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Why stealing corpses is big business in China

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third eye

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Why stealing corpses is big business in China - The Washington Post

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Two officials in China's southern Guangdong province were arrested after it emerged that they had bought corpses from local grave-robbers and had them cremated in a bid to fulfill state-mandated quotas for such funeral practices. The incident is yet another reminder of the awkward tension between Beijing's edicts and entrenched traditions in parts of rural China.

The arrested duo were officials responsible for local funerary practices, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. One allegedly paid a grave-robber $489 each for 10 exhumed corpses. The officials needed to meet expected quotas for cremations reported in their jurisdictions (towns that state media has not specified). Many locals entomb their kin in secret to skirt state laws regarding burial, which probably made the officials' job rather difficult.

"Pushed to meet their quota, the two officials sought to purchase the corpses and send them to funeral parlour for cremation," Xinhua reported.

China's traditions of ancestor worship mean that many families prefer to bury their deceased loved ones, keeping them intact rather than reduced to ash and bone in a crematorium. But this runs up against a newer reality. Despite the country's continental size, China is starved of arable land and communities are discouraged to take up more space for cemeteries. In 2012, the provincial government in the central province of Henan even went so far as to raze hundreds of thousands of tombs to clear space for agricultural land, much to the ire of locals.

Body-snatching is, therefore, a lucrative, illicit business, involving bribe-taking local officials who look the other way, specialists capable of dressing up cadavers, and middlemen willing to connect desperate families to organized rings of grave-robbers and body-snatchers.

The practice of burying "ghost brides" also remains very much in the headlines. The old ritual involves burying a deceased young female alongside a dead bachelor, so the male will not be without a companion in the afterlife.

Last week, Chinese authorities arrested 11 people in eastern Shandong province for exhuming the grave of a woman and selling the body to a middleman for about $3,000. Four men in March 2013 were sentenced to two years in jail after allegedly making $40,000 from selling 10 stolen corpses. In 2006, one man in northern Hebei province even killed six women to sell them as ghost brides.

Beginning with the rule of Communist leader Mao Zedong, corpse-stealing has been a criminal act in China, but Beijing has been unable to fully stamp out the custom in rural areas. In a chilling episode in May, a number of elderly residents in southeastern Anhui province opted to commit suicide before local restrictions regarding coffin burials came into full effect.
 
Can someone answer me, why when a elder child below 10 dies, then after burring, parents/friends guards the tomb for first 3 days???
 
Can someone answer me, why when a elder child below 10 dies, then after burring, parents/friends guards the tomb for first 3 days???
In old China, people says, the gost of died people will come back to visit in 3 days, the people want to wait to the gost in this 3 days, and it's not just for the kids, also suit for grown man when he or she dies. In somewhere people make the same but in 7 days.
Death is a serious in China, for example, some people will not eat good food or play in 3 years to remember his or her parents(Or say in 27 months), because mother breastfeeding last 27 months.
 
In old China, people says, the gost of died people will come back to visit in 3 days, the people want to wait to the gost in this 3 days, and it's not just for the kids, also suit for grown man when he or she dies. In somewhere people make the same but in 7 days.
Death is a serious in China, for example, some people will not eat good food or play in 3 years to remember his or her parents(Or say in 27 months), because mother breastfeeding last 27 months.

Very interesting!!!

I am really awed that this is something we have in common. You know in Japanese funeral superstition, there are prayers made for the dead every day up till the 7th day. Actually, in the casket, it is common for us to put 6 coins with the dead person. These 6 coins will be used by the spirit of the dead to cross the Sanzu River ; It is a river which the dead has to pass on the seventh day after death on the way to afterlife.

Its common also to visit the grave of the deceased every day after he or she is buried, but its important to pour salt on yourself before you go to your house. A superstition we have , to prevent the soul / spirit of the one who passed away from following you to your home.

You guys have something similar superstitions regarding death and the soul of the dead?
 
In old China, people says, the gost of died people will come back to visit in 3 days, the people want to wait to the gost in this 3 days, and it's not just for the kids, also suit for grown man when he or she dies. In somewhere people make the same but in 7 days.
Death is a serious in China, for example, some people will not eat good food or play in 3 years to remember his or her parents(Or say in 27 months), because mother breastfeeding last 27 months.

Ya... in my place we too have that custom. Its 7 days for us,.... But what i'm asking is only for the Elder child below 10( i think so), the Tomb will be guarded for first 3 days.. I don't know why they do it...

And Some times in the mid night the same they burried, they'd dig out the body of the child and reburry it in their house.. Very weird
 
Very interesting!!!

I am really awed that this is something we have in common. You know in Japanese funeral superstition, there are prayers made for the dead every day up till the 7th day. Actually, in the casket, it is common for us to put 6 coins with the dead person. These 6 coins will be used by the spirit of the dead to cross the Sanzu River ; It is a river which the dead has to pass on the seventh day after death on the way to afterlife.

Its common also to visit the grave of the deceased every day after he or she is buried, but its important to pour salt on yourself before you go to your house. A superstition we have , to prevent the soul / spirit of the one who passed away from following you to your home.

You guys have something similar superstitions regarding death and the soul of the dead?

Very interesting! The ancient Greek practice of burial included the placing of coins on top of the eyes of the deceased before cremation. The coins were supposed to be to pay the boatman that carries the soul to Hades (The underworld).
 
Ya... in my place we too have that custom. Its 7 days for us,.... But what i'm asking is only for the Elder child below 10( i think so), the Tomb will be guarded for first 3 days.. I don't know why they do it...

And Some times in the mid night the same they burried, they'd dig out the body of the child and reburry it in their house.. Very weird
I think it's a translate problem. In China people will build a room with foto and candles to memory the death, but the dead body is in funeral home or already in thumb, guard the room is called "shou ling"-guard the death, but the word "ling" is also for English thumb. No one will realy guard the thumb, bc it's cold and not easy for people to come and meet the dead peoples relatives.
 
Very interesting! The ancient Greek practice of burial included the placing of coins on top of the eyes of the deceased before cremation. The coins were supposed to be to pay the boatman that carries the soul to Hades (The underworld).

Yes, it is quite similar. :)
 
Very interesting!!!

I am really awed that this is something we have in common. You know in Japanese funeral superstition, there are prayers made for the dead every day up till the 7th day. Actually, in the casket, it is common for us to put 6 coins with the dead person. These 6 coins will be used by the spirit of the dead to cross the Sanzu River ; It is a river which the dead has to pass on the seventh day after death on the way to afterlife.

Its common also to visit the grave of the deceased every day after he or she is buried, but its important to pour salt on yourself before you go to your house. A superstition we have , to prevent the soul / spirit of the one who passed away from following you to your home.

You guys have something similar superstitions regarding death and the soul of the dead?

In Hinduism, we have 13 days of mourning. we believe if a dead body is not given a proper cremation to send it back to 5 elements of earth, his soul will be wandering for salvation.
 
In Hinduism, we have 13 days of mourning. we believe if a dead body is not given a proper cremation to send it back to 5 elements of earth, his soul will be wandering for salvation.

I remember as a child when my cousins, siblings and I would visit the family tomb. My uncles would always remind us to wash and pour water over the tombstones of our ancestors, when asked why we had to do this, he replied, "do you love your mother and father?" I replied, "yes,". He then looked at me and my cousins, siblings and said, "then , treat your ancestors as your parents. they do not speak to you, but they are there, you cannot see them, but they are there."

Since then, its always been an obligation for me to wash and clean the family tomb whenever i'm back home. That and it is ceremony to clean the site, as in sweep off leaves, remove weeds etc. Do you do the same in India?
 
I remember as a child when my cousins, siblings and I would visit the family tomb. My uncles would always remind us to wash and pour water over the tombstones of our ancestors, when asked why we had to do this, he replied, "do you love your mother and father?" I replied, "yes,". He then looked at me and my cousins, siblings and said, "then , treat your ancestors as your parents. they do not speak to you, but they are there, you cannot see them, but they are there."

Since then, its always been an obligation for me to wash and clean the family tomb whenever i'm back home. That and it is ceremony to clean the site, as in sweep off leaves, remove weeds etc. Do you do the same in India?

We do have ancestral worshiping and do it in some temples or religious events like Havan at home to remember and pray for them, there is even a famous Hindu temple in Gaya(the same Buddhist holy city) dedicated for salvation of the soul of the ancestors. We don't keep tombstone, body is cremated and the ashes are collected and scattered in the river or ocean keeping no trace of it. Since the Hindus believe in reincarnation, only soul is considered eternal, dead bodies are like old clothes which are discarded by the soul for new clothes(rebirth). (That's how I studied the Hindu philosophy).
 
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