# “Lang Pa Cha” Thai bone cremation - what is done with the flesh?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 16, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597 "2018-11-16T03:01:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597/1 "2018-11-16T03:01:05Z")

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People are spreading pics of a Thai funeral ceremony where they strip the flesh from a cadaver and falsely claiming cannibalism. The truth is they are removing the flesh because they only cremate the bones.  
Here’s the Snopes article about it - warning, VERY gory pics.

> **[Thai 'Cannibalism' Photographs](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/marrow-escape/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1kr-m2413WDqPXWSjDNRkqfWomHFUzrNSfFsI8WH15QkQI4R-bAJmDcKE)**
>
> Photographs show people in Thailand carving up and consuming a human body.

OK, they aren’t eating the flesh, so what do they do with it if it’s only the bones being cremated? If they bury it, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of “Lang Pa Cha” (which means “the cleaning and tidying of the cemetery”)?

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**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597/2 "2018-11-17T20:21:20Z")

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bump

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**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597/3 "2018-11-18T01:39:34Z")

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The article says that they are performing the ceremony because the cemeteries run out of room, so it seems that the primary purpose is to conserve space.

Religions have rules as to what is or isn’t clean so perhaps burying the flesh together falls under a different rule.

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lang-pa-cha-thai-bone-cremation-what-is-done-with-the-flesh/824597/4 "2018-11-18T17:43:50Z")

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I’m not certain, but I think the “flesh” is also burned. (Most of these corpses have deteriorated to where relatively little flesh is left: the linked photos of a recently dead corpse are exceptional AFAIK.) The reason the bones are separated is so they can be washed individually, to give the deceased an easier path to the Beyond, and as a way for the washer to gain merit.