One more quick Taiwan post while I am stuck at the airport.
One of the very important things Mr. A wanted to accomplish in Taiwan was visiting his ancestors’ graves. He wanted to go to his maternal grandmother’s grave (who he knew personally) as well as visiting his paternal grandparents’ grave. Well, I am saying “grave” but there is no grave, at least not any more.
Learning about death rituals was one of the more interesting things that happened in Taiwan. When someone dies, traditionally they are buried in a grave like this:
The graveyard we visited was crazy overgrown. Mr. A’s uncle said that every year before the grave sweeping ceremony day, the government comes and burns down all the weeds so people can get to the grave and clean it together with their families. They have to do it together so no one is being sneaky and getting extra blessings.
You can see similar grave dotting the hillsides in Taiwan and China. There is a half circle thing with a mound on top. The casket they are in is made of wood and it has a hole drilled in it to facilitate the decomposition of the flesh.
After 10 years, all the meat is gone and then they crack open the casket and then they remove the bones. (I found this quite shocking!) This is what the casket looks like after 10 years. Pretty decomposed.
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This is a random tomb in a graveyard, not Mr. A’s family’s grave. I asked his uncle why they just left it there and he said Chinese people are dirty by nature and they don’t clean up after themselves. (More on that in a later post, if I remember.)
They take the bones out and then traditionally, they would put them in a big urn and bury them again. Maybe in the same grave. This is a traditional urn that was once used, but was abandoned now.
Now, more often people put the bones into government-sponsored mortuaries or whatever you would call them. The above graves can now be reused by someone else, I guess, because graveyard space in Taiwan is at premium. (The bones from this urn were probably moved to a high-rise mortuary, speculated Mr. A’s uncle.)
We visited two of these high rise mortuaries. At one, you use a credit card thing to pull up the right dead person’s image. At the other, we used an assigned number Mr. A’s dad gave us.
It pulls up pictures of the dead people. In this case, this is a granfather and his two wives.
Then, you take incense and ask for the blessing of the buddha who watches over the dead people. Then you give an incense/pray to the gods of Prosperity, Longevity and Wealth (or at the other one, the God of the Earth). Then you do your ancestor worship with another stick of incense.\
It was unclear to me exactly what I was supposed to be praying or asking for, but it was a nice ritual nevertheless. You can also give an offering of food to the ancestors to eat or spirit money while you are there.
I think these boxes are where the bones are stored.
Ossuary. That’s the term for where bones of the dead are placed. It can refer to a place, or a casket or other receptacle.
This is my first post, because I rarely have anything to contribute, but I have a graduate degree in Patristics, so I know this.
Also, thank you for the link to Baobei.
Have a safe trip home!
> I asked his uncle why
> they just left it there
> and he said Chinese people
> are dirty by nature and
> they don’t clean up after
> themselves.
Heehee. I kinda agree but I feel this is more with the older generation.
For the younger generation we were raised with cleanliness in mind, especially after the SARS, Bird Flu, H1N1, etc. scares.
Also, growing up, we’ve been taught exhaustingly the importance of recycling. For example, in Taipei if they find you throwing away your recyclable trash with other stuff you’ll get a ticket.
So these stuff have been drilled into the younger generation a lot more.
“…he said Chinese people are dirty by nature and they don’t clean up after themselves.” Hahahaha, at least he was honest.
The whole computerized image thing is interesting, I never heard of that before.
Thanks for sharing your trip, it’s been so interesting to read about and makes me want to go back and explore it more – the only other time I’ve been there as an adult was when we were picking up our oldest, and there was too much going on then to really focus on anything else.
Thanks for sharing this, it was fascinating. Cannot wait to hear more when you have a reliable internet connection and time enough to process the trip. And I can’t wait to be able to pick your brain about lots of stuff in China. Safe travels!
When I lived in Taipei I was always amazed at the graveyards being in the best locations. They save the best views for the dead. I actually lived right next to a graveyard in a great place. The rent was extra cheap as the locals refused to live there. It never bothered me too much. I always found them quite pretty. I’ve really enjoyed reading about your trip and look forward to hearing more stories!!
[...] MIL’s brother (Mr. A’s uncle) brought little rice-flour penises as offerings when we visited his ancestor’s graves, so Mr. A’s parents are really not as over the top as they could be. November 30th, 2011 | [...]
[...] MIL’s brother (Mr. A’s uncle) brought little rice-flour penises as offerings when we visited his ancestor’s graves, so Mr. A’s parents are really not as over the top as they could be. November 30th, 2011 | [...]
[...] American Family. An American woman with a Chinese husband, a hapa daughter, and an adopted daughter from China, living in the US — and blogging about it since 2003. While it’s not all Chinese culture, all the time, you have to love a woman who writes about things like learning how to cook good Chinese (for her husband, of course ) and death rituals in Taiwan. [...]
[...] American Family. An American woman with a Chinese husband, a hapa daughter, and an adopted daughter from China, living in the US — and blogging about it since 2003. While it’s not all Chinese culture, all the time, you have to love a woman who writes about things like learning how to cook good Chinese (for her husband, of course ) and death rituals in Taiwan. [...]