“… … On April 6, 2017, it was planted in Jinshan Environmental Protection Life Park, returning to the embrace of nature, and the spirit will last forever! " Under the watch of more than 20 relatives and friends, Mr. Wang’s ashes were dumped into three 2-meter-deep holes by his family, and then filled with flowers and covered with soil. Relatives and friends mourned and prayed silently, and the whole funeral lasted less than half an hour. No monuments, no signs, no wreaths and incense, no painful background music, instead, surrounded by green trees, green grass, a quiet, occasionally heard a few birds singing.
This is a common scene in Jinshan Environmental Protection Life Park in dharma drum mountain, New Taipei City.
Funeral is the last thing in life. In the past, people pursued grand funerals and luxurious cemeteries, thinking that this was the respect for the deceased. In recent years, Taiwan Province has challenged the custom, changed its concept, and vigorously promoted the environmental protection and natural burial such as tree burial, flower burial and sea burial, making it a common practice to return to nature.
Challenge the traditional funeral customs
Replace luxury with frugality
When you visit Taiwan Province, you can often see a cemetery dubbed "nightclub". Taiwan Province is a small place with a dense population. There were no special regulations in its early years. People usually chose burial, which led to chaotic tombs and even occupied fertile forests. In 1985, Taiwan Province established a long-term funeral policy focusing on cremation. Although cremation is not compulsory, the cremation rate is still increasing year by year under the policy propaganda. According to the figures of the Ministry of the Interior, in 1993, the cremation rate in Taiwan accounted for 45.87% of the dead population that year; By the end of 2015, this figure had reached 95.65%.
As far as customs are concerned, thick burial is as popular in Taiwan Province as in mainland China. The funeral ceremony is extravagant and extravagant, and death becomes a high consumption. An ordinary funeral costs about NT$ 200,000 (hereinafter all NT$), and some even cost millions. The funeral industry has also become a profiteering industry. "At that time, urns costing less than 2,000 yuan may cost 50,000 or 100,000 yuan." Zhang Guoxiong, Commissioner of Jinshan Environmental Protection Life Park, recalled.
In the 1990s, in order to change social customs, the competent authorities in Taiwan Province vigorously promoted the "plan to improve funeral facilities and funerals". On the one hand, they subsidized the construction of parks, bone-collecting towers, funeral parlours, crematoriums and other facilities in various places, and advocated that ashes should enter the tower, that is, the urn after cremation should be stored in the spirit bone tower; On the other hand, advocating frugality for funeral.
In July, 1994, dharma drum mountain Cultural and Educational Foundation, a Buddhist group in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s "Ministry of the Interior" jointly organized a symposium on reflection and improvement of funeral ceremonies in Taiwan Province, and put forward ways to improve various unreasonable social phenomena. According to this idea, in August and December of that year, dharma drum mountain and the Taipei Municipal Government held two joint libations respectively. Zhang Guoxiong said, "The two joint libations can be said to be the first in Taiwan Province."
Shi Shuli, deputy director of the funeral management office in Taipei, said that the joint libation ceremony was generally composed of 10 deceased people and held a joint farewell ceremony. First, they held their own family sacrifices, and then government officials, representatives of public opinion or non-governmental organizations offered public sacrifices for the dead. The whole ceremony was solemn and grand. After the public sacrifice, we will have separate funerals. In order to encourage people to participate in the joint libation, the government raises funds through fundraising and other means to provide people with free services as much as possible. Not only is there no charge for the farewell ceremony, but also the freezing, makeup and cremation of the remains are free. Family members only need to bear the cost of memorial tablet, shroud, coffin and so on.
Mr. Chen’s father died five years ago. At that time, he consulted the funeral service, and the lowest price was more than 100,000 yuan. Someone recommended a joint drink offering to him, and finally finished the ceremony with less than 30,000 yuan. Mr. Chen said, "If we don’t pay attention to the gorgeous auditorium layout like our family and have no money, we can consider this way." He believes that "after all, manners and customs are only for the living, and they are of no help to the dead."
Nowadays, all counties and cities in Taiwan are promoting joint libation, which has gradually become the norm. Taipei has increased from once a month to more than a dozen times a month. According to the figures released by the Taipei Funeral Management Office, in 2016, 1,324 people chose to jointly offer sacrifices. However, limited by people’s feelings, the joint libation in nanbu county City, Taiwan Province is still dominated by poor families.
Celebrity demonstration drives the trend
From entering the tower to entering the sea and burying.
At present, people in Taiwan Province have generally accepted the concept of ashes entering the tower. There are spiritual bone pagodas in cemeteries and some temples all over Taiwan Province, and there are also private land purchases to build family spiritual bone pagodas.
Four years ago, Ms. Wang’s mother died. After careful selection, she placed her mother’s ashes in the Linggu Tower of Huguo Temple in Taipei. She was pleased to say that the traffic here is convenient, it is easy to pay homage, it costs more than 90 thousand yuan, and the price is acceptable. "Such a tower is hard to find now." Some people rationally realize that entering the tower is not a long-term solution. Zhang Guoxiong said, "Your descendants remember you, but after three generations and 50 years, no one may remember you. Who will you leave it to after 100 years?"
In 2002, Taiwan Province authorities began to promote environmental protection natural burial, including tree burial, flower burial and sea burial. In addition to conceptual propaganda, the government subsidizes the construction of funeral facilities and encourages the construction of environmental protection parks. At present, there are 29 tree burial parks and 2 planting parks in Taiwan Province. The environment of tree burial and flower burial parks is very beautiful. The tree burial area of Yong ‘aiyuan in Fude Cemetery in Taipei is green with pine and cypress and lush green grass. In the flower burial area of Zhenshan Garden in Yangming Mountain, trees such as cherry blossoms, tassels and Podocarpus are planted, as well as shrubs such as rhododendron, camellia and osmanthus, which are like a big garden. Tree burial and flower burial must be located in the cemetery, and the planting park is located in the ordinary forest park.
However, it will take a long time for people to accept the ashes if they are scattered in the sea or in the soil, without erecting a monument or leaving a name. Taiwan Province’s experience is that celebrities demonstrate and drive the trend. In 2001, the "Ministry of Interior" held the first signing activity of a letter of intent to purify funeral rites and customs at a seminar on funeral reform, hoping that the social elite would take the lead, transcend the taboo of death and bravely say what they wanted.
In 2004, Dr. Li, the father of the famous director Ang Lee, died of illness. After the farewell ceremony, Ang Lee went to sea and held a sea burial according to his father’s wishes. Ang Lee told everyone that his father told us before his death to scatter the ashes in the sea, so as to fulfill his wish to look at his hometown in mainland China and protect Tainan. He said: "The sea is beautiful, the water is clear, and all this is beautiful. My father walked very clean, and I stopped crying. " In 2005, Manfei Lo, a dancer from Taiwan Province, passed away. Before her death, she also publicly stated that she would finish the funeral in the simplest and cleanest way. Finally, her body was cremated and scattered under the pine tree next to her father’s grave.
Around 2007, many environmental protection natural burial areas were built in various parts of Taiwan Province. In 2007, dharma drum mountain donated a hillside of more than 400 ping to the government of Taipei County (now New Taipei City) to set up Jinshan Environmental Life Park for the planting of ashes — — Tree burial is located in the cemetery, and planting is scattered into the forest garden. Zhang Guoxiong introduced that the first person to plant in the Life Park was the old man Dong Chu, the master of Master Sheng Yan, the founder of dharma drum mountain.
In February 2009, Master Sheng Yan passed away. He left a will: "No obituaries, no tombs, no towers, no monuments, no statues … …” According to his last wish, the ashes were also planted in Jinshan Park. At that time, 30,000 believers from all walks of life went up the mountain to watch the ceremony, and many of them were chartered from the south-central region. The major media widely reported that "at that time, the concept of planting was widely spread and gained more recognition." Zhang Guoxiong said, "The planting is simple, clean and economical, which is not only recognized by dharma drum mountain disciples and citizens of New Taipei, but also chosen by foreigners, Christians and even Muslims to plant in this grassland." Jinshan environmental protection life park was once so tight that it needed to be registered six months in advance, and New Taipei City built another planting park for this purpose.
My funeral is my call.
Let life return to the natural land
At the same time, the local government in Taiwan Province has also introduced many encouraging policies for environmental protection and natural burial. Most environmental natural burials are free, and some areas will charge a small amount of fees ranging from 2,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. Not only that, Shi Shuli said that if Taipei residents move out of the Guling Tower and re-elect for environmental protection and natural burial, they will get economic rewards. For example, moving into Fude Cemetery for tree burial will reward 10,000 yuan; If you move into Yangmingshan Flower Burial Park, you will be rewarded with 20,000 yuan. Last year, nearly 60 people who had entered the tower were changed to environmental burial.
More and more people choose environmental protection and natural burial. At first, there was one sea burial jointly organized by Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan, which increased to four in 2013 and nine in 2016. According to the statistics of Taiwan’s "Ministry of the Interior", the number of people who chose environmental protection natural burial increased from 225 in 2004 to 9,136 in 2015, accounting for 5.58% of the dead population in that year.
The experience of tree burial is getting richer and richer. Zhang Guoxiong introduced that at first, the ashes were put in soluble corn cans. Later, it was found that even the corn cans did not melt for three years, so it was changed to cotton paper bags. It was also found that although the cotton paper bags could melt for half a year, the ashes were caked and difficult to integrate into the soil. Therefore, Jinshan Environmental Life Park is currently directly scattering ashes into the soil.
However, after all, this is a battle of ideas. Compared with the extravagance of funeral that only touches the custom level, the funeral way challenges people’s cognition of death. Relatively speaking, the metropolitan area is highly accepted, such as Taipei. According to Shi Shuli, in 2016, people who chose environmental protection and natural burial accounted for nearly 16% of the deaths in that year. The south and the countryside are not so mature.
Even if the deceased agrees with tree burial and flower burial, the family may not accept it. Is it disrespectful to relatives because there is no tombstone, no meeting and no tribute? A netizen named Chris admitted that Dad had mentioned that he wanted to be buried in a tree, but neither he nor his mother were sure. Finally, he threw a cup in front of the coffin, denied the tree burial, or chose to let Dad enter the spirit bone tower. In order to avoid this situation, the relevant departments in Taiwan Province specially amended the law in 2002, allowing the environmental protection natural burial in the form of a will or a letter of will, and the family members should respect the choice of the deceased. In fact, the choice of environmental protection natural burial is conducive to environmental sustainability, that is, to make the deceased get the best arrangement. As Master Sheng Yan said, "The process of life, like flowers blooming and falling, is a natural change. When we choose to return to the natural land in the last stage of life, it is to make life complete and extend indefinitely. "
