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.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS