Unusual cremation leaves woman’s skull intact in Thai temple

[webfact]

An unusual incident occurred at Wat Wang Boraphet in Uthai Thani province, where the skull of Jamrus Pachuthai, an 80 year old woman, remained almost intact after her cremation, while the rest of her body turned to ashes. This peculiar event took place at 4.30pm yesterday (January 8).

 

The abbot of the temple, Phra Khru Uthitthamakhun, recounted that after the cremation ceremony, a temple assistant was preparing the ashes for a merit-making ceremony. They were surprised to find the skull of Jamrus almost fully preserved amidst the ashes. The abbot speculated that this could be due to her regular acts of merit-making during her lifetime, resulting in this unusual phenomenon.

 

Sakorn Pachuthai, Jamrus’s husband, also expressed his surprise at the sight of the skull amid the ashes. He described it as if someone had placed the skull in the middle of the ashes, with the eye sockets and mouth still intact despite the flames. He added that his wife had been a strong woman who regularly visited the temple to make merit.

 

On the day the ashes were brought home, Sakorn related a strange occurrence. As the ashes were being carried into the house, dogs around the house started howling, alarming their daughter and leading her to wonder if her mother had returned.

 

by Samantha Rose 

Photo courtesy of Sanook

 

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[JoePai]

Should have used Gas Mark 9

[Tropicalevo]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The abbot speculated that this could be due to her regular acts of merit-making during her lifetime, resulting in this unusual phenomenon.

Or they just did not put enough wood and petrol at the head of the pyre.

(When my wife was cremated, there was more bone than ash for the urns.)

[hotandsticky]

7 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Or they just did not put enough wood and petrol at the head of the pyre.

(When my wife was cremated, there was more bone than ash for the urns.)

 

 

Indeed, that is normal.

 

Obviously, the heat does not match up to the 1,000 degrees Celsius that we get at my crematorium in the UK.

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Indeed, that is normal.

 

Obviously, the heat does not match up to the 1,000 degrees Celsius that we get at my crematorium in the UK.

Even then bone is left over and is ground to powder.

[tandor]

3 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Or they just did not put enough wood and petrol at the head of the pyre.

(When my wife was cremated, there was more bone than ash for the urns.)

to burn human remains properly, the heat needs to be at 1300+ degrees 'C' for 2+ hours; then the pelvis, femurs and skulls still need a 'ball mill' to crush to a fine ash, something that isn't done here, which is why the monk with family present the following day, goes through the bones and selects some bone and ash to be placed in the urn.

Depending on the grade of Crematorium, some are oil or gas fired and cheaper Crems use wood, some even throw a few tyres on to keep the heat up.

(Excuse my frank explanation)  RIP to your wife.

Edited January 9 by tandor

[Purdey]

She went to the temple often. Now I know what to do to leave my skull intact. Helpful.

[Tropicalevo]

35 minutes ago, tandor said:

Excuse my frank explanation

No problem thank you.

I am pretty relaxed about death in Thailand. I have been to quite a number of funerals.

The hardest part was for my wife's family (from the UK) when they saw me collecting the 'ashes'.  They wanted some to take back to the UK but the request from them was 'no bones'.

I had to sit on the floor with a hammer pulverising the bones for them. (A friend recently told me that it is quicker using a dumbbell!)

Now taking the ashes back to the UK via a stop over with friends in Turkey is a whole new TV series.

(Clue - suspicious white powder in the suitcase.)

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The abbot speculated that this could be due to her regular acts of merit-making during her lifetime, resulting in this unusual phenomenon.

Or she was just a hard-headed women.

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Indeed, that is normal.

 

Obviously, the heat does not match up to the 1,000 degrees Celsius that we get at my crematorium in the UK.

 

Personal experience?

 

 

[Regyai]

Methinks someone is withholding the lucky lottery numbers

[hotandsticky]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Personal experience?

 

 

 

 

Yes.

 

 

I own the crematorium.

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

They were surprised to find the skull

 

Alas, poor Yorick! (Hamlet)

[hotandsticky]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

Even then bone is left over and is ground to powder.

 

 

Yes, but the cremulation process is quite simple after that. 

 

 

The families receive an urn with only 'ashes'.

[ChrisKC]

The Abbot speculated...

 

What nonsense - so much for the "wisdom" of Buddhism!!

[brianthainess]

I have witnessed them smashing the bones up next day once cooled down. As said perfectly normal in Thailand.

[aussienam]

I am guessing that this lady when alive was very head-strong!!  

[natway09]

Only in the cities do they have a crusher.

Up here they get the bones still intact in a white bag, in fact in one instance that I know of they got sent back as still not well done".

The crematorium here is very basic & fire is started by wood & kept going by alcohol being poured over the body until the body fat takes over. Obviously the older the body the better it burns.

Went to a friends  in Patong where he had been kept for 5 months due to dispute over cause of death (another story for another day)) they lit it up, whoosh, no more smoke after about 3 minutes.

They are not ashes anywhere in the world, they are ground up very small bone fragments, only called ashes for the tender 

western world

 

[Baht Simpson]

Just speculation but here they use refrigerated coffins for some of the corpses, which means that bodies are often frozen solid when cremated.

 

The head is mostly bone rather than tissue so it might take longer to burn than the rest of the body. Still seems rather fanciful though.