Skulls, Smoke, Spirits : Thailand's Ceremony for Unclaimed Dead

Flames crackle through piles of hundreds of human skulls and thick grey smoke pours into the Thai sky in a moment as spiritually significant as it is gruesome.

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The Lang Pacha ceremony is observed by Thats of Chinese descent to give a dignified funeral to the unclaimed dead. In Thailand, hospitals hand unidentified bodies and those with no-one to give them appropriate last rites to local foundations. These then bury the corpses in grave yards, sometimes for several years, before a weekslong ritual when they are exhumed, cleaned and all cremated together. In Buddhist belief, the spirits of the uncremated remain trapped between worlds and cannot be reincarnated until monks perform the proper rites. "Spirits without cremation still roam," said Pisit Pongsirisupakul, vice president of the Dhamma of Buddha Nakhon Ratchasima Foundation, which organised the event. They suffer and they can't b