Table 2.

Rituals Done After One Year to Promote Rebirth and Improve Spiritual Status

The Gift-Bestowal Ritual (Bangsoekool)	The “gift-bestowal ritual” (bangsoekool) is a special merit-making ritual during which items are given to monks at the temple, and then these objects—along with the merit made by doing this religious act—are said to reach the deceased to whom they are dedicated. Most often food is given, but also money, clothes, or other objects. The act of giving these objects to the deceased has deep emotional meaning, particularly if the death occurred during the Pol Pot period, because in the Pol Pot period food, clothing, and other essentials were severely lacking. To perform the gift-bestowal ritual, the names of deceased relatives are written on a piece paper. This paper along with offerings are given to the monks at the temple. The monk does a blessing with chanting and asks that the merit and objects reach the deceased. The monk's helper burns the pieces of the paper on which the name has been written, sending the blessings and items to the deceased in rising smoke. Next the helper pours water on the pieces of paper while each layperson also pours water into a small bowl. This pouring symbolizes that the “cooling” merit the person has made that will now reach the dead. (This putting out of a flame with water has deep resonances in the Cambodian culture: it represents the extinguishing of the hot fire of suffering and it recalls one of the most important Buddhist events that is extensively represented in Cambodian Buddhism, viz., the mother goddess washing away Mara and his demons with water wrung from her hair with that water representing all the merit the Buddha has made in his many lives.) The ritual can be done at any time, for example, after having a nightmare of the deceased, and the ritual can be tailored to the perceived needs of the deceased: if one dreams that the deceased lacks clothes or food, these may be given to the monks. As indicated in Table 1, the “gift-bestowal ritual” should be done for the deceased at seven days, at 100 days, and at one year. It is also an important part of two yearly societal-wide rituals aiming to make merit for the deceased, viz., New Years and Pheuchum Beun.
Merit-Making for the Dead: Chanting, Meditation, and Other Good Deeds	Merit is thought to be a supernatural spiritual substance that helps the dead to be reborn to a higher plane and ease their suffering; it has an erasing effect on bad merit that was accumulated from bad deeds in the past. Merit is made by making donations to the monks, doing good deeds, and performing any other religious act such as meditating. Some patients do chanting each evening or meditation (usually by attending to the breath) and share that merit with the deceased. After performing any merit-making activity, patients usually share the merit by doing the following: they raise the hands in front of the face with the finger tips pressed together to make a lotus form, then bend over at the head, and next ask that the merit they just made be sent to that deceased person. Even if a relative has been reborn, there is a sense that these rituals bestow blessings on them, and help to ensure their success in their new life after rebirth.
Food Offerings at the Home	Cambodians almost always have an altar where offerings are presented to the Buddha and deceased relatives. A Buddha image is placed on an elevated shelf and below it are often set family pictures. Food offerings—such as a fruit or some small portion of food from the meal being eaten that day—can be presented to the deceased at the altar, and so too flowers and a glass of fresh water. Upon giving food and other items to the deceased relative at the altar, Cambodians often light candles and incense sticks on the Buddha shelf in order to guide the deceased to the offering, and they may spray the altar with perfume. They may say something like the following, particularly if they recently dreamed of a relative: “Please take this food, and be reborn. Please do not keep circling around the living, be reborn.” Food and flowers are often offered at the home altar on Buddhist holy days (no moon, quarter moon, half moon, full moon), and some patients offer food every day that is taken from that day's meal.
Recalling-with-gratitude Ritual (nuk kun): A Home-Based Memorialization Ritual	Almost all Cambodian patients at the clinic regularly do a ritual called “recalling with gratitude” (nuk kun). It involves evoking positive memories of the deceased, particularly parents. To do this ritual, first one lights candles and incense on the home altar, then three times makes a devotional prostration—a kowtow-like motion but with the hands kept in a lotus form in front of the face—in obeisance to the Buddha and relatives. Next one puts the hands in front of the face in the lotus shape, and bends over the head against them. While in this bent-head position, one should think with gratitude towards the Buddha, his teachings, and monks, the so-called “three jewels”; next one should think of one's parents and others who have provide succor and all the while maintain the emotion of gratitude; ideally one should visualize one's parents while thinking about the particular acts of goodness they have done for one, such as one's mother nursing one or preparing meals. This ritual is supposed to have several effects. It helps one's own merit status, because one is acting with gratitude towards the good acts of others, which is considered a key virtue. Also, one is gaining protection by evoking these positive forces, that is, the Buddha, his teachings, the monks, and one's parent or parents, and additionally these positive forces help one to maintain virtuous actions. Finally, the recalling-with-gratitude ritual makes merit for the deceased; one is evoking the memory of that person's good actions, which increases their merit. Some patients mentioned that they acquired information about the deceased's spiritual state while doing the recalling-with-gratitude ritual: they would suddenly see the deceased in a dire state, such as being hungry or poorly dressed, indicating their dire spiritual status and their need for merit to be made for them.
Building a Stupa for the Deceased	After death, or in the following years, the urn of the deceased may be placed in a stupa, which is often about ten feet high, and that may have a special Buddha image in its upper portion or even a Buddha relic. The large stupa creates a sort of field of merit and placement in it helps the spiritual state of the deceased.
Other Large Scale Donation Ceremonies for the Deceased	Typical merit-making rituals would be giving alms to the poor at the temple in Cambodia, donating a pond or building to a temple, or performing the gift-bestowal ritual at the temple by presenting gifts to the monks. Often Cambodians make videos of these events to show relatives in the United States and to keep as a memento. One of these ceremonies is called “remembering the soul of the deceased” (rumluk winyeukhaan) and is centered on the gift-bestowal ritual but includes additional chanting.
Chhaa bangsoekool (bringing-out, gift-bestowal ritual)	In Lowell and other Cambodian communities in the United States, as well as in Cambodia itself, a traditional ritual is now sometimes performed but with a broadened aim. The traditional ritual is called “remembering the soul of the deceased” (rumluk winyieunakhaan) and was originally done for one deceased person represented by a corpse or by an ash-filled cremation urn. Now the rite has a broader range. All the urns at the temple are taken out and put on a table, and participants can either bring a picture of a relative who has died or simply conjure in mind the deceased while the ceremony is being performed. After chanting for about three hours, the monks anoint the urns with lustral water. The ceremony gives blessing to all the deceased conjured in the ceremony.
Delayed Actual Cremation and Symbolic Cremation	Those who died in the Pol Pot period never had cremation performed, and if there any indications that the person has not been reincarnated, such as a family member dreaming of the deceased, various rituals may be performed. If the body cannot be found to do cremation, monks can perform a ceremony in which the deceased's soul is transferred into a handful of soil, which is then deposited in the urn. To do the burial ceremonies and create the stupa may cost several thousand dollars. Many patients are upset about not being able to afford these rites and believe the deceased has not been reborn for this reason. After doing such rites, which are often done owing to having dreams of a deceased relative indicating they have not been reborn, frequently patients have a great decrease of bereavement, dreams of the dead, posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, and somatic complaints.