Sea burials please HK relatives

By Vaudine England
BBC News, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is crowded on land, but surrounded by water

Participants in Hong Kong's first official burial at sea have spoken of their satisfaction with the process.

They spoke to local media after 11 people were buried in Hong Kong waters on Saturday.

The government has lifted a 22-year ban on burials at sea and now wants to encourage the practice to help ease overcrowding in Hong Kong cemeteries.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely-populated areas on Earth, and coffin burial space is running out.

Because of this the dead are often cremated and urns carrying their ashes placed in individual niches in special vaults.

Many Chinese want to visit the graves or urns of their relatives and ancestors, as many did in Hong Kong on the festival of Ching Ming, or Grave Sweeping Day, which this year fell on the Thursday before Easter.

Sea lover

The key obstacle to burials at sea is that there is no place to visit.

The government also still bans the throwing of flowers, food or incense at sea.

Despite this, the relatives of the 11 people buried at sea say the ceremonies went very well.

During the ceremonies the ashes of the deceased were scattered in waters off an island group called The Brothers.

One woman said she felt her mother had requested a sea burial because she was born into a family of fishermen and loved the ocean.

Another relative chose a sea burial because, he said, his late brother had loved freedom, and it was the sort of funeral he would have wanted.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Warm Heart company, which organises burials at sea, said he hoped the government would further loosen the rules.

He added that cremation was a novel idea 30 years ago but was accepted now, and in 30 years time, sea burials would be just as normal.