Taipei City leads the way
The city government of Taipei, where land commands an especially high premium, has for some years now made natural burials a key policy objective. In November 2003, a tree burial and ash scattering facility called the Fude Life Memorial Park opened at the Fude Public Cemetery in Taipei City's Wenshan District. The facility covers about 200 ping (roughly 660 square meters).
Before taking part in a tree burial, family members can choose where in the park they would prefer to have the ashes buried, and with the guidance of park personnel they themselves actually take shovel in hand to clear away an upper layer of gravel before digging a hole of 10-15 centimeters in diameter and 20 cm deep. Into this hole they place the ashes in a biodegradable bag. Then they lay some flowers over the bag, and finish by covering the hole back over. No hole is dug in the case of an ash scattering ceremony. Instead, the ashes are scattered over the ground in a designated section of the park's flower garden. After the ashes have been scattered, they are covered over with a one-centimeter layer of earth and flower petals so they won't blow away or get washed away by the rain.
To encourage tree burials and ash scatterings, these options are available completely free of charge, but people are not allowed to set up a memorial tablet or a name plaque, or to commemorate the dead by burning incense or chanting sutras.
During the first year after the introduction of natural burials, a lot of people unfamiliar with the practice called the Taipei Mortuary Services Office to protest the new development. One indignant caller asked: "How could you bury ashes under a tree? Won't that be just like the legend of Nie Xiaoqian, where she gets buried under a tree and the tree turns out to be a 1,000-year-old ghoul that takes control of her?" Another person took issue with the decision to use the word "park" in the facility's name: "How could you scatter ashes around in a place where kids will come to play? The place is gonna put a hex on the poor kids!"
The Mortuary Services Office went to great lengths to put such fears to rest, explaining that tree burials and ash scatterings are in keeping with the traditional Chinese concept of "finding peace by returning to the earth," and that such burials can enable the deceased to become one with nature. The decision to call it a park, meanwhile, was part of a conscious effort to break away from the traditional image of cemeteries as dark and lugubrious; they wanted people to show up in a different frame of mind, prepared to appreciate an atmosphere of serenity and to feel the hope that comes with knowing that life never really ends.
More and more people are in fact opting for natural burials each year. As of the end of February this year, a combined total of 1,799 persons had been laid to rest in natural burials at Fude Life Memorial Park and at Yong'ai Park, which opened in 2007 on 1.2 hectares with 6,000 burial locations scheduled for reuse on a 10-year cycle. Fully half the persons buried there are not from Taipei, thus showing clearly that natural burials are in step with the times.
As life comes to an end, perhaps the best way to affirm its value is to choose the simplest and most direct return to the earth. Shown at left is the tree burial plot at Yuanshan Fuyuan public cemetery on the eve of Tomb-Sweeping Day. At right, Taipei City's pioneering Fude Life Memorial Park.