Funeral Procession

Few sounds are more eerie than that of the funeral processions which pass by Xinhai Road. In accordance with the Chinese almanac, funerals are best held on certain days of the year. At least once a week, one of those days will come to pass and dozens of funerals will be held in Taipei. As one of the larger funeral homes is near the University, the long funeral processions can often be seen winding along nearby Xinhai Road, each one consisting of dozens of blue pickup trucks decorated with flowers and ribbons with bands, loudspeakers, drummers, and wailers belting out music as they zip pass. The music is unbelievably eerie and says to the world, "Today a man or woman is laid to rest". It reminds me of Louisiana style funeral bands, though the Eastern variant is far less festive. One day in my newspaper reading class, a student asked the teacher what the eerie music outside was and she explained the connection between funerals, tradition, and the Chinese almanac. She taught us the names of the different types of funerals in Chinese: sea burial, cremation, land burial, and sky burial. In the West we can commonly see the first three, but what is the last one, the so-called sky burial? Specific to Tibetan culture, the sky burial consists of presenting the body of the deceased to vultures. This is seen as an act of compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. Furthermore as the vultures fly around the world, the deceased is scattered as well, kind of like letting ashes scatter in the wind. The ritual is often accompanied by specific chanting and rituals performed by Tibetan monks.