Jiajia and I spent the other day at a crematorium and cemetery, saying our goodbyes to Druncle. Three of his friends joined us. It's a slow, complex and costly procedure - parts of which I've never seen before. Jiajia had to fill in lots of paperwork (and pay lots of money) before we were taken to identify the body. That was actually very hard to do, due to the decomposition (we now believe he was dead for a month before anyone found him), but we eventually recognised him from his clothes. Jiajia paid a substantial sum for him to be cleaned up and re-clothed. Then, after some Buddhist chanting from a monk, Druncle was cremated. An hour later, we were presented with his bones. Any foreign material was removed [see photo above] and then the bones were crushed and put into a ceremonial box which Jiajia had already bought [see photo below]. Cue more chanting...
We processed with the box outside to our people-carrier, which drove us a half hour to the cemetery. The box was blessed by another monk (for another fee) and lain in a small temple there for a month. We'll return later to bury it in a small plot which Jiajia has bought.
After a late lunch together, we all headed home.
Jiajia went off to another, local temple yesterday to arrange for more monks to perform a ceremony on behalf of her uncle ...for another fee!
And this evening, Jiajia was out burning various papers to wish Druncle well. He's certainly getting a top quality send-off, despite a somewhat sad and squalid life.
Jiajia went off to another, local temple yesterday to arrange for more monks to perform a ceremony on behalf of her uncle ...for another fee!
And this evening, Jiajia was out burning various papers to wish Druncle well. He's certainly getting a top quality send-off, despite a somewhat sad and squalid life.
