Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

3.2
but they are also absent, and their absence cannot be accounted for by a poor state
of preservation of the wood, since a wooden pyxis box found at this site has been
perfectly preserved. It is fair to assume that the absence of vessels with food and water
in the graves is related to a change in funeral rites. From the Bronze Age onwards, the
people of Chaganian cared for their dead by placing several vessels with food and
water in the graves. Food offerings in the form of bones of sheep, and occasionally of
cattle, have often been found in ancient burial sites. One possible interpretation of
this change in practice is that among the inhabitants of Chaganian, a soul on the way
to the afterlife was no longer considered to need food. With the exception of astragali
(game pieces made of bone), no animal bones have been found in early medieval
Chaganian graves, however, grains of various cereals had been placed in some of them.
This evidence, then, suggests a rejection of the use of meat, but not of food in
general for use in funeral rites. In this respect it is significant that the prohibition
of eating meat was one of the main precepts of the Manichaean religion, whose
priests and adherents were expected to eat only plant-based foods. But how did
the Manichaeans bury their dead and did they have any specific funeral rites?
Unfortunately, this aspect of the Manichaean religion remains a puzzle for scholars,
as very little information about these practices has survived in written sources.
Individual fragments of Manichaean texts indicate that one of their funeral rites
probably did include burial. A passage in a Parthian text about the death of Mani
says: ‘Like a sovereign who takes off armour and garment and puts on another royal
garment, thus the apostle of the Light took off the warlike dress of the body and sat
down in a ship of light and received the divine garment, the diadem of light, and the
beautiful garland. And in great joy he flew together with the light gods that are going
to the right and to the left, with harps and songs of joy, in divine miraculous power,
like swift lightening and a shooting star, to the column of glory, the path of the light,
and the chariot of the moon, the meeting place of the gods. And he stayed with god
Ohrmezd, the father.’ 1
It would seem that the Manichaeans did not have any canonically approved funeral
rites, at least not in those regions of Central Asia and Xinjiang where the Manichaean
religion had established itself. Its adherents appear to have adapted to the funeral
practices that already existed in these areas, slightly modifying them according to the
requirements of their religion. Moreover, the newly converted brought to the funeral
rites elements of local customs and beliefs, which had existed there for a long time.
Living alongside Christians in the same towns and regions, having much in
common and often sharing the same vagaries of their fates through victimisation and
cruel persecution, the Manichaeans might have adopted both Christian symbolism
and Christian objects for their own rituals.
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