Funeral Procedure.

When someone in the family passes away, relatives and friends express their sorrow and mourning. According to the Red Lahu custom, if the dead person is a young child, the corpse can be buried within the same day. If the dead person is an adult, the corpse will be kept for one day, and the next dayit can be buried. There is no coffin. Instead , the relatives will cover the corpse with cloth or a reedmat.
Based on their belief, a chicken will be slaughtered and cooked as food for the dead person. They will cut a chicken wing with feathers and a chicken leg, sandwich them with a piece of bamboo strip ,and put them on the chest of the dead body. It is believed that the wing would become a fan to use to cool down with when feeling tired after along journey: The leg would become a digging tool for the dead person to dig for drinking water. Relatives have to find a handful of grass or pick up some leaves in the housing area that can be used as thatch, tie it and put it on the chest of the dead body. It is believed that the person can use it as a broom for cleaning. They alsq put some tin, the kind that they use to make a bullet, in the mouth of the corpse believing that this would be money for the dead to spend. A pot of rice will be cooked for the dead, putting in it charcoal or ash to make the rice look black and not suitable for eating. It is a sing to warn those who are still alive not to follow the dead because they will not have clean rice to eat.
The following day, relatives would tie a bamboo trunk on each side of the dead body and carry it to the village cemetery. The dead body will be carried down the house from the side wall, not down the ladder as they believe that the ladder is the way up and down for the living person. Crrying the dead body down the ladder may cause another member of the family to follow him in death.
In addition, the relatives will put the personal belongings of the dead person, such as pillow, blanket, clothes, and knife on the edge of the grave for the dead touse. A scientific and medical analysis suggests the hygienic usefulness of this treatment, cspecially if the dead person has an infectious disease, this will prevent the family members from infection.