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Wolf Zorrito
{K:78768} 8/23/2008
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Agree, death is 'b.a.n.n.ed' and cremation is the best thing to minimalize death. Ashes, dispersed on a field. It happened to my brother and I miss a stone, or memorial place for him.
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Len Webster
{K:25714} 8/22/2008
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Yes, you're right... Only a very high level of sophistication can cope otherwise... Quakers and (in theory, at least) Buddhists might make it... (How strange, then, to find these beautiful pre-Buddhist, animist shrines, in areas where Buddhism is strongest...)
I think we in Western Europe lost something when cremation replaced burial, but it's always interesting to see how the memorial gardens try to create a sense of peace for us to remember and to meditate..
(Sorry about this - it's getting late...)
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Wolf Zorrito
{K:78768} 8/22/2008
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Its just so important to have a physical place to remember. Many parents with dead born children do organize a grave, so it becomes a place to process the internal pain.
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Len Webster
{K:25714} 8/22/2008
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Yes. 'superstition' aside, I think it does mark a reverence for place. Down in Bali, there are similar surfaces for offerings, but not the ornate miniature buildings you find up in Thailand. In parts of Europe, the habit of putting crosses, etc., at cross-roads seems to fulfil a similar function - and these days, in the UK, we're finding 'flower-shrines' at road traffic accidents and the scene of stabbings. I guess the common strand is the desire of human beings to mark a presence in as permanent a form as they can?
Thanks for stopping by again, Wolf..
Best, Len
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Wolf Zorrito
{K:78768} 8/22/2008
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Typical, I saw them in bangkok in 1983 everywhere. Small shrines, impressive.
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Len Webster
{K:25714} 8/18/2008
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Hi, Ian - you find these everywhere. This one is near the School of Nursing at Chiang Mai University!
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Ian McIntosh
{K:42997} 8/18/2008
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Intriguing modern urban setting for this. Are these ancestors here (how life has changed, they would think) or keepers of the land (again, how life has changed, they would think).
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