A group of Buddhist volunteers led by Wang Yi-sheng (王義生) visited Yunlin County’s Gukeng Township (古坑) on Monday morning to help clean the bones of unclaimed or unidentified bodies at the public cemetery, blessing them in a rite they say allows their spirits could move on.
The Chipingchiu (崎坪坵) public cemetery was busy on Monday morning as people placed bones from urns onto canvas-covered ground, while others cleaned them with brushes.
Gukeng Township Office official Tseng Chun-hun (曾春渾) said the construction of the public cemetery and the Formosa Freeway overpass two decades earlier unearthed about 100 unidentified and unclaimed remains.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
“We have been storing the bones in a shed next to the cemetery since unearthing them,” Tseng said, adding that the Wang family learned about the remains after attending a ceremony at the cemetery in 2014.
Wang asked members of a Bhuddist group based in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山) to help him clean the remains and put the spirits to rest, Tseng said.
The group of about 200 members is based in Gangshan District’s Jhongsiao Borough (忠孝里), Wang said.
The group has made visits across the nation over the past decade to help clean unidentified or unclaimed remains, Wang said.
The group’s members are between five and 80 years old, Wang said.
The group volunteered to help after the tower holding the remains of Minsyong Township (民雄) residents collapsed in the 921 Earthquake, Wang said
It took the group more than three months to reassemble the bones of 9,000 people who had been entombed within the tower, Wang said.
The magnitude 7.3 earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999 killed 2,456 people and injured 10,718 and destroyed 53,661 homes with 53,024 damaged. Total damages were estimated at NT$300 billion (US$8.92 billion).
A hair stylihest surnamed Chen (陳), 25, went with her family to help clean the bones.
She said it was her second time on such a trip and that her first trip had been out of curiosity.
When asked if she was afraid of coming into contact with the remains of the deceased, Chen said the act was for the good of others and she was not afraid.
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