台灣殯葬模式的轉變

盧紹潔　陳琦沁　李采霏 

Changing Funeral and Burial Styles in Taiwan

In Chinese traditional thinking, burial grounds are regarded as evil and ghostly places. People had better not go or pass through these grounds, or else they will be haunted for the rest of their lives. However, recently, families are beginning to spend their off-days picnicking at the famous Jin Bao Shan Graveyard, the newest tourist attraction. The present paper attempts to describe the changes in funeral and burial styles in Taiwan in recent years and then discuss what has caused this shift in folk customs.

The most obvious change in funeral and burial styles has to do with the increasing rate of cremations. According to the statistics from the Interior Affair Department, the number of interment decreased from 48,000 in 1996 to 29,000 in 2000. Memorial pagodas, meanwhile, increased from 215 to 285, and more and more cinerary caskets are stored there. These numbers demonstrate that cremation is a new trend. Besides, the government has recently revised relevant laws and regulations to further manage this area that used to be considered a highly personal or familial matter.

Our research reveals that there are three forces that are promoting the simplification of funeral and burial styles. First of all, Taiwanese economy has changed from an agricultural society to an industrial one during these forty years, which has resulted in new attitudes, new social systems and new thinking. In the agricultural society, clans were closely knit and death in the family was treated as an occasion for family consolidation, thus an important matter involving everyone in the clan. However, nowadays, isolated urban dwellings and aloof human relationship make it difficult for people to sympathize and tolerate in term of traditional funerals if they are held nearby. On the contrary, people are mostly concerned with the noise and trash pollutions that are created by traditional funerals. Furthermore, life in city is already busy; urbanization has left people little time to dwell upon complicated folk customs. They tend to regard conventional ceremonies superficial. As a result, new burial and funeral styles are gradually accepted.

The second reason is that the attitude toward death is changing in Taiwan. Education has given people a more modern and scientific outlook on life, which has led them to question the rationality of conventional funeral ceremonies. Instead of treating life and death issues as fate or mystery, Nan Hua University has recently established a graduate program in the study of life and death issues, the ultimate concerns, to discuss and understand this “taboo” in Chinese traditional thought. This also helps speed up the acceptance of simplified funereal and burial procedures.

Finally, government and social groups are playing important roles to promote the trend. The government has revised relevant laws to create a new concept of death and burials. Morticians, hospitals and memorial pagoda owners are devoted to building for themselves a professional image and construct a comfortable and solemn environment for the dead and their bereaving loved ones. Many celebrities and politicians talked about life and death issues in public and some of them choose alternative funeral and burial methods, which all inspired people to rethink the value of life and the nature of souls.

These three dimensions have worked to help the funeral and burial styles to be simplified and systemized. The government passed new laws to regulate the funeral and burial procedures and facilities. The public funeral parlors were renovated and the quality of service is better to pass ISO9002 certification. The new private funeral homes and memorial pagodas are decorated to give a bright and warm image. The environment around is embellished as a memorial park too. The undertakers require their employees to take courses in order to improve their professional knowledge and to give them dressing codes to show their professionalism at all times. These measures are taken to advance the efficiency and utility and enhance the quality of services.

These changes not only changed people’s concept of death but also helped them to face the issue of death. The simplification also allows the bereaved to get back to their original life track quickly and reduce the cost and time spent on the whole funeral and burial procedure. As sparse land resources cannot accommodate the growth in population, in the future, natural burials such as tree burials or ocean burials will certainly becomes welcomed alternatives. These trends may threaten traditional Chinese family value and ethics, yet on the other hand, people will also learn to care more about the uniqueness of each individual and cherish our beloved ones more in our everyday life.