How Much When You Die In Thailand?

[cardholder]

[quote name='nidieunimaitre' timestamp='1332052462' post='5144051'

Surely, the monks will point out to the people that this is NOT what buddhism is all about, that in fact, all that showing off is very unbuddhist?

That was intended to be ironic - wasn't it ?

are you being sarcastical?

google ni dieu ni maitre

You didn't answer the question

[473geo]

One of the most unforgetable sights I saw in Thailand was while travelling at night out in the sticks, we passed what was clearly a body wrapped in cloth suspended about 2ft above a red hot fire slowly being cremated, on a plot of land next to a house. Would surely have taken a few days to fully burn unless after a time they doused it with an accelerant.....seemed to me to be a quiet, low cost, dignified way to go

[cardholder]

A funeral is as a wedding, a birthday or any other important party: Show off!! I've been to funerals which must have cost millions and the result is the same: the body has gone up in smoke.

Absolutely correct. Showing off -all about face!

Far better to spend the money when alive.

Surely, the monks will point out to the people that this is NOT what buddhism is all about, that in fact, all that showing off is very unbuddhist?

I can't imagine that the monks would be so altruistic, so as to bite the hand that feeds them.

[strollling]

The cost depends on if the locals know there's a farang in the family.

Edited March 18, 2012 by strollling

[terryq]

Costs vary from 10k or less up to million plus. Monks do not usually quote a price for services , but there are "suggestions", per monk, per chanting, rent of room etc.

Most funerals I've been to here the body had been shot full of embalming fluid for the 3 or 7 day laying in the wat . More up market is holding the cremation 100 days after death. Never been to a burial, think maybe some Chinese groups may go in for that.

On a lighter note.. the cheapest way to dispose of a body is to dump it near the local kebab stall or Thai sausage maker.....100% re-cycled.

[strollling]

I wonder if that famous monk in Central Thailand that has the 50 million baht Bentley does stuff for free.

[kropotkin]

A funeral is as a wedding, a birthday or any other important party: Show off!! I've been to funerals which must have cost millions and the result is the same: the body has gone up in smoke.

Absolutely correct. Showing off -all about face!

Far better to spend the money when alive.

Surely, the monks will point out to the people that this is NOT what buddhism is all about, that in fact, all that showing off is very unbuddhist?

I can't imagine that the monks would be so altruistic, so as to bite the hand that feeds them.

I can't imagine that the monks would be so buddhistic, so as to bite the hand that feeds them.

[Spoonman]

I wonder if that famous monk in Central Thailand that has the 50 million baht Bentley does stuff for free.

The Bentley was a gift.

[elliss]

Would there be a way to avoid the Wat?

Perhaps an officialised statement that I want a non religious burial?

I worry that if I leave it up to my wife, she will let herself be conned into paying monks.

Are there non-religious enterprises that take care of funerals?

someone already pointed out ,you can offer your body to medical research and the red cross will cover expenses of taking it away

and disposing of the parts that cant be retro fitted to a rich person

that will do for me ,

as long as i get a cut, out of the proceeds ,

RIP

[sakaew]

A few years ago..my friend croaked while watching TV at home. His wife found him in front of the TV when she woke up. Quite spoiled her day.

Anyway.....she called Sawang Booriboon--it was in Pattaya--who came, took away the remains, and charged her 2000 baht.

Then came the question of the coffin.

She went to the coffin shop at the top of Naklua Road..a few doors before Sukhumvit.

Yes..they DID have larger coffins, appropriate for tall ( long?) farang.

They also had a proper hearse, and told her it was illegal to charge to take away a body.

THAT SHOP would do all the funeral stuff....but since she was already commited to Sawang B...she declined their ofer.

Unless something has changed since then, those wanting something diffrent from the usual temple wedding, may want to ask at any coffin shop.

[Thongkorn]

The total cost of the cremation at the wat on Pattaya Tai of an acquaintance came to an all up 40K baht. My wife has instruction to leg my corpse up to our village just outside Lomsak and hold a simple bonfire, no monks and a minimal celebration of my life. The quote from the local wat was 3K baht. As with most things in Thailand, up to you.

Some years ago a UK couple agreed on the minimum of fuss. When the old fellow died she was going to transport the corpse from the local hospital on the roof rack of their Morris Minor Traveller. A friend interceded and they used his Volvo Estate car instead. He was buried at the bottom of the garden of his house. I don't know whether that is legal now. It was for my cat.

Obviously you where living in a Council house.

[kropotkin]

The total cost of the cremation at the wat on Pattaya Tai of an acquaintance came to an all up 40K baht. My wife has instruction to leg my corpse up to our village just outside Lomsak and hold a simple bonfire, no monks and a minimal celebration of my life. The quote from the local wat was 3K baht. As with most things in Thailand, up to you.

Some years ago a UK couple agreed on the minimum of fuss. When the old fellow died she was going to transport the corpse from the local hospital on the roof rack of their Morris Minor Traveller. A friend interceded and they used his Volvo Estate car instead. He was buried at the bottom of the garden of his house. I don't know whether that is legal now. It was for my cat.

Obviously you where living in a Council house.

?? please explain.

[marstons]

i have been to a few funerals thai and Farang, i would say the price range is quite big. cheapest was my neighbor died Wednesday, wife was at German Embassy Thursday and burnt him friday with out telling anybody, by chance i had gone to the temple to sit with him for a while in the Cool Box coffin. My wife said on the side of the "coffin" it said dontated by the people of Thailand.

No food or drinks, on the Wednesday night at small wake, a bit of an argument broke out with the monks about how many robes should be donated, the wife friend chirped up he was only a farang, the monk replied farangs are human beings as well.

So thats the cheap way.

As friends of a dead guy we were qouted 500 baht for him to stay in fridge in hospital, NOK would not sign it off so he stayed out for a few months, not pleasant when the day came. He had changed his name by deed pole so NOK disowned him. His place in Plai Leam temple is on you tube due to his name change.

2 other guys i knew were to big for a Thai Fridge and Cremation Doorway.

Repatriation for me.

so upto you how much, how big a wake, for how long and what style box you want.

[metisdead]

Nonsense posts and replies have been removed.

[Trembly]

Even in our small village out in the boonies, a funeral is usually quite expensive, 60,000 to 100,000 baht is normal. There is a three day party with lots of food and drink, some even have dancing girls.

I personally think it is a foolish custom. I intend to die here and to be cremated. I told my wife that I didn't want any sort of party. She actually got upset and told me not to talk about it because it is NOT up to me. She said "It's up to me, not you".

Haha! Made oi laaf! She's right, in a way. Unless you get into her dreams after you die and threaten not to let her in on any lottery numbers whatsoever. Not even one.

[Trembly]

Even in our small village out in the boonies, a funeral is usually quite expensive, 60,000 to 100,000 baht is normal. There is a three day party with lots of food and drink, some even have dancing girls.

I personally think it is a foolish custom. I intend to die here and to be cremated. I told my wife that I didn't want any sort of party. She actually got upset and told me not to talk about it because it is NOT up to me. She said "It's up to me, not you".

I believe many of the village type people pay very small monthly or annual sums to insurance companies that will come up with the cost of their funeral when the time comes. Premiums being age dependent of course.

These funeral cooperatives are common and they do pay out without any fuss whatsoever. The premiums can be as little as 5 Baht a month.

[Bagwan]

The total cost of the cremation at the wat on Pattaya Tai of an acquaintance came to an all up 40K baht. My wife has instruction to leg my corpse up to our village just outside Lomsak and hold a simple bonfire, no monks and a minimal celebration of my life. The quote from the local wat was 3K baht. As with most things in Thailand, up to you.

Some years ago a UK couple agreed on the minimum of fuss. When the old fellow died she was going to transport the corpse from the local hospital on the roof rack of their Morris Minor Traveller. A friend interceded and they used his Volvo Estate car instead. He was buried at the bottom of the garden of his house. I don't know whether that is legal now. It was for my cat.

Obviously you where living in a Council house.

And you are obviously WRONG. I lived with my parents in a council house untiI was 15 years of age, when I then enlisted in the Royal Navy. I lived in rented accomodation in Malta when stationed there, and in a married quarter at Weymouth on return to a UK posting. I bought my first house on my 24th birthday (on Navy Pay!!!) and have owned every house that I have lived in since then.

Why you should think that I relied on others to put a roof over my head because I buried a cat who was very much part of our family at the bottom of my garden escapes me. That doesn't make logical sense, even to a Thai. Come to think of it. burying an ex-cat wouldn't make sense to most Thais.

My wife's son who could not read or write at the age of 16 in spite of attending school and private lessons, was farmed out to a wat for six months in the hope that the monks would impart a measure of education. On the third day he phoned home, and said that he had attended a funeral and was paid 3K baht. I offered to buy him a machine gun and then he could retire by the time he was 20. When I asked him whose mobile he was using he said it was his and a monk gave it to him. I was a tad surprised when after 6 months he returned to the fold without a laptop.