Burial, like many other aspects of Chinese life, is based on customs and traditions. The burial of the dead is very important to the Chinese people. It depends upon many things such as:

• How the person died
• Their age
• Whether or not they were married
• Their status and position in society.

Chinese cemeteries are often found on hillsides. The Chinese believe this affects their feng shui. The further up a hillside a grave site is, the better this is thought to be. If you visit the Chinese section of a cemetery you will often see funerary burners which stand over 2 metres tall. They are safe places for the burning of spiritual tributes. The paper and cardboard tributes represent money, clothing, possessions and houses to serve the deceased person in the afterlife.

Some Chinese people, especially Taoists, are buried. Other Chinese people, particularly Buddhists, are cremated. When a person was buried, it was important that they be buried whole so they could travel to the afterlife whole. An ancient Chinese punishment included the cutting up of the dead body of the guilty person so they could not return whole to this world. It is also important that a person’s body be placed so their face turns heavenwards.

It is important to remember that like so many other aspects of Chinese daily life and customs there is no one way to do things. Like people of European descent, Chinese people come from many different belief or value systems and these affect the way people are buried and remembered.

If a person died while in prison it was usual to cremate and bury the person. If a person was hanged, it was usual practice to remove the head and make a death mask.

Activities

• Read the last paragraph of the text about burial. How might these two practices be unacceptable to some Chinese prisoners and their families?
• Visit a cemetery near you. Find the Chinese section and locate the funerary burner(s). Photograph and/or draw these, and label them. At school, prepare an explanatory talk about the funerary burners. Also record the information found on a headstone of a Chinese grave. Check with cemetery authorities before photographing the headstone. In another section of the cemetery locate another headstone and record the types of information recorded on the headstone. At school, work with students of a Chinese language or seek a translation of the Chinese headstone. Compare and contrast the types of information recorded on the two headstones. Suggest possible reasons for similarities and differences.
• Investigate Chinese funeral and burial customs. Two useful websites to get you started are www.newsfinder.org/comments.php?id=134_0_1_0_M (Chinese funeral customs - will open in a new window) and www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/papers/burners.asp (Chinese Funerary Burners, with links to Australian funerary burners - opens in new window). Use this information to prepare a guide to help a person attending a Chinese funeral for the first time.

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