Are there corpse hotels somewhere in the world ?! We know many types, even for animals but people already dead? Join us in Japan to see what it is all about.
The corpse hotels of Japan
The custom of incinerating bodies as a body is increasingly widespread as a alternative to burials; Several reasons support this decision, which can range from religious to hygienic or space reasons.For example, for Buddhists and Hinduists, the incineration of the body is necessary because it facilitates the transit of the soul, or the exit of this from the physical, human body.
Japan, a quintessential syncretic country, although with a large Shinto and Buddhist population, has been forced for reasons of space to cremate 99.9% of deceased persons in the territory; if we think that it has 126,926,000 inhabitants , with an annual mortality rate of approximately 10.10% (which would mean more or less 12 million deaths ), it will give us a The idea of how many cremations can be requested in this country, which, obviously, means a great industry surrounding death.
The crematoriums, as is logical to assume, are overloaded and many times you have to wait for some few days, and even weeks, before the turn comes.And where are the bodies, meanwhile? Because it can be a real problem to keep a corpse for several days in not very suitable conditions.
Well, someone, very creative, came up with this idea of corpse hotels, where for a certain price you can rent a room for your family where you can stay the necessary time before cremation.The rooms are refrigerated, of course, and there may even be room to sleep.

The most important thing is that family members and friends can see and visit for the last time to those who have died, before the body disappears in crematoriums.
A well-known funeral service manager in the US, Caitlin Doughty, was very skeptical about this procedure; The idea of corpse hotels seemed useless and ridiculous (in the US it is not a problem to bury loved ones, only half of those killed are cremated), and even macabre-which is a lot to say for someone so accustomed to seeing up close to the dead-until he went to Tokyo and visited one.If I comment:
“The corpse hotels fill a need for the Japanese, for whom it is very important to spend a last moment at home with the dead family member.Japanese apartments are simply too small for that.”
Thus, these hotels serve as a“ house ”that includes beds, kitchen and living area, allowing the family have that last time with the loved one.The only problem that the country faces in this regard is the extremely expensive of a funeral service in Japan : according to some sources, on average a funeral costs around 20,000 dollars! Although cadaver hotels provide a cheap and simplified alternative, it is an additional cost to the already exorbitant price of the whole procedure.But watch this short video where they explain this idea of corpse hotels:
What do you think? And what is the custom of your country? To give you an idea of the "latest trends" that are practiced, read Cremacion: 5 curious alternatives after death.
Images: Al Jazeera English, Raffaela
Comments
Post a Comment