Cited by 2Indian and Buddhist StudiesDeath, Funerary Practices, and MourningStudy and Philosophy of Religion

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 2 of the 2 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 91 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Une interprétation bouddhique des rites funéraires du Lanna et du Laos : le sutta apocryphe de Mahā Kāla

Open access
Lagirarde, François·1998·Aséanie

Abstract

The Pavarabandha (Pvb) is a Buddhist text written in Northern Thai and in Lao that can be found on palm leaf manuscripts kept in wat libraries. The Pvb is made of three sections dealing with death, funerals, reincarnation and meditation. This article is a presentation and a translation of the first part of the Pvb. This part tells the story of Mahā Kalā Thera, an old bhikkhu who decided to meditate in a cemetery. There he directed the funerary rites performed before the cremation of a young woman. The monk commented on and explained these rites, which had apparently not been fully appreciated by the people. Since this section of the Pvb starts with the well know evam me suttam Pali formula we refer to it as Mahâ Kalà's apocryphal Sutta. This "Sutta" appears under different names in the Thai-Lao Buddhist literature, independently of the Pvb. It is also known in Khmer and, very significantly, in Mon. Its origin is to be found partly in ancient canonical texts and partly in death rituals that developed in Peninsular Southeast Asia from Buddhist and non-Buddhist beliefs.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This article presents and translates the first part of the *Pavarabandha*, a Northern Thai/Lao Buddhist anthology on death, focusing on the apocryphal *sutta* of Mahā Kāla. It argues that this text interprets thirteen funerary rites as Buddhist metaphors about impermanence, attachment, rebirth, and nibbāna, and that versions circulated widely across Thai-Lao, Mon, and Khmer traditions.

Key findings

  • The *Pavarabandha* is a three-part collection on death; its first part tells how the elder Mahā Kāla meditates in a cemetery, directs the funeral of the young woman Khemāvatī, and explains the rites to King Pasenadi. Because it opens with the Pali formula *evam me suttam*, the author calls it Mahā Kāla’s apocryphal *sutta*.
  • The text prescribes thirteen ritual acts, including washing the corpse, tying wrists and ankles, placing two wooden planks in the coffin, using a water pot, descending the coffin by a three-rung ladder, breaking the pot and ladder, drawing a line across the path, processing without looking back, circling the pyre three times, applying ordinary water and coconut juice to the face, cutting the cords, and putting money in the mouth.
  • The author reports that ten of these thirteen rites appear in the Khmer *Ariyapuggala*; related Mon texts include *Anissamsa Kammathân* and *Slaput Kalate*, and Thai *anisansa* versions carry titles meaning “care of the corpse.” Sommai Premchit’s catalogue lists seven *Pavarabandha* copies in seven monastery libraries among twenty-three surveyed in Chiang Mai.
  • Doctrinally, the rites are read as dharmic metaphors: the three-rung ladder and three circumambulations evoke the three realms or existences, the water pot and broken ladder symbolize impermanence and non-return, coconut juice versus ordinary water contrasts pure and defiled minds, and money in the mouth ironically exposes the uselessness of wealth at death.

Methods

  • The study is a philological presentation and French translation of the first section of the *Pavarabandha*, based mainly on manuscript A from Vat San Pong, Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, with collation of thirteen other working copies from Chiang Mai, Vientiane, and the Social Research Institute.
  • It compares the text with Pali canonical and commentarial sources, especially *Theragāthā* verses and their commentaries, the *Dhammapada-atthakathā*, and Singhalese adaptations, as well as vernacular Thai-Lao, Mon, and Khmer versions.
  • The main analysis identifies the ritual sequence and pairs each act with its doctrinal interpretation, while tracing parallels and differences across regional Buddhist literatures.

Limitations

  • The author states that the text is not an objective ethnographic report but a homiletic and doctrinal work with proselytizing aims, and that its rituals and explanations may coincide only loosely.
  • The author states that a full understanding of each ritual case would require separate detailed study, which this article does not undertake, and that some hypotheses about Mon origins and pre-Buddhist Southeast Asian settings remain cautious.
  • Evident from the text: the translation rests primarily on one manuscript with collated copies, dating is uncertain, some Pali phrases are corrupt or difficult, and the argument about Mon manuscript omissions is qualified by lack of access to original manuscripts.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3406/asean.1998.1595

Cites

2 of 2 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

74 Sources not found · 29 No basis given · 28 Own interpretation · 21 Own result · 6 Not checked yet · 2 Own method

Show all 30 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 101
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 81
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 3
130 of 130
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Textual parallels and shared ritual elements across Smk, Mon, Khmer, and Thai-Lao sources indicate historical diffusion or borrowing rather than independent parallel development.

    “Cette remarquable diffusion nous apprend que Smk est donc loin d'être un texte rare ou particulier à un groupe ethnique ou à un autre, même si sa lointaine origine (un millénaire?) est certainement à trouver chez les Môns.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The funerary rites described in Smk correspond, at least partially, to rites still observable in northern Thailand and Laos.

    “L'un des aspects les plus intéressants du sutta apocryphe de Mahà Kâla réside dans la présentation et l'explication des rites funéraires tels qu'on peut encore partiellement les observer dans le nord de la Thaïlande et au Laos.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Coconut juice is considered pure, in contrast to ordinary water.

    “La longue comparaison qui va suivre ne se comprend qu'en sachant que le jus de noix de coco est considéré comme pur par opposition à l'eau ordinaire.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The metaphor is a classical way of evoking a tiny and worthless thing.

    “Métaphore classique pour évoquer une chose minuscule et sans valeur.”
4 of 4

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

3 of 3

Metadata

Authors
Lagirarde, F.
Corresponding author
Lagirarde, François
Venue
Aséanie
Published
1998
Volume
2
Issue
1
Pages
47-77
ISSN
0859-9009 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2060662092
Cited by
2
References
1
Citations by year
2015: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
fr
Open access
Locations
  • Aséanie (publishedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
Keywords
funerary practices, Lao Buddhism, cremation, Khmer Buddhism

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-05, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-05 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review