Memoirs of a Chinaman

For the monument assignment my group and I went to the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point. I think this site was protocolary interesting to me because it exclusively about a thriving minority during colonial rule in Victoria.

The reason that the Chinese population needed to acquire this site is because the previous accommodations were being washed away. Literally, human remains of Chinese pioneers were being washed into the Pacific Ocean as the sea level rose around section L of the Ross Bay cemetery. Many of these human remains were relocated to the Chinese Cemetery when it opened in 1903. The location of Harlem Point was chosen for its feng shui an important notion in Chinese culture. I do not know much about feng shui but the view indeed was magnificent.

I think what interests about the cemetery is that its called the Chinese Cemetery no other attempt at a name. Chinese cemetery is literally what is written on the gate at the entrance of the cemetery. When looking around one of the things we were looking for was how many of these sites had english. This may have said something about early chinese culture in victoria and the way in which they identified themselves. Most of the cemeteries were in Chinese and the few that had some english inscriptions on them but those were more often than not secondary monuments that replace or are near the primary monument. Thus the use of english was chosen by the descendants of the deceased who have probably grown up as Canadian Chinese. Thus I am going to assume that the original Chinese population buried at Harling Point considered them selves Chinese and not Canadian because the chose to represent themselves in death as Chinese. The Chinese inscriptions on their tombs allow them to forever be Chinamen remembered in the memory of future generation as Chinese.

I think its sad that before this class I did not even know that there was an exclusively Chinese graveyard in Victoria. Locations like the Chinese Cemetery and China town really display how big a part the Chinese played in the early development of British Colombia and in this specific instance Victoria and how little recognition they receive.  

Vulture Culture: The Way I Go

I was thinking about the way my remains would be disposed at the end of my life. I can think of two possible scenarios. The first would be the cultural norm for Parsis (Zoroastrians) in Mumbai or the second would be the way I choose to be disposed, separate from my culture.

Side note: There is a picture of me in this book... no not that guy of the front cover!

 http://bandra-mumbai.com/books.html

The cultural funerary ritual for a Zoroastrian basically entails a day of prayer the day after the person has died (the body will be removed the very next day from contact with other people as to prevent infection and keep all the living sanitary). The body can only be moved during the day time, as the sun must be shining on it. The body is placed into a massive well with all the other bodies by special workers who unfortunately only work this job as they are terribly desperate for work (no one but these workers are allowed to see the well except maybe the head priest). The corpses are striped of their clothes and the clothes are permanently disposed. The naked bodies are left exposed to be the prey of vultures. Vultures help speed up the decomposition of the body. The cultural importance of the vulture however lies in it's feces. It is said that because the vulture defecates in the form of pellets it is easy for the wandering souls to gather all the pellets containing their body. Once all the pellets are gathered the souls can move on to the next life efficiently.    

The well itself is surrounded by the funeral grounds which are magnificent gardens that grow in abundance and have beautiful animals like peacock thriving on the land. However the issue with this process is that there are several dead bodies lying in a well in the middle of a city (Mumbai). The ratio of vultures is greatly lacking when compared to the amount of bodies constantly being added to this well. Thus, from time to time the smell of the dead is common around the immediate area. It is also rumored that due to the fact that the most desperate of people are the ones putting the bodies into wells that there have been rumors of necrophilia with some of the bodies of the dead as these people are the only ones allowed into the well.

Thus I have found that I am not particularly fond of this method and would personally rather be cremated. Not to mention that there are many practices that have to be followed for an individual to be buried in this religious setting. For example one cannot have any tattoos, one must be a 'pure blood' Zoroastrian, who has gone through the cultural initiation as a child etc. It is quite the tedious process, simply to appease a romantic notion that may in actuality be quite gross. I'm glad my grandmother cannot use the internet because she would kill me if she ever read that last sentence.

I found a really good YouTube video called Vulture Culture it captures the problems of the ritual practice of Zoroastrian burials in Mumbai city. It has more detail about the ritual and other problems this society faces (and creates for itself). However, I must say I love all Parsis no matter how dogmatic (in fact sometimes the more dogmatic they are the more nostalgic I get).