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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 12882
[Culture]
Date Posted:
5/7/2005
6:56:01 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 16,547
RSS: 9,757
Comments: 12
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Fire And Dust: Cremation vs. Burial
Author: Bob Reeves Source: Lincoln Journal Star
Title: FIRE AND DUST: CREMATION VS. BURIAL
  Both Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were leaders of non-violent movements for justice and human rights. They both were felled by assassin's bullets. And today, pilgrims can visit shrines to both men — at the King Memorial in Atlanta, Ga., and the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi, India.
Urns with cremation ashes are behind the curtain at the bottom of the memorial altar at the Buddhist temple. Thich Phap Tri is the temple's resident monk. (Robert Becker)
The difference is that the Atlanta shrine is where King's body is buried, while the New Delhi monument marks the site where Gandhi's body was cremated.
Gandhi has no place of burial. Instead, portions of his ashes were immersed in the sacred waters of the Ganges and along rivers and seashores at some 50 different places in India and Pakistan. Some of the ashes were even shipped to America, where they are preserved at the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
The different treatment of the bodies of two great men of the 20th century points up a major difference between the beliefs and cultures of East and West. In Asian religions, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, cremation is almost universally practiced, while in countries dominated by the Western religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the primary custom is burial.
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Community Thoughts: There are 12 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Yet Another Possibility | May 9th. at 12:31:55 pm EDT
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Fred Lawrence (Kansas City, Kansas) - Email Me
There is yet another way to dispose of dead bodies. At a Star Trek Convention I saw a button that read, "He's Dead, Jim. Pass the Ketchup."
I hope it's obvious that I'm just joking.
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| Life From Death | May 8th. at 9:41:28 am EDT
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arinna (Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina) - Email Me
I also plan to be cremated. But I also want to donate my body to medical research first. It comforts me to think that in my death I could still do something that might help others live a better, healthier life.
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| Cremation For Moi Too | May 7th. at 8:55:01 pm EDT
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Maré (Austin, Texas) - Email Me
I don't know that anyone else agrees with me, but I think land should to nurture living, growing things, not as a recepticle for dead, rotting things. When I told my ultra-Christian family I wanted to be cremated, my mother said, "But that's s0...pagan."
I rather like the one lady's suggestion of having your ashes into a reef. I want my ashes mixed with my husband's, and the fact that together we can be part of something that harbors life long after we've passed from this incarnation, really appeals to me.
BB
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| Ghandi Is Buried In LA | May 7th. at 8:19:25 pm EDT
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Maré (Austin, Texas) - Email Me
Au contraire. While it's true MOST of Ghandi's ashes were scattered on Ganges, a portion of them were sent first to a friend, Dr V M Nawle, in India, then to Swami Paramahansa Yogananda in LA. In 1950 Yokananda entombed them in a 1000 year old sarcophagus at the Fellowship of Self-Realization's magnifucent Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades on Sunset Blvd. The dedication cermony was attended by around 1500 people.
The author of this article didn't dig very deep when he wrote this, but then, I only learned this a few months ago--and I lived in LA for years!
BB
Find More info -- HERE
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| Childhood Memories Come A Floodin' | May 7th. at 1:49:49 pm EDT
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Elspath (Joplin, Missouri) - Email Me
This reminds me of a convorsation I had with my Grandpa when I was little.
He was a grave digger up until '96. I spent most of my school vacations with him, helping him on his job.
One day, after we burried one of his old flying buddies, he turned to me and told me he had burried too many people. His friends, friends of my mom and uncle, I was even there when he buried my mom's high school boyfriends grandchild. He said, that he opted for cremation and that everything was all set.
Not only as stated is cremation cheaper (He would get a couple hundred for the whole process, and that doesn't include what the valute company got for their help) but, he wants to be scattered to the 4 winds. He came into this world, with nothing and naked, and he plans to go out, naked taking nothing. No mermorial monument, being just a memory.
Mom wants to do the same.
Heh, I just plan on living forever. I've thought about it, but, I just can't bring myself to truely think about it for myself. maybe in a few years....
ps, Cemetaries are some of the most beautiful places I've been. Gorgous stone work, beautiful mosuleams, quite, huge trees. And, you are alone, even with so many around.
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| Make An Ash Of Myself | May 7th. at 10:10:40 am EDT
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ElspethR (Houston, Texas) - Email Me
I am definitely leaning to cremation myself (wait...does that make me a 'cremationist'???) . However, I think New Orleans may have the 'best' of both formats...as far as if you are being 'buried' (interred, I suppose) in one of the wall tombs. You go in 'whole', but after a year and a day (hey, yet another tie in to my path!) , you, or rather what's left of you after the 366-day slow bake (rather crispy dusty bits) gets swept to the back where you join up with the rest of the previous occupants.
Then, another person gets their turn on the slab...like a temporary lodging, great reuse of existing structures and no need for new land for typical burials. Don't get me wrong, 'typical' cemeteries are beautiful, but nowadays, just to crack the ground it is an exorbitant sum, and you 'have' to have the concrete liner and you 'have' to have a certain casket, then there's upkeep, and a monument...wow, pricey real estate I can't enjoy from the surface.
When a relative passed, she was cremated and interred alongside her departed husband (he was 'buried') . Just to bust the sod was almost a grand!!! (plus the liner even for her urn) Um, I doubt more than hourly wages went to the employees that actually dug it in the span of less than an hour.
Back to the actual cemetery - well, at least there are trees and 'nature' (contrived, but it usually beats looking at a parking lot) . However, in the ongoing and seemingly unstoppable urban/suburban sprawl of Houston - more cemeteries are going to be needed = more land. (but that's another rant for another day)
Me? I'm for cremation...myself
Burn baby burn....
Elspeth
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| Just Blowin' In The Wind | May 7th. at 8:36:08 am EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
Well, since I am not of the "Big Three" religions, I have chosen cremation, not burial and I'll need no urn. Why waste space that is already at a premium when the whole of the Earth is my resting place? This deal about resurrection came straight from the Egyptians anyway as they looked forward to another life with all their body and baggage with them. They abhorred cremation and scattering of the ashes because it erased the soul. This was a fate left for tomb robbers and other miscreants.
And as for my body before then, well, perhaps someone may learn something important from it to help the living. After that, I'll just be blowing in the wind. Nature will do the rest.
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