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AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China's Shanxi province, Dec. 6.
AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China, Dec. 6.
Jon Woo / Reuters
An ancestral tomb, 33 feet high and about 30 square feet, on the construction site of a building in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, in China on Dec. 6.
AP
Workers lay the foundation for a residential complex around a solitary tomb site in Taiyuan, China, Dec. 6.
Developers bought a cemetery and paid villagers to relocate the remains of their loved ones. All except one. The grave has not been moved as the family is waiting for an auspicious date to do so and a reason from the developer for choosing this site, according to the owner of the tomb. The developers are now offering to pay nearly $160,000 to have it moved. The building is scheduled to be completed by April 2013, but for now, construction continues around the gravesite. Last week a home in Zhejiang province, that had been sitting in the middle of a newly built highway as the owners held out for more money, was finally demolished.
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Looks like the gravesite owners should be ticketed for littering.
Slow news day.
$160,000 to move the tomb? Sounds like a scam to me. Wait a little longer and double it.
Hudson NH developer buldozed the graves on the Old Poor Farm and built houses. Neighbors dogs were finding human bones that were unearthed from the paupers graves. Nobody cared because these were poor people in unmarked graves.
I would wonder about the stability of the building after the foundation has been laid around a huge mound of dirt. And once the grave has been moved, how do they plan to get rid of the mound.... buckets and shovels? If they do have earth movers and front loaders, I doubt they could get one in there now amongst all the rebarb, etc. Someone didn't think this through.
The developers/construction team needs to make this a sacred piece of the construction and keep it that way to honor the family who it belongs to until the finalization of the issues has been made- build around it and encase it in a garden to keep it safe for the family.
The construction workers in China don't wear safety equipment because it's made in China ..hahahah and they can't afford to import the good stuff from the US.
That is the way around redtape. Leave a pile of dirt that will wash away after a few storms. They can always claim they held up their side of "honoring" the memory of anyone buried there. (If Karma exists, that will happen to them on day!) Once it is gone, there is nothing but a place to build on.
They said they won't disrespect the one and only grave left there, BUT, they and the families of the other's 'disrespected' the other graves! I would NOT have anyone in my family moved for money or any other reason. That is their final resting area, and not cool to disturb it, and I'm sure there were a few graves that were not in vaults, or cheap caskets from many years before, from a poor family, that bought what they could only afford that most likely fell apart, moving them....what did they do then? Have someone holding a large yard garbage bag to toss what breaks up, inside it? throw it in a new grave and put the stone back up? Good Grief, Unreal....and yes, I do know of places that have moved cemeteries for building other structures. I know of a huge freeway, that has a cemetery on both sides of it AND guess what is under THAT freeway? It was a huge cemetery with too many grave sites, and some dated back to 1800's......so you know they couldnt remove anything from those, so they just poured their freeway and set the headstones, in a "Special Area of the Cemetery" YEP, as the person above said: You moved the Headstones! But Not the bodies!" Sorry, I just can't fathom why people will actually move a cemetery for building.....damn, go around it! Sick Mofos out there!
If the deal the developers cut the families was enough to allow them to move their ancestors' remains to a more auspiciouly located gravesite, you bet they'd do it in a heartbeat. They would be disrespecting their ancestors if they didn't. Alot of what goes on in the traditional Chinese concept of the afterlife depends on us providing ideal conditions for the souls of the departed. Therefore, just like in fengshui for homes for living people, the location and orientation of a gravesite is either optimal or it isn't. Most people have to settle for what they can afford, because better locations are simply worth more. On the other side of this equation is the fact that the developers probably won't ever move that grave without the family's say-so because if the story were to get around, prospective tenants would fear retribution from the now "homeless" spirits of that tomb and never buy there. So that family really has been handed quite a bargaining chip!
Just couldnt move my ancestors from their final resting place. Most Native American's would never even think of it. (The Elder's anyway) I'll burn my SAGE and the Chinese can burn their InCENSE, my people stay where they are. Others may do it, but not this one. I am in no way racist or disrespecting the views of other cultures. Looking at that mound with someone's loved one in it, and people walking around like its just a pile of the ground, they need to hurry and move, so they can complete the job of building, just disturbs me inside. Is there going to be a huge ceremony when this 'Soul" is removed? The gravesite is awful high on that mound....I would love to be there, just to see how they remove this gravesite intact and with honor and respect.....Hope it doesnt fall apart in front of everyone.....I'm sure there will be some 'ancestors" not too happy about it.....Lets have this scene shown on National T.V. and not hidden in the nite with drapes hiding it and spotlights to place it in some dump truck......maybe someone can enlighten me on just how they would remove this one site in a humane way, with respect, and show the world as they do it!!
Just couldnt move my ancestors from their final resting place. Most Native American's would never even think of it. (The Elder's anyway) I'll burn my SAGE and the Chinese can burn their InCENSE, my people stay where they are. Others may do it, but not this one. I am in no way racist or disrespecting the views of other cultures. Looking at that mound with someone's loved one in it, and people walking around like its just a pile of the ground, they need to hurry and move, so they can complete the job of building, just disturbs me inside. Is there going to be a huge ceremony when this 'Soul" is removed? The gravesite is awful high on that mound....I would love to be there, just to see how they remove this gravesite intact and with honor and respect.....Hope it doesnt fall apart in front of everyone.....I'm sure there will be some 'ancestors" not too happy about it.....Lets have this scene shown on National T.V. and not hidden in the nite with drapes hiding it and spotlights to place it in some dump truck......maybe someone can enlighten me on just how they would remove this one site in a humane way, with respect, and show the world as they do it!!
sorry, when I posted, got an error message, about my reply would not post, it told me to try again...well I did, now I have 2 posts of the same. Was NOT intended to be posted twice, I'm sure i spoke my mind, without having to say it twice...sorry. LOUBIRD
I can see how many people could be outraged at the thought of a burial ground being torn up like that, but the thinking does not follow for Chinese tradition. A burial ground is merely a vehicle for making the afterlife of the ancestors better, giving them a place to return to between their ramblings in the afterlife to interface with this world. It's a place where the living go to pay their respects and share big news just as one might if one's granny was in a nursing home. You'd probably bring her favorite foods and maybe a set of new pajamas. In Chinese culture, you'd offer the food and pay your respects with incense and wine or tea (or hard liquor if that was their favorite), you might share your big news or ask for guidance, then everyone would eat the food together just as if the departed relatives were participating, and the new set of PJ's would be paper, which would be burned so the smoke could bring it into the next world for granny to enjoy. So, it's not exactly about the ground itself being sacred, it's more about the souls who are bound to the location. That's why so much is made of "who will take care of my grave?" in Chinese culture. Without the activity and offerings generated by the living, the departed would be impoverished and alone on the other side. And speaking at least for our family,YES, if we ever needed to relocate a grave there would be a ceremony complete with offerings and relatives and a general declaration of intent and instructions for the spirits to follow along, similar to the the way the spirits would have been instructed to follow along during the original funeral.
Sorry, but the only way to escape injustice in China is to occupy a grave. They worry more about the souls of the dead than they do about the souls of the living.
Yes the graves of the deceased were moved to another location ... however, the eternal energy of their souls are still there and it will only bring bad luck to the developers for their desecration of a cemetery for financial gain.
What if the family wants to visit the grave site and kneel at the headstone?
My grandmother wanted to move her deceased husband (my grandfather) closer to where she lived and no one in my family saw anything wrong with that. We just couldn't because of some law (safety issue). I think they said that the concrete vault was in the ground for too long to safely relocate him. I think that the family in this situation is holding out for more money. This could be selfish but so is relocating a whole graveyard.
I think its funny
Holding out for more money? Is this where the phrase "Grave Robber" originated? :)
Okay, I just see some little kid a few years from now saying something like, 'Mom, theres a grave outside our front door.' (or maybe my bedroom window lol)
the chinese government will build a huge hydro electric dam and displace millions of people/towns and ancient gravesites-no problem. Now this one grave site is saved-i dont get it?
My grandmother wanted to move her deceased husband (my grandfather) closer to where she lived. No one in my family including myself saw anything wrong with this. The only reason we didn't is because of some law (safety issue). I think it was because the concrete vault was in the ground too long for a safe relocation. I think the family in question is holding out for more money. That may be selfish but so is relocating a whole graveyard. Its all in the eyes of the beholder.
That's messed up, they're desecrating a grave site. When freak accidents start happening to the workers, when some of them mysteriously disappear to never be seen or heard from again, and others go crazy from seeing visions of angry ghosts, etc. we'll all know why. I'm not religious or anything, but I definitely believe there's supernatural beings in this world (I've experienced it), who should be respected.
This is a new type of Chinese out sourcing.
When are people in the world going to learn that after a person has been buried for a few years that there is nothing left in that grave but dust?
Precious dust.
China is lame, first they build a highway around some guys house in the middle of nowhere, now they're building around this tomb. This is like an episode of bugs bunny, they built a building around his rabbit hole 'cuz he didn't want to move.
beautiful photos...chinese ryoanji, then dust steel and glass
China is lame, first they built a highway around some guy's house, now their building around this. They're like a cartoon show, just build around whatever is there....