A Most Fascinating Cemetery
Everytime I drove along the Pali Highway I noticed an unusual Asian building just to the West. I finally decided to investigate. I discovered that it was part of a large cemetery, primarily for Japanese families.
When you first enter the initial part of the cemetery looks very similar to what one would find in cemeteries across the U.S. and Canada.
But then behind a thick bush suddenly everything changes to reveal these large, heavy mostly black marble grave monuments, the likes of which I had never seen anything similar before!
These photos simply don't capture the majesty of these monuments and the sheer volume of them.
As you can see, the cemetery is nestled right up against a very urban residential neighbourhood.
This structure was very interesting too.
All around it were these little discs, which I assumed were cylinders situated vertically. I assume that each one holds the ashes of the deceased.
I do need to find someone who could provide a more comprehensive artistic and historic tour of this fascinating cemetery!
Labels:
architecture,
art,
cemetery,
gravestone,
Japanese,
memorial
3 comments:
Those discs have me puzzled. Looks like the center is retractable or can be opened?
Also the pagoda.. the engineer in me is always fascinated at the amount of timber that must be required to fabricate the structure. It's obviously not your good old 16"oc 2x4 stick build. It would be interesting to see a construction detail.
btw, is the roof of the pagoda copper? cement? or ??
and what's inside?
Chris, I didn't touch anything out of respect. But the top center of the discs could definitely be removed. Perhaps a vertical bar holds a container down below, into which ashes are placed.
The Pagoda roof looked like some sort of metal to me but I don't think it was copper. The green colour came from moss.
The buildings (there were two of them) were not open to the public.
If/when you next visit here you'll have to check them out for yourself!
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