul and body and accompany the soul to heaven.

izanami is a godess from japanese shinto mythology and the personification of the earth

and darkness. she died whilst giving birth to the fire god kagutsuch and was then taken to the underworld where she then ruled. her husband izanagi tried to rescue her but she refused to leave and sealed the entrance of the underworld with the aim to trap him there also. but izanagi escaped making izanami furious. she then vowed to kill a thousand of izanagi's subjects a day.

thanatos is the name of the classical greek image of death. he is the win broth of hypnos god of sleep. in this tradition life and death were seen as opposites and characturised as feminine and masculine. death, and thanatos, were therefore male. thanatos accompanies the deceased to hades and hands them over to the charon who rows them across the sinister river that separates the underworld from the rest of the world. compared with judeo-christian religion's conotations of sin with death, classical greek beliefs of death were fairly upbeat and thanatos was usually pictures as an ernest, winged youth holding an extinguighed flare, a wreath or sometimes a butterfly.

ankouis a skeleton ghost that is recognised in parts of france, but was most popular during the middle ages. he travels by night with a coach drawn by four hourses. two assistant skeletons walk beside him helping to collect the souls of the departed.

mictlantecuhtli

is the god of the dead in ancient aztec mythology, he is ruler of the lowest region of the inderworld. he is sometimes depicted as a skeleton covered in blood, or with a toothy smile. his symbolic animals are the spider, the owl, and the bat. imagery of him links both to life as well as death, as bones were seen as a symbol of fertility.

the grim reaper is a medieval personification of death, created as a reminder of not leading a wasteful life and for atonement before the end. his is predominately a european contrust that has now become, certainly in the west, a popular figure of death in culture. he takes on the appearance of a skeleton, usually holding a scythe which is used to harvest the soul.

national celebration days

qing ming (or cheng beng as it is called in malaysia), is primarily a chinese festival celebrating and remembering the dead. money and consumer goods both made from paper are burnt at funerals and at the qingming festival on april 5th every year. this day, also know as tomb sweeping day, is one in which the ancestors are remembered and offered gifts so that the spirit ancestor stays happy and

looks after the living relatives (rather than haunting them). the paper objects include clothes, footwear, cars, refrigerators, spectacles for reading and sun protection, cameras, video games, karaoke sets, hi-tech phones with digital camera and internet, whole roast pigs and homes complete with swimming pool, gardens, guard and maid! also it is traditional for family members to create 'yuan bao', which are folded paper gold ingots. this ritual stems from the daoist ritual at funerals that the burning of the favourite goods in a 'soul house' will release their spirit to join the spirit ancestor.

paper consumer goods

paper beer cans for burning

paper money being burnt at a cemetary

stick with coloured paper are left in the ground next to a grave to tell passersby that the persons relatives are remembering them

da de los muertos 'the day of the dead' is a mexican festival that dates back to the aztec goddess of death mictecacihuatl (lady of death). customs include welcoming the dead back into the homes of relatives, remembering the dead and celebrating their souls. today the day still consists of these rituals, with lots of eating food together and street parades. cakes and sugar sweets are made in the form of skulls and people paint their faces and wear flowers. in the home and at graveyards offerings are left to ancestors, things such as alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, snacks, flowers and so on. despite the open fatalism the day is a joyful one that recognises the cycle of life, birth and death, that is human existence. throughout the mexican communities the day of the dead is practiced to varying degrees, from the celebrative to the wholly religious.

an alter in a family home, with offerings of food

a girl paints her face and wears flowers on day of the dead

sugar sweets in the form of skulls

memento mori
below is a memento mori, a form of image that urged a european person of the late middle ages to remember thy death. to do this, a memento mori might represent death as a human skeleton - perhaps as the grim reaper gathering his harvest- or it might depict human bodies in an advanced state of decay. its purpose is to remind the viewer that death is an unavoidable part of life, something to be prepared for at all times. memento mori images are graphic demonstrations of the fact that death was not only a more frequent, but a far more familiar occurrence in medieval europe than it is today.

memorial jewellery accessories were very popular over the course of the 17th to 19th centuries, and guided the memorial industry to produce a wide variety of memorial and sentimental items, ranging from snuffboxes to household items. watches and clocks with the memento mori motifs were not uncommon, examples exist from switzerland, france, germany and england. the skull and watch are part of the standard subject matter of vanitas still lifes. vanitas is from the latin for emptiness or untruth, from which comes the english word vanity.

exercise
design memento mori accessories! skull symbols see designbooms history page