Buddhist Funeral in Nepal

 We were in Pokhara on April 24th and 25th. We were helping put on a neonatal resuscitation training program called Helping Babies Breath (HBB).  We watched a Nepali Buddhist funeral from our second story training hall on April 24th. I could not tell whether it was a Hindu funeral or a Buddhist funeral. One of the Nepali took one look and told us it was a Buddhist ceremony. We were told that the deceased was a policeman that was killed by falling rock when bicycling along a road that was under construction. Road construction sites in Nepal can be very dangerous.

The first thing that we saw was a man making what looked like a ladder. He was actually making a platform for the pallbearers to transport the body.

The body was wrapped in white cloth then colored strips of cloth and strings, with money attached, were draped over the deceased man.

Because of his status as a police officer he saluted by an honor guard.

When the procession left the site, they were proceeded by a white banner. They were taking the body to a Buddhist temple where it would remain for three days. Then the Buddhist priest would removed the money and cremated the body at the temple. Hindu's cremated their deceased at a river or a temple that is located on a river.