Thailand’s “Death Fest” is returning for a second year, taking aim at a topic many people avoid by staging it as a public fair that mixes spiritual guidance with practical planning for the final stage of life. The three-day event in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok drew visitors including people dealing with illness and caregiving, as well as organizations focused on end-of-life care and memorial services.
Organizers said the fair’s framing draws on Buddhism’s teachings about life’s unavoidable sufferings, including birth, old age, sickness and death. Visitors were encouraged to confront mortality while also receiving guidance about maintaining quality of life before death, according to reporting from the fair.
Sangduan Ngamvinijaroon attended the event on Friday with her mother, and she described how years of caring for ill relatives shifted the way her family talks about death. She said she had spent more than 20 years caring for family members, including her husband, who had a stroke, and relatives with cancer, and that she has now witnessed several deaths firsthand.
Ngamvinijaroon said the fair felt useful in part because it does not only focus on dying. She said, “it’s not just about dying well. It’s also about the present moment and taking good care of our lives while we’re still here.”
The event also featured what organizers described as a range of participants and services, including experts and organizations involved in health care, financial planning, palliative care, funeral services and memorial innovations. Activities and talks aimed at preparing for death also emphasized how people can manage day-to-day life and care needs until the final days.
One interactive feature drew attention for its blunt approach to the physical realities of death. Organizers promoted an exhibit called “Test Die,” where visitors can lie inside coffins of different sizes and styles while looking into a mirror suspended above. The experience is designed, organizers said, to prompt reflection rather than fear.
Zcongklod Bangyikhan, editor-in-chief of The Cloud magazine and one of the event’s lead organizers, said the focus should not stop at the person dying. “Death involves everybody. It’s not just about you,” he said. “Instead of wondering what dying will be like, maybe we should think about how to make things easier for the people who remain after we’re gone.”
Other visitors described the fair’s effect as calming. Office worker Phinutda Seehad said she did not see death as something that frightened her, adding, “I don’t think I’m scared of death,” and that while she “also” does not want to die, she “doesn’t think it will be that frightening” when the time comes.
The fair also showcased efforts to reshape funeral and burial practices, including by aiming for more environmentally focused options. One company displayed a biodegradable coffin made from mycelium, described as fungi’s rootlike fibers, and its founder Jirawan Kumsao said the design reflects what she described as a more environmentally friendly approach to burial. Kumsao told visitors that although she brought a human-sized coffin to the event, her company mainly produces coffins for pets, and she said it gives people comfort that they cared for their pets “until the very end.”
In addition to physical burial products, the event highlighted memorial technologies designed to preserve stories and messages. Noppasaward Panyajaray, founder of the online memorial platform Sharesouls, described a service that lets users store photos and share stories about loved ones, creating a digital space for friends and family to leave messages and pay their respects. She said her original idea was to preserve memories of family members, but she discovered that many users were instead creating memorial pages for their pets.
Panyajaray said many pet owners wrote to thank her, adding that “nowadays we don’t really have any space to store stories or memories about their pets.” She also said that “Every pet is meaningful to their owners as much as a family member.”