The rich live in a good house even after death

The rich live in a good house even after death

 

[시사타임즈 = 이철원 시사타임즈 회장] For a while after Typhoon Haiyan, churches and houses were damaged and there was no place for a funeral. In addition, there were no separate funerals because many bodies were buried at once, so we could not see the funeral procession. Then, from February, the death toll of the elderly who survived the typhoon increased due to the psychological shock and poor environment, so that one or two funeral processions could be seen a day. It was always a funeral procession whenever a vehicle was congested on an intact road. On the narrow, single-lane road, the hearse, followed by vehicles and motorcycles, some residents walk around the village and hold a funeral mass at the cathedral before heading to the cemetery. By looking at the type, number of vehicles and the number of people in the funeral procession, you can guess the wealth and status of the deceased.

▲funeral procession. ⒞시사타임즈

▲Funeral procession taking over the road. ⒞시사타임즈

In May 2014, a 91-year-old Filipino veteran passed away. When their children heard a radio broadcast that the Korean military was supporting veterans, they came to the unit and asked for funeral support. Accordingly, the Philippine and Korean troops participated in the funeral mass at Palo Cathedral and made tombs and tombstones. The direct reason they requested funeral support was because of funeral expenses.

 

In the Philippines, when a person dies due to high humidity, the body is damaged quickly, so funeral directors first dispose of the body. The funeral director cuts the blood vessels on the wrist, ankle, inner elbow, and back of the knee, drains all blood, removes all internal organs, fills the stomach with formalin, and administers formalin twice a day with a syringe to prevent decay. Then, it is treated with an antiseptic and placed in a coffin with the body's face visible. Here, the size and type of coffins are determined according to the wealthy. Children want to make a good coffin for their parents, but poor people can't afford a funeral because of the cost, so they borrow a coffin.

 

Cemeteries are not built on mountains as in Korea, but cemeteries built like parks throughout the village. If you don't have money, you can't even use the cemetery, so they make cement cemeteries in vacant lots around towns and even in houses. Even within the same cemetery, the size and shape of the tombs vary according to the price of the tombs.

 

▲village cemetery. ⒞시사타임즈

A narrow communal tomb shaped like a beehive costs about 1,000 pesos (25,000 won) based on a five-year contract period, and an individual grave costs about 8,000 pesos (200,000 won). At the end of the contract period, the tombs are opened, bones are removed, and the concrete tombs are reused for other corpses. The state-run tombs for the poorest are provided free of charge, but bodies found without family or close friends are buried without special rituals or procedures. 

 

I went to the Tacloban refugee camp for medical assistance and free meals, and I saw a wealthy village surrounded by a high wall next to the refugee camp. The village main gate was made like a Chinese gate, and under the eaves was a signboard that read 'Bukmansan Mountain 北邙山 in Chinese characters. It means a mountain where people are buried when they die. After asking the guards to cooperate, I went inside and found that the entire village was a Chinese cemetery that was not inhabited. Wherever you go in the Philippines, you can see these Chinese cemeteries. Rich Chinese decorate their family cemeteries like castles and install living rooms, kitchens, and toilets in two-story houses just like real people live. When a family dies, parents and children gather in the same house again, and they are buried in a cement grave and used semi-permanently from generation to generation.

 

The Chinese cemetery here is also so strong that it did not suffer much damage from Typhoon Haiyan. Ironically, the dead are in luxurious tomb houses surrounded by walls, while the living (refugees) have no home and live in tents around the cemetery, using the well water in the castle of the dead.

 

 

글 : 이철원 시사타임즈 회장

 

 

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