Monk, death and stupa: funerary patterns and praxis in primitive Buddhism from archaeological and textual sources

Abstract

The article presents and discusses the funerary patterns and praxis in primitive Buddhism, revised from archaeological and textual sources. Although records of funerary evidence existed since the beginning of Buddhist studies, they have not received attention until a decade ago. Presumed canonic silence and supposed inexistence of death rituals among Buddhists were especially due to a primacy of textual over archaeological and ephigraphic sources. A revision of these sources confirms the existence of recurrent funerary patterns, and allows to delineate practices which occured in funerals during primitive Buddhism.