The Han Chinese funeral ceremonies and burial manners

The theme of this paper is death and its ethnographic image. The presented data shows the results of long-term regional fieldworks and analysis of the collected data about the burial, cemeteries and post-mortem ritual in China (among the Han Chinese). I discussed the beliefs about ancestors, the soul and the afterlife, which are hidden deep in the minds of the Chinese people. The research aims at analyzing the symbolism and actions related to the death of the Han Chinese living in the southeastern regions of China. In this paper, I discuss the double funeral custom. First, the temporary hiding of bodies in the grave for a few years and later collecting the bones, cleaning them and re-burying. After 1949 as a result of top-down imposed by the government cremation, formerly cherished beliefs and customs had to be transformed. Nowadays, cremation is first, then the temporary burial, and putting an urn with ashes into the grave becomes a form of a proper burial.

The theme of this paper is death and its ethnographic image. The presented data shows the results of long-term regional fieldworks and analysis of the collected data about the burial, cemeteries and post-mortem ritual in China (among the Han Chinese). I discussed the beliefs about ancestors, the soul and the afterlife, which are hidden deep in the minds of the Chinese people. The research aims at analyzing the symbolism and actions related to the death of the Han Chinese living in the southeastern regions of China. In this paper, I discuss the double funeral custom. First, the temporary hiding of bodies in the grave for a few years and later collecting the bones, cleaning them and re-burying. After 1949 as a result of top-down imposed by the government cremation, formerly cherished beliefs and customs had to be transformed. Nowadays, cremation is first, then the temporary burial, and putting an urn with ashes into the grave becomes a form of a proper burial.