Shelving the dead in Japan October 13, 2009
Posted by tricycleblog in : General , trackback
The BBC reports that a new trend is emerging in Japan’s burial rites. As the population grows older and land values skyrocket on the island nation, the Japanese now have the option to bury the dead by stacking urns in multi-story warehouses.
Ceremonious or not, at least one Buddhist thinks it’s a great idea: Buddhist monk Ryutoku Ohora says,
“You can put ashes for two people in one box. So 7,000 people maximum in this space, [when] for a normal graveyard you would get 100 graves in this area [of land].”
In this life or the next, practicality triumphs.
Comments»
Talk about an urbanized society… THAT is an urbanized society.
It is possible not to have an urn at all. To let ashes go the wind, the earth, the sea. To grow a tree for each person who has passed on. To create a sacred grove.