Six elderly people in China kill themselves 'before burial ban'

[JayAtl]

WHOA!!! now in China they will dictate how their dead will get treated too!

Six elderly people in China are said to have killed themselves to ensure they died before new regulations banning coffin burials come into force, a newspaper has reported.

China has a tradition dating back thousands of years of ancestor worship, which usually requires families to bury their relatives and construct a tomb.

But in recent years local governments across the country have demolished tombs as part of a national campaign encouraging cremation, in an attempt to save on limited land resources.

Government officials in Anqing, a city in the eastern province of Anhui, ordered that all locals who die after 1 June should be cremated, the Beijing News daily reported.

Six elderly people in the area killed themselves "to avoid the new regulations on funerals", the newspaper quoted their family members as saying.

It said government officials began to forcibly confiscate coffins from local people in May, which "had a huge psychological impact" on them.

Six elderly people in China kill themselves 'before burial ban' | World news | theguardian.com

 

[PlanetWarrior]

Cremation is being encouraged in most non-Muslim nations. I don't see this as a bad move at all on China's part

 

[JayAtl]

Cremation is being encouraged in most non-Muslim nations. I don't see this as a bad move at all on China's part

encouraged and an edict to do so, are two things . Plus they have a long tradition in chinese culture to have tombs. forget how muslims and christians will look at this. funerals are very personal and sacrosanct to people. And it is not like China is some small island..

 

[sherin616]

so china not wasting 6feet of land for its people

 

[PlanetWarrior]

encouraged and an edict to do so, are two things . Plus they have a long tradition in chinese culture to have tombs. forget how muslims and christians will look at this. funerals are very personal and sacrosanct to people. And it is not like China is some small island..

Well, China has a robust government which rules by edict. It seems to be working for them. Hard for us as people living in democracies to understand. I haven't heard of any mass uprisings against the government there so it seems that the people are content.

 

[Tshering22]

Good. Cremation is a natural and a more land friendly practise than burying. More countries are doing it these days.

 

[Hack-Hook]

Good. Cremation is a natural and a more land friendly practise than burying. More countries are doing it these days.

nonsense , it is waste of energy and pollute the air.
also the body will turn into dust so it's more earth friendly and natural to bury the body . first not pollute the air , second give the material you take from earth back to earth i t's organic form that is usable by the earth not in mineral form that takes a lot energy for it to turn back to the organic form.

 

[Secret Service]

indians are not getting audience ....

 

[ephone]

Whatever your religion is, any burial grounds taking a lot of land would be removed.

China need those land and will not tolerate dead people to take over her precious land for nothing.

Let's see. Sooner or later, their families will find out that they died for nothing. No more burial ground for anyone will be allowed.

Cremation will be the only choice.

 

[third eye]

Whatever your religion is, any burial grounds taking a lot of land would be removed.

China need those land and will not tolerate dead people to take over her precious land for nothing.

Let's see. Sooner or later, their families will find out that they died for nothing. No more burial ground for anyone will be allowed.

Cremation will be the only choice.

Though being a Hindu I consider cremation the fastest way to return a human body back to the elements, still I think such acts are harsh and too invasive .

The line in red above seems straight from a ' Red' book !

 

[ephone]

The line you quoted is from my observation. I do not know what type of red book you refer to.

Land problem is essential for China. We have lost a lot of lands due to development.

However, we have such a large number of population to sustain. China cannot put its food safety on foreign imports. What happens if there is world food crisis when other food exporting countries stop doing so?

So China need make sure she produces enough to feed her people. Historically, most dynasties toppled were results of such problem.

There are some lands that are difficult to reclaim but burial lands should be reclaimed for farming purpose.

Though being a Hindu I consider cremation the fastest way to return a human body back to the elements, still I think such acts are harsh and too invasive .

The line in red above seems straight from a ' Red' book !

 

[Tshering22]

nonsense , it is waste of energy and pollute the air.
also the body will turn into dust so it's more earth friendly and natural to bury the body . first not pollute the air , second give the material you take from earth back to earth i t's organic form that is usable by the earth not in mineral form that takes a lot energy for it to turn back to the organic form.

What you are saying is long term. What about all the space that the tombstones and slabs occupy? In the future as population increases, where is the land?

I agree with what you say but that is after millions of years. Cremation also returns the elements back to earth. The dust remains organic and mixes with the soil without the headache of occupying more land.

It is simply practical.

 

[Hack-Hook]

What you are saying is long term. What about all the space that the tombstones and slabs occupy? In the future as population increases, where is the land?

I agree with what you say but that is after millions of years. Cremation also returns the elements back to earth. The dust remains organic and mixes with the soil without the headache of occupying more land.

It is simply practical.

what about the urgent problem of Energy , right now we have energy crises It's from the Wiki

Modern cremator fuels include oil,[2] natural gas, propane, and, in some areas like Hong Kong, coal gas.[3] However, coal and coke were used until the early 1960s.

Modern cremators have adjustable-control systems that monitor the furnace during cremation. These systems automatically monitor the interior to tell when the cremation process is complete (this can only be assessed by a cremator operator: the controls can tell you that the process has progressed to an advanced stage but only an operator with experience can say a cremation is complete due to issues such as stubborn cancerous tissues remaining unfinished for example), after which the furnace automatically shuts down. The time required for cremation varies from body to body, and, in modern furnaces, the process may be as fast as one hour per 45 kg (100 lb) of body weight.

for burning a 45kg guy you need heat it for one hour in a furnace that have at least 870c and for each guy you must cool the furnace and then heat it again for the next guy , just think how much fuel you need on yearly bases.
more practical to bury the dead in crypts or in grave that can contain several body.

By the way I wonder how official in china like to see such ceremonies in their cities

 

[raptor22]

What you are saying is long term. What about all the space that the tombstones and slabs occupy? In the future as population increases, where is the land?



It is simply practical.

Million of years? if you use a casket or even you bury a corpse deeper it takes 50 years to get decomposed at most , while by shroud it would be around 30 years ... In Iran you can bury a new corpse in a used grave after 30 years.
By the end different nations different culture and traditions ..

 

[Tshering22]

Million of years? if you use a casket or even you bury a corpse deeper it takes 50 years to get decomposed at most , while by shroud it would be around 30 years ... In Iran you can bury a new corpse in a used grave after 30 years.
By the end different nations different culture and traditions ..

I was talking about conversion into energy fossil fuel. That takes years.

Traditions will have to be altered in the future. Zoroastrians had towers of silence for years, but because of space constraint, they are now cremating as well.

That is practicality. Traditions aside.