The Burial and Funeral Rituals of the Daur of China

Abstract

The article discusses the burial and funeral rituals that are conducted among the Daur of China from the moment a person dies until the point when the mourning stops. Drawing on both fieldwork and comparative research data, I attempt to examine the lesser known aspects of the rituals. For comparative purposes, both historical data on mediaeval peoples and contemporary data on Mongolian, Chinese, and Manchu-Tungus ethnic groups have been used. Even though the Daur burial and funeral rituals manifest a number of features that appear common among the neighbor peoples as well, still they remain unique and have their distinctive facets that can be traced to their early origins.