VIDEO – No Room at the Cemetery? Turn Loved Ones Into Jewellery!

CNN’s Ramy Inocencio reports below on diamond burials for the dead in Hong Kong. No, it’s not a new luxury line of blinged-up coffins but rather a process whereby loved ones departed are transformed into jewellery as a cost-effective, portable and convenient way to keep them around after the Grim Reaper has struck.

Spots in private cemeteries cost around HK$280,000 and families wait up to 56 months for reused public burial spaces. Therefore, sending your late Grandma to Switzerland to be ground down into a diamond may actually be a wiser option…

90% of the dead are cremated, due to the limited space, as TIME Magazine reports…

The city remains a superstitious place and thus few want to live near graveyards. Space is very limited…

In an alternative solution Hong Kong designer Tin Shun suggested a twist on ‘burial at sea’ with this anchored cruise ship for permanent holidaymakers…

“The columbarium is about a journey from the land to the floating resting ground, which represents the transformation of the human body into ashes.  A place of collective memories, the ashes of the deceased are scattered or buried in urns.  ”The goal is to create an experience of “moving on to the next” – a synthesis between horizon and the datum of the ocean celebrating the lives that are buried in this space or scattered in the sea,” explained the designer.”

In 2009, HK’s Food and Health secretary visited Japan to investigate mechanized graveyards which store 8,545 tomb spaces and can lift the ashes of deceased residents up to one of 10 viewing areas upon demand. Family members simply swipe a smart card and can be mourning their dearly departed within 60 seconds…

• CNNgo – Visiting the famous in HK’s cemeteries.
• Wikipedia – Hong Kong Cemetery.