Khmer Funeral Culture

I am not an expert on Khmer and its Buddist / ancestor worship beliefs, but we are exposed to it often, at times more than others. Take yesterday morning and this morning at 4:45 am for example. A funeral is being held in the house directly across the road. This means that at this early hour all the local Khmer come out and stand on cats tails until they squeel to a decibel level that can ruin your hearing. (Okay they call it Khmer traditional music with tinny instruments.) They also whine and chant. Funerals may last a couple of days through to seven days, with repeat events a few months and a year afterwards.

Traditionally in the villages, in the early hours, men would cry out loudly so the village knew the family were in mourning, people would gather at the home and musicians would play music. Days of ceremony would ensue with extended appeasement of the dead spirit so they would not be haunted but rather be blessed in the future.

Here in Phnom Penh, the houses are only metres from each other, the streets are narrow, ... and they have discovered loud speakers. So the whole neighbourhood is drawn into the process - ealry in the morning and late into the night.  At times the streets are completely blocked, this is normal for a funeral. On some occasions, like this, a small gap is left for bikes to get through.

The Khmer have little concept of personal and private space, so our front verge (Which in most houses like ours would be caged in) has become a public bike park. I had to move a space clear through them this morning to get out of the house. ( They don't mind you doing that, throughout the city people are always moving other people's vehicles to get past, they even leave their handbreaks off in cars so they can be pushed if they are in the way - Phnom Penh is flat, so they are not going to roll anywhere).

Please pray for protection for our family at this time. There is a lot of communication with evil spirits and other missionary friends of ours have reported seeing demonic figures during the night at times of celebration and appeasement of dead ancestors.