Hong Kong funeral expo shows new ways to deal with the dead
For the seven million citizens of Hong Kong, living comfortably in the one of the world’s most densely populated cities is difficult enough, but dying presents is own set of challenges. Around 43,700 people died in the territory in 2010. By 2020 that number is expected to rise to almost 53,000. A majority will be cremated, since land shortages forced most people to abandon burials in the 1980s and cremations became acceptable.
But now the city’s public columbarium, where relatives can keep ashes in an urn in a 30 cm (one foot) crevice in a wall, has run out of space. As a result, Hong Kong residents have been forced to store their loved ones’ remains in funeral homes, privately-run storage facilities, or their own homes.
“In recent years there are more than 100,000 people waiting for columbarium space,” said Tiu Tong Ng, Honourable President of Hong Kong’s Funeral Director Association. “Usually it take three to four years to obtain this kind of space. The government has to solve this problem,” he told the Asia Funeral Expo, which opened in Hong Kong Thursday.
Read the full story by Stefanie McIntyre here.
View a slideshow of the Asia Funeral Expo here.
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Bin Laden sea burial not in line with Islam, Muslim clerics say
Clerics in Saudi Arabia, a staunch U.S. ally and the country of Osama bin Laden’s birth, dismissed Washington’s assertions it observed Islamic rites in disposing of the al Qaeda leader’s body in the Arabian Sea. Bin Laden, shot dead by U.S. forces in a raid on a compound in Pakistan on Monday, was placed in a weighted bag and dropped into the north Arabian Sea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, the U.S. military said.
But many Muslims in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf Arab region, including opponents to bin Laden’s militant ideology, said the fact funeral rites were read for him did not diminish their shock at the way his body was disposed of.
“That is not the Islamic way. The Islamic way is to bury the person in land like all other people,” said Saudi Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, an adviser to the Saudi Royal Court.
Washington said bin Laden’s body was treated with respect. He was reported to have been washed and covered in a white shroud in burial preparations that lasted nearly an hour, and religious remarks were recited before his body went underwater.
Issa al-Ghaith, a Saudi cleric and judge, said he believed Washington had made a mistake by burying bin Laden at sea, which he said was un-Islamic, adding it showed Americans “fear him even after his death.”
In Yemen, the 54-year-old militant leader’s ancestral homeland that is home to an active al Qaeda arm, critics said bin Laden’s body should have been turned over to his family. “It is not enough to do prayers over bin Laden so as to lessen the anger of his supporters or even ordinary Muslims,” said Mohammed al-Ahmedi, a Yemeni journalist.
Read the full story by Asma Alsharif and Cynthia Johnston here.
Well, it wasn’t the American Way for all of those people who were buried under the Trade Center rubble when bin Laden ordered the destruction of the Twin Towers either.
Bin Laden ‘eased’ into sea in contentious burial
He may have been America’s enemy number one, but after U.S. forces killed him, Osama bin Laden was afforded Islamic religious rites by the U.S. military as part of his surprise at-sea burial on Monday.
The U.S. military said preparations for the al-Qaida leader’s burial lasted nearly an hour. His body was washed before being covered in a white sheet and religious remarks translated into Arabic by a native speaker were read over bin Laden’s corpse.
“The burial of bin Laden’s remains was done in strict conformance with Islamist precepts and practices,” said John Brennan, U.S. President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser.
Washington said bin Laden was buried at sea after U.S. forces killed him at a compound near the Pakistani capital Islamabad because it was the best option, given tight time constraints.
Under Islamic tradition Muslims need to be buried within 24 hours. Transferring the body to another country for interment could have taken too long, officials said.
A prominent imam in Egypt, Dr Ahmed El-Tayeb, said the U.S. violated Islamic custom by not burying bin Laden on land, a move seen as a U.S. attempt to prevent his resting place from becoming a shrine for extremist followers.
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A Buddhist burial in the rain for Japanese tsunami victims
Ten flimsy wooden coffins were laid on two sturdy rails at a hastily prepared cemetery of mostly mud as Keseunnuma began burying its dead from the tsunami that ripped apart the Japanese coastal city. Desperate municipalities such as Kesennuma have been digging mass graves, unthinkable in a nation where the deceased are almost always cremated and their ashes placed in stone family tombs near Buddhist temples. Local regulations often prohibit burial of bodies.
The number of dead in Kesennuma was 551 as of Saturday, far too many for local crematoriums that can typically manage about 10 bodies a day but are now facing shortages of kerosene. Another 1,448 in the city of about 74,000 are missing from the tsunami two weeks ago that has left more than 27,500 people dead or missing across Japan.
“This disaster has created a tsunami of tears,” said Shuko Kakayama, master of the Jifukuji Buddhist temple, which lost 300 members to the tsunami that also heavily damaged temple grounds.
Kakayama, who presided over the funeral of one temple member and prayed for all souls laid to rest, said there was a time when Japan permitted burials. But the government has for decades sought cremations due to a lack of cemetery space in the densely populated country.
“If we are returning to the earth, then we are returning to nature,” Kakayama said.
Read the full story by Jon Herskovitz here.
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JAPAN – BEACON OF CORRECT SPIRIT
“Tsunami Survivor Adoption Program”
A tsunami slammed into Japan’s northeast coast on March 11, killing well over 10,000 people. The 1,000’s of survivors huddle in makeshift shelters. Food, clean water, medicine, toiletries, warmth, comfort, medical and trauma care and other essential supports for survival are in scant supply, in some places non-existent. They are in the darkest of dreams from which they cannot awake, haunted by the loss of loved ones, their familiar home which is in a pile of rubble scattered across a six-mile signature of ravaging horror…Whole generations of family have become tortured ghosts wandering the coastline of the Northwest, evaporating until the sun sets and rises again. At all times, survivors demonstrate impeccable conduct to the shocked world looking on – reminding them of their failings by contrast, inspiring them with new insight on the potential nobility of the human spirit…
It’s true: the government, the survivors, the ninky? dantai who provide disaster relief services faster than the government, the indescribably self-sacrificing workers (Tsun Tzu is the only name appropriate) combating the nuclear plant shambles to protect Mother Japan, and faint smatterings of the outside world community lend a helping hand. After all, in any confrontation to the reminder that we will each face a “final moment”, we are all members of the same family, the frail, evil but simultaneously wondrous and inspiring specie, Homo sapiens.
The code of jingi (justice and duty – where loyalty and respect are a way of life) is the essence of the Japanese people. Worldwide, nothing resembles it.
The multiple, escalating, compound disasters Japan faces are incomparable to any in history. They will survive, rebuild, even fortify beyond their past dignity as a people.
New strategies are needed, which is why I pen this blog. I ask every able-bodied Japanese citizen to reach out their individual hand and home to a survivor. Bring them into your home. Within your means, care for one or more survivors. Work collectively to establish a network of such volunteer homes, a transportation network to bring those survivors to their new “adopting home”. Greet them with love and kindness and nurturing support as you can. Do this as immediately as possible. New and great risk will beset them unless you act with aggressive action to make this possible and tangible. I beg you as a previous Japanese life which memory is alive within me, Kotoamatsukami. Blessings and hope and love and respect for you…
Dominic.MacCormac@MedstrataSystems.com
Nepal Christians threaten ‘corpse’ protest in burial row
Christians in Nepal have threatened to parade corpses in the capital to press the government into finding them alternative burial grounds after burials near the country’s holiest Hindu shrine were banned.
Christians account for less than two percent of Hindu-majority Nepal’s 28 million people. Authorities barred them this month from burying their dead in the forested graveyard at Sleshmantak saying the land belonged to the Pashupatinath Hindu temple, a U.N. heritage site in Kathmandu.
“Burial after death is a fundamental human right and the government is violating this by not giving us any place to bury the dead,” C.B.Gahatraj, a senior official of the Committee for Christian Recommendation for New Constitution told Reuters.
“If we don’t get an alternative burial site we’ll be forced to protest with corpses in front of the Singha Durbar,” Gahatraj said referring to the government complex that houses the prime minister’s office and the parliament.
Mr RajaMadhwa, you don’t understand what you are talking about. It is the forested graveyard not the holiest of holy temple what you are talking about. The word you are using “Christian terrorist”, is not reasonable phrase. The important thing what you dont understand is we are not looking for that particular place for burial but we would accept any other burial place which is convenient. Christian never came in a false name, but they come as a Christian. These Christian are Nepalese and they love Nepal more than you fellas.
Mumbai gunmen denied Muslim burial secretly interred in January
Remember the issue of what to do with the corpses of the nine attackers killed during the November 2008 siege of the Taj Mahal Hotel and other targets in Mumbai that killed 166 people? The dead attackers were all presumed to be Pakistani Muslims, like the sole survivor, but local Indian Muslim leaders refused to let them be buried in their cemeteries. Islamabad ignored calls to take the bodies back. So they were left in morgue refrigerators in Mumbai, presumably until the issue was finally settled.
FaithWorld was deluged with comments after we asked if the bodies should be cremated and the ashes spread at sea. A surprising number of them suggested the bodies should be desecrated, thrown to the dogs or dumped at the Pakistani-Indian border. The discussion tapered off and the issue seemed to have been forgotten.
The only problem remaining was that those bodies had to be kept refrigerated ad infinitum. Something had to give. Well, the Maharashtra state government finally put an end to this stalemate. As Rina Chandran in our Mumbai bureau wrote: “The badly decomposed bodies had been lying in the mortuary of a hospital in Mumbai after Muslim clerics in the city refused to let them be buried on their grounds. Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil told the state assembly on Tuesday the bodies were buried secretly in January.”
The trial of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving suspect, ended last week in Mumbai with a verdict scheduled to be announced on May 3.
There were lots of hot button issues in this one — Indian-Pakistani relations, how to treat the dead attackers, giving the dead a proper Muslim funeral, just to name a few — but the angle the local media seemed to highlight most was something nobody thought of at the time. Most of them — see the Times of India, the Indian Express or the Hindustan Times — seemed surprised that the government and police could keep the burial secret for so long!
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Regarding the article no religion allows to do such kind of action the proclaimed Pakistani Muslims have done in Mumbai. So no religion also allow to profanate any deadbody. Unbiasly understanding the above mentioned article we should also have a stance on those terrorist activities which have been influencing in Pakistan through Afghanistan. Media should remain unbias and present the both side of mirror.
from AxisMundi Jerusalem:
Israel’s burial crisis and the afterlife
Far from the spotlight of peace talks and military conflicts, Israel is facing a different kind of land crisis: it is running out of space to bury its dead. Most Jewish cemeteries in major cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, are filled beyond maximum capacity. Gravestones are packed together leaving little room for mourners to gather.
You can read about a new system of multi-tiered burial chambers being used in the Jewish state to solve the issue of land. It's actually an ancient system, used thousands of years ago by Jewish sages, that was modernised by two Israeli architects and given approval by the country's chief rabbis.
Ancient Sanhedrin tombs and their modern-day revival
Adding to the problem of dwindling burial space for Israelis, each year about 1,500 Jews from around the world choose the Holy Land for their final resting place. For some, the choice could come from the allure of being buried in the Jewish state. For others, it stems from the Bible. And you can always find some group that offers to help make it happen.
Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said in an interview with Reuters that it is written in the Talmud -- a collection of ancient Rabbinic texts -- that "the earth of the Holy Land cancels all the sins of the person who passed away so he can go directly to heaven and paradise without sin".
One of the most sought after -- and expensive -- cemeteries is Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, just outside the Old City walls. Many Jews pay thousands of dollars to be buried at the Mount of Olives because the Bibilical Prophet Zecharia said that the Messiah, upon arriving in Jerusalem, will first ressurect those buried there.
Vedic tradition is the only practical solution- cremation with religious rites.
A relevant topic of global importance, indeed. Predictions are that by 2050 the worlds population will grow to a mammoth 9 billions. Even if 60 % of them were to buried, it’s a lot of precious real estate that needs to be downgraded into a burial ground. Last time I heard the land is shrinking and not expanding. The Hindu think tank, thousands of yrs ago, had foreseen the after death ground reality and made it a religious obligation to take the cremation route. Wake up people , a serious land problem that’s going to overwhelm us all in not so distant future.
Funeral may show if Michael Jackson converted to Islam
One of the many rumours that swirled around Michael Jackson in the final years of his life was that he had secretly converted to Islam and taken the name Mikaeel. The “King of Pop” does not seem to have spoken about this publicly himself, and that scene in Bahrain when he went shopping badly disguised in an Arab woman’s abaya could be put down to his well-known penchant for dressing up. So unless there is some statement in his will or documentary evidence in his estate, his funeral expected this week may be the last time to test whether this rumour has any basis in fact.
The Jacksons are Jehovah’s Witnesses and could be expected to bury Michael in the tradition of that faith. When he announced the death, his brother Jermaine — a Muslim — ended with the words: “May Allah be with you, Michael, always.” Jermaine said in 2007 he was trying to convince Michael to convert.
The post-mortem period hasn’t looked very Muslim so far. Traditions vary, but in Islamic funeral practices in general, autopsies and cremation are out and the body should be buried quickly, usually in a day or two. Jackson is reported to have asked for cremation in his will and his family has asked for a second autopsy after the first one failed to pinpoint the cause of death without long toxicology tests.
Jehovah’s Witnesses prefer short and simple funerals, usually with a Scripture reading, and warn adherents against funerals with emotional outbursts ranging “from frantic wailing and shouting in the presence of the corpse to joyous festivities after the burial. Unrestrained feasting, drunkenness, and dancing to loud music often characterize such funeral celebrations.”
The focal point of an Islamic funeral is the funeral prayer called the salat al-janazah. An imam facing Mecca leads the faithful in saying the prayer, punctuated by declarations of Allahu Akbar. The corpse of the deceased is placed perpendicular to the qibla, the direction of Mecca in which all worshippers are standing, rather than in the same direction as the faithful as usual in a Christian funeral.
The funeral service could be in the Jehovah’s Witness style, it could be Islamic or it could be a mix of the two (maybe even with borrowings from other traditions as well). If Michael Jackson’s artistic career is anything to go by, the third option wouldn’t be a surprise at all.
FYI the delay was due to the holidays. Comment moderators take some time off too 
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Do dead terrorists lose all right to any respect?
Do dead terrorists lose all right to any respect? I ask this because my post Should India cremate Mumbai militants, spread ashes at sea? last week has prompted a surprising wave of comments suggesting these corpses should be desecrated. Readers have been proposing (and we have been deleting) graphic and crude scenarios for disposing of the nine corpses still lying in a Mumbai morgue. The proposed solution of cremating the bodies and spreading the ashes at sea – originally from a blog post by Leor Halevi in the Washington Post – seemed far too tame for them.
The Mumbai militants were murderers. Once they’re dead, though, what purpose would it serve to dismember them, feed them to crocodiles or turn them into a stoning pillar? What would it say about the Indian government if it disposed of these bodies without even the barest minimum of respect for the dead? Indeed, what does it say about readers who want it to do just that?
BTW the majority of comments – even those that are understandably very angry – call for a minimum of respect for the dead, no matter who they are.
India is under no obligation to give these bodies a proper Muslim burial. The refusal of Indian Muslim organisation to grant them one is what has created this stalemate. But can that mean New Delhi should go all the way in the opposite direction?
“Do Dead Terrorists Lose All Right To Any Respect”
Brother, if you respect terrorism or terrorists, living or dead, you have a serious problem.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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