Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

The unceremonious mode of burying the dead referred to by Knox is not adopted in the more settled districts on the sea coast. When at Galle I enquired into the funeral customs there prevalent, with the following result[3]: A few hours after a man has died, the relations wash the corpse, shave it; and, having clothed it with a strip of clean white cloth, place it on a bedstead covered with white cloth, and under a canopy (wiyana) also of white cloth. They then place two lamps, one to burn at the head, and the other at the foot of the corpse, and use perfumes. A coffin is then prepared, covered with black cloth; and the body is placed on the coffin, and is then sprinkled over with lavender or rose-water. The women meanwhile bow backwards and forwards with their hands behind their heads, uttering loud wailings over the deceased. Then the male relatives carry the coffin to the grave, which is dug in one of their own cocoa-nut topes near by, and over which is raised a more or less elaborate canopy or arch of cloths and evergreens (gedi-ge), adorned with the tender leaves and flowers of the cocoa-nut. Along the path also from the house to the grave young cocoa-nut leaves and flowers are sometimes hung, and the pathway itself is often spread with clean white cloths. The tom-tom beaters go first; and the dull monotonous [1. In the older editions of Knox there is a curious engraving of a body being thus burnt.