MASTER TAPE INFO Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 1970-09-08. (F42377)

"However, on our way to Mon we had intended to visit Yoting, a village of some 80 houses, and a colony of Tang, which was founded by a Wangsha member of the Tang Ang-family five generations ago. As we approached the village we saw preparations for a funeral. An elderly woman had died and some men were digging a grave, while others made a palm leaf roof. I took some film and we then went to the village where we were entertained in the Ang's house. The dead woman was a Christian, like most people of Yoting, and the Ao pastor said he would try to speed up the funeral if I wanted to photograph it. In the house of death was wailing and chanting and the beating of gongs. I waited for some time outside. Finally, some young girls with flowers in vases came out of the house. They were followed by four old men, dressed only in belt and apron, carrying the bier covered with a red cloth. One man carried a dead dog and another carried three dead chickens. They were to be buried with the woman. Near the grave the body was lifted into a coffin, and the coffin was nailed up. Then the coffin was slid into the grave and the dog and chicken were thrown in too. Gongs were being beaten, and the pastor read a prayer from a book. Finally, the grave was closed and the flowers put up on bamboo stands." (From the field notes of Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf, Date: 1970-09-08)