How do Asian people perceive death?
Death is inevitable, and contemplating it can be overwhelming for relatives and close friends. Different cultures all over the world respond differently to the terror of mortality. The Asian population comprises of different cultures, which hold varying beliefs and rituals regarding death and grief. Asians are more outspoken on matters regarding death and are therefore more likely to reach out to others during grief.
In Korea, people cherish their lost ancestors and take death seriously. Cremation has become more common with the latest statics showing that only 3 in every ten deaths are buried. The newest trend associated with cremation is to have the cremated ashes melted and refined, and made into beautiful colourful beads. The Buddhist styled beads are not worn but instead kept as display in homes. According to them, the beads allows them to feel closer to their loved one even after death.
In China, the culture differs. Colour white is used to signify mourning and not black, like in many other cultures all over the world. Throughout history, the Chinese people have held the belief that when people die, their souls continue with life in another world and that the graves where they are buried are their earthly residences. The dead are also given grand funerals where people burry valuable and precious objects in the graves such as gold, silver and pottery. This explains the existence of so many historical relics and the high cases of grave robberies in China. The Chinese people also believe that holding grand funerals brings peace to the dead and therefore practice inhumation rather than cremation. The Qingming festival is very popular in China when the descendants commemorate and worship their ancestors and pray for protection.
Japanese people, on the other hand, view death quite differently. In the ancient days, corpses were buried in shallow graves or thrown in the bank of a river. Today, the most important thing revolving death is the acceptance rather than expressing grief. Like the Koreans, the bodies are cremated, but the ashes are separated from the bones and the remains shared between close relatives and friends of the diseased. They even have a three-day holiday known as Obon in October set aside to remember the dead. According to the Japanese culture, it is during the Obon when spirits of the diseased revisit their families.
Most of the beliefs and rituals in Asian cultures are drawn from back in ancient times. Most of them believe in the existence of their ancestors. The dead are respected because they are believed to have power and influence over the living, including the ability to bless or curse.
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