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In 2010, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin's son Liang Congjie died, he did not inherit his parents' mantle and entered the construction industry, but dedicated his life to the cause of environmental protection.
After his death, his relatives chose "tree burial" after cremating his body according to his will!
Liang Congjie's example has made countless netizens realize the new funeral method "tree burial", but until today, tree burial has not become the mainstream, can it replace cremation one day in the future?
01, the cemetery is too expensive to die?
In ancient times, the ancestors had firmly believed that the soul still existed after death, and formed a systematic "ghost view", so the concept of "entering the earth for peace" was formed.
"Lü's Spring and Autumn Period" has a record of "the ravine of death and abandonment, people's feelings can't bear to be", obviously in the Spring and Autumn Period, burial is very important, and human ethics are related.
In ancient times, land resources were very valuable, but people would still bury the deceased in Feng Shui treasures as a sign of respect.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, due to the influence of Buddhism in the Central Plains, there was a "cremation tide", but with the improvement of the status of Confucianism, cremation was soon abolished, and burial was integrated into the traditional concept.
The burial of the Chinese pursues thick burial, especially the ancient emperors, their funerals are more luxurious, extravagant and grand, and the princes and nobles will also set up different funeral rites due to their inferior status.
Take the Confucian saint as an example, his family has been inherited for more than 2,000 years, and now the "Holy Forest" has become the private cemetery of the descendants of the Kong family, which covers an area of more than 3,000 acres, all of which are buried in the way of burial.
After the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao took the lead in signing the cremation ceremony, and the "Funeral Management Regulations" regarded cremation as the norm, and cremation should be practiced in all areas except the burial area.
However, although cremation saves space, avoids the waste of land resources, and does not lead to the pollution of the environment by corpses, the cemetery is getting bigger and bigger, and it also occupies a lot of land to a certain extent.
In those cemeteries with excellent feng shui and beautiful scenery, it can be said that "a tomb is hard to find", Hefei has had such a crisis, if not properly solved, then Hefei will be difficult to use cemeteries in the next few years.
In 2021, the starting price of a cemetery in Beijing was as high as 429,800 yuan. In fact, as early as 2011, the average price of cemeteries in Beijing reached 20,000 yuan per square meter, an increase of 2,000% compared with 2002.
In Shanghai, the most expensive cemetery has risen to 760,000 yuan per square meter, and such a high price makes people say that they can't afford to die.
Because of this, in the cities around the big cities, many communities have appeared "cemetery buildings", and commercial houses have been placed with ashes and tablets.
Due to the shortage of cemeteries, there are even "cemetery loans" in some areas, which shows that the chaos of cremation has begun to be uncontrollable.
02. Tree burials are rising rapidly
Tree burial is to cremate the body, its ashes are buried under the tree, no coffin, no need to build a cemetery, this new type of funeral, is in line with the national policy of saving land and green burial.
In fact, tree burial is not the rise of modern society, as early as ancient times there was "open burial", such as in Yunnan, the ancient ancestors did not make effective tools, will climb on the higher trees to avoid fierce beasts and poisonous insects, in order to thank the trees, people will wrap the deceased with coffins on the trees.
Some people will dig a hole in the tree and place the body in it, and after a long time, the trunk will heal and the body will return to the embrace of nature.
In today's society, primitive burials almost no longer exist, and tree burials have been proposed again due to their unique advantages. The process is to cremate the person and bury the ashes in the roots of a large tree with a biodegradable urn.
Or put the ashes in a tin box of a specific size, dig a hole in the tree, put it in the hole, and seal the bark.
There are many advantages of tree burial, such as saving land resources and reducing the occupation of land by burial and cremation. It is understood that the tree burial occupies only 0.5 square meters of land, 1/5 of the land occupied by the burial, in 1989 Guangzhou has implemented the tree burial, over the years for Guangzhou to save more than 130,000 square meters of land.
Tree burial is also environmentally friendly, it will not pollute water and air, and the ashes will be scattered into the soil, which can also provide nutrients for tree growth.
For people, tree burials also carry the soul of the deceased, which means returning to the embrace of nature, and people have new memories and thoughts of the deceased.
There are 400,000 villages on the mainland, and if each village is buried together according to the clan relationship, then these tree cemeteries carry the continuation of countless clan bloodlines, and people's psychological needs to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors have greatly increased, and their humanistic value is very high.
Some people will say that if there is no monument for tree burial, how can we tell which tree corresponds to which deceased? In fact, the tree burial cemetery will be managed by professionals, and each tree will have a number and the corresponding name of the deceased, which will be uploaded and managed by the computer.
03. Can it replace cremation?
Don't buy a coffin, don't buy a cemetery, so that relatives can save a cost, it stands to reason that such a cost-saving and environmentally friendly tree burial, there will be a lot of positive responses.
However, as a green burial option, tree burial is not currently highly accepted and popular, and cannot replace cremation for the time being. Li, a Chengdu citizen, said frankly: "Although the burial is more expensive, the old man will think it is more decent." ”
In the eyes of the elderly, if they are buried by a tree after their death, it is a manifestation of their children's unfilial piety, and it is also a manifestation of disrespect for themselves.
In 2008, Henan began to popularize public welfare tree burial activities, but no matter how the government departments publicized, the tree burial rate was only 7 per 1,000, and most of them were lonely and widowed elderly, and more people preferred cremation or burial.
In 2011, a scholar conducted a survey on green burials in Guangzhou and found that the cemetery was almost saturated, and the price was very high, but people still wanted to be buried in the cemetery. And for low-cost tree burials, even if the government provides free places, there are still not many responses.
In contrast, the acceptance of young people is much higher, such as China Youth Daily once did an interview, and Yang, a girl born in the 90s, once said that she supported tree burial, and life is a very simple thing.
A reporter in Yuhuan, Zhejiang Province also asked Yan about this issue, Yan is a young member of the league, and she said that after death, whether it is a sea burial or a tree burial, it is acceptable.
Some media also conducted a questionnaire survey on green burials, and more than 60% of netizens expressed their support for modern tree burials.
Obviously, young people's concept of funeral has changed greatly, and they believe that people should not cause trouble for future generations after death, and tree burial is a good choice.
In fact, the reason why tree burial is not understood by the elderly is because of insufficient time and insufficient popularization and publicity.
As early as 2016, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other 9 departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Implementation of Land-saving Ecological Burial", which proposed new types of funerals such as tree burials, flower burials, and sea burials, and 26 provinces have launched ecological funerals that adapt to local customs.
In order to encourage people to respond to tree burials, some areas provide free burial services such as spark remains and transfer, and in 2018, 500 people in Qingdao chose tree burials.
Some areas have also introduced subsidies, such as Shenyang, which announced that if you choose tree burial, your family can get a fee reduction of 1,000 yuan, and the relevant cemetery unit can also award 500 yuan.
In fact, tree burial is similar to the concept of "entering the earth for peace" that has been circulating in the mainland since ancient times, after all, tree burial will also bury the deceased in the soil. Cremation, on the other hand, is the placement of ashes in a cold cement cemetery.
04. New problems caused by tree burials
However, although there are government subsidies and free places for tree burials for the time being, will the cost be higher once they become popular?
After all, tree cultivation is not a small cost, digging, transportation, transplanting are not small expenses, and also need professional jungle personnel to maintain, because of the long maintenance time, but also invisibly increase the cost.
During this period, careful thinking about what trees to plant and how to transplant them requires careful consideration, and for commercial cemeteries, it is natural that they want to turn their limited cemeteries into cemeteries so that they can make more profits.
If the tree burial area must be planned at the request of the government, I am afraid that the cost of tree burial will not be too low, after all, capital also needs to be considered to make money.
Second, some people are worried that the ashes buried under the tree will take a long time to decompose, and whether this period will affect the growth and development of the tree? All this requires the state to issue management methods and standardize operation methods.
Therefore, the state and local governments also need to pay close attention to the formulation of standardized tree burial management regulations, establish unified standards, and clarify the form and management norms of tree burial, so as to better promote tree burial, what do you think?
Resources:
Chao News Client: 2024-04-09, "sky-high tombs" in many places have aroused heated discussions, what is the ecological status of tombs in Hangzhou?
Xinhuanet: 2024-04-03, more Chinese people choose ecological burial to let life "return" to nature
Xinhuanet Daily Telegraph: 2024-04-05, Flowers as a monument, sleeping on the waves: "ecological burial" has gradually become a new fashion
Guangming.com: 2024-04-09, "Neighbors" are not living people?