Tha.mw.9.xxs After the death of a 72-year old man who lived across the road from the Khuenkaew family of the Material World Project, his family followed Thai tradition and bought a castle-like, wood-and-crepe paper funeral bier and placed the body on top. Then the village held a two-day wake, complete with tents, music, gambling, and outdoor barbecues. Gifts were piled atop the casket. Afterward, the men carried the bier on long bamboo poles to the cemetery. The family posed for photographs in front of the bier, said good-bye to the dead man, and left the cemetary-keeper to burn the remains. Published in Material World: A Global Family Portrait. pages 86 & 87. Thailand. {{The Khuenkaew family lives in a wooden 728-square-foot house on stilts, surrounded by rice fields in the Ban Muang Wa village, outside the northern town of Chiang Mai, in Thailand. They are a farming family that grows rice for personal use, and to sell for income. Buaphet’s mother gave them the land on which to build their home. She and other family members live close by.Family members are: Boontham Khuenkaew (39, father); Buaphet Khuenkaew (35, mother); Jeeraporn Khuenkaew (14, daughter); Visith Khuenkaew (9, son); Vichai Sadub (Dang) (37, Buaphet’s brother). (From Peter Menzel’s Material World Project that showed 30 statistically average families in 30 countries with all their possessions).}}