Where R.I.P. is temporary

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 27

Where R.I.P. is temporary

By

MICHAEL NOBLE

of Agence France-Presse (through NZPA-AAP) Hong Kong With his back to the hill and overlooking water, Man Bun Lam is laid to rest in a traditional Chinese grave on one of the hillsides of rural Hong Kong. Nearby in another simple grave lie Mr and Mrs Yim. Mr Man and the Yims are some of the few remaining residents of Hong Kong still allowed to be buried on unofficial sites. Their graves, let into the hillside like some bunker, dot the hills on the rural tracts of the territory.

Strict Government control is imposed on burials in non-official sites and only descendants of indigenous residents of the territory are now allowed a traditional grave. For the remainder of the 25,500 people who die in Hong Kong each year, the grave is a temporary rather than a final resting place. In Hong Kong, where more than five million people crowd into one of the most densely populated spots on earth, clinging to steep hillsides, disposal of the dead has special problems. Recently Chinese all over

the world celebrated “Ch’ing Ming” (Clear and Bright), one of two occasions in the year when they visit the ancestral graves. In Hong Kong it is a public holiday. According to tradition they set off firecrackers to frighten away the evil spirits, and burn paper models of cars, money, houses, or even servants to aid the dead “beyond the yellow springs.” But for most of Hong Kong’s residents the visit to the cemetery is nowadays limited to tidying the grave, and for many the plot has been replaced by an urn or niche for ashes. Although burial is the traditional Chinese method of disposing of the dead, the Hong Kong, Government as on the mainland, has encouraged cremation, which now accounts for 60 per cent of funerals. Encouragement in the capitalist society has been with money. For a charge of SHK2SO (about $5O) for the funeral service and $l3OO dollars for

a niche, a cremated person will have a permanent resting place in a Government cemetery. But for those who choose burial the cost is high and time in the grave short. For $lO,OOO the deceased can lease a plot for 10 years, and on payment of a further $lO,OOO buy a further six years. After that time the body is exhumed and the bones either cremated or placed in an urn in an osarium. The majority of Hong Kong’s residents are Buddhists or Taoists who are buried in one of four big cemeteries in the territory. Two of the sites are in the restricted border area where special permits are needed to enter and visit the graves. Hong Kong’s Christians, have two cemeteries where for $3500, baptised members of the church can rest for seven years before transfer to the osarium. For those determined that “rest in peace” should mean forever, there is always the motherland.

A final return to China has traditionally been a high hope of overseas Chinese, and for many years Hong Kong has been the transit point. In the western district of Hong Kong island, between the dried fish shops and the quay, is the “coffin hotel” where caskets await the paper work needed for both overseas and Hong Kong dead returning to the mainland. Just across the border, China has opened two huge cemeteries where for an outlay of $15,000 and the price of transport, the deceased can lie for ever, back to the hill, overlooking the South China Sea.