Abstract

This thesis has three objectives which are 1) to study the history and the format of the funeral chanting ritual in the Thai society, 2) to study the funeral chanting ceremony for the Royal Remains of the Great Kings of Thailand, and
3) to study the values and benefits that might obtain from participating in the funeral chanting ceremony of the late His Majesty King BhumibolAdulyadej. This research was conducted by means of the documentary qualitative research. The researcher designed the research methodology by following these steps i.e. to study from the scriptures in Buddhism, Tripitaka, including documents, researches, and relevant articles. Moreover, the researcher also studied from the participation and experience in the funeral chanting rituals. The results of this research were:

The cause in delivering the Abhidhamma sermon occurred from the event that the Buddha brought The Seven Books of The AbhidhammaPitaka to kindly teach his mother in the second heavenly abode, Tavatimsa. However, the format of the funeral chanting ritual in the Thai society currently consisted of 2 forms which were 1) General Format means the format that is being used in the ritual as to perform religious practices for making merits to general people and 2) Royal Rhythm format means the format that is being used especially in the royal ceremony which are the royal funeral ceremony and the funeral related to the royal family only.

For the funeral chanting ceremony for the Royal Remains of the Great Kings of Thailand, according to the historical evidence, it appeared that it was considered to be a traditional practice since Ayutthaya Kingdom period. Moreover, it was found that there were 4 rhythms in chanting which were Ga Rhythm, Luen Rhythm, Lak Sung Rhythm, and Sorapanya Rhythm, which all of these has been called as the Royal Rhythm.

For the values and benefits that might obtain from participating in the funeral chanting ceremony of the late His Majesty King BhumibolAdulyadej consisted of 2 features which were value as norm of Buddhists on Management of Funeral Ceremonyandandvalue as participation the Funeral ceremony.

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