Tibet to build more funeral homes

LHASA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region will build five funeral homes and renovate two by 2020, as cremation is increasingly accepted by Tibetan people.

The projects are expected to cost 370 million yuan (56 million U.S. dollars), including four new funeral homes planned in Nyingchi, Shannan cities and Nagqu, Ali prefectures, according to the regional civil affairs department.

Each new facility will cost 60 million yuan. In addition, a funeral parlour in Xigaze City, with investment of 50 million yuan, is under construction.

Two existing parlors in the regional capital of Lhasa and Qamdo will be expanded, due to growing local demand for cremation.

The facility in Lhasa opened in 2000 and had cremated nearly 10,000 bodies by the end of last year, with a quarter being ethnic Tibetans.

The lobby of the funeral home will be refurbished in the Tibetan style. "It will help locals accept cremation," said deputy head of the parlor, Purbu Zhaxi.

Sky burials, in which bodies are fed to vultures and other predatory birds, are practiced in about 80 percent of Tibetan funerals. They are regarded as an act of generosity and a ritual that allows the soul to ascend to heaven. Enditem