Burial and Crematory Practices

Because burial and crematory practices in many traditions are related to particular places and cultures, the vast mobility and demographic shifts in the global era make many of these traditional customs problematic. However, there has always been a great deal of diversity in the way that the dead are treated and respected, and these practices are applicable in varying ways to the global age.

Corpse treatment and the ritual of passage to pay respects to the deceased are closely related, but it was exceptional in the past to pour great amounts of resources and labor into dealing with the corpse. The pyramids in Egypt and the tombs of ancient kings in East Asia are good examples of gigantic tombs. For the majority of people, however, individual graves have not been built. Leaving the corpses in nature, such as platform burials among Parsees and Tibetan people in which the corpse is defleshed by carnivorous birds and the exposure of corpses to the elements among nomadic people are the remains of simple funerals.

In India, cremation reflects the religious culture of the nation that encourages people to be a part of the cycle of life by returning the corpses to nature rather than keeping them within man-made spaces. In the past, burial in the ground, which is not the same as burial in a grave, was a means of consigning the corpse to the Earth rather than as a means of preserving the corpse. The places where the deceased were buried have often been revered as holy places, but they were not always associated with the preservation of individual corpses or building tombs.

As a class society formed and developed, the practice of preserving corpses and building tombs for persons with high social status and their families spread gradually. The tombs of saints were often thronged as the sites for pilgrimage (worship). Some kings and their liege lords left stately tombs and monuments. It became a matter of course for the rich, from feudal lords to influential people in a locality, to leave their names by building grand tombs. But these were the cases for few people. For the majority, even if they built their tombs expressing their individual characters, many were simple.

In the process of modernization, people became better off, and the ritualistic practice to carefully bury individual persons prevailed. Personal graves and family graves rapidly increased in number, and large-scale cemeteries were built. At the beginning, cemeteries were built in cities, and later, park-like cemeteries were built in suburban areas. In these cemeteries, lots are segmented as grave spaces for families and individuals, and the right to use the space is provided. In some cases, mausoleums were built to show off the wealth and the status of a family. Today, in developing countries, in part due to the global development process, the practice of using tombs for individuals and families is becoming more common. On the other hand, in developed countries, some people are no longer satisfied with individual and family tombs and are seeking new ways to carry out funerals.

...