Taken here.
This entry was posted on December 3, 2008 at 4:51 pm and is filed under animism, health, history, life, nature, pictures, space, time, Vancouver Island, Victoria, weather, weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 4, 2008 at 12:21 am |
Have you seen some of the old graves in Vietnam? They’re out in the middle of rice paddies so you get to pick rice amongst the remains of your great grandparents.
December 4, 2008 at 10:41 am |
I’ve never been to Vietnam…This description sounds fascinating, though.
December 4, 2008 at 11:58 am |
Lovely photo. There is a Chinese cemetary not far from my home, where I go when I need a bit of solitude.
When you were in Victoria, did you ever take a boat out to D’Arcy Island? It was the leper colony where Chinese men were sent to die. I recommend reading “A Measure of Value”, which chronicles this sad, cruel bit of oft-forgotten Canadian history.
December 4, 2008 at 12:18 pm |
Haven’t been to the island or read the book, but I’m in Victoria till the end of the year, so maybe I’ll check it out. Interesting stuff. The whole history of the Chinese in this part of the world is deep and entrenched, and thoroughly under-appreciated.
December 4, 2008 at 10:36 pm |
The cemeteries in ‘Eua where I’m from are just on the side of the roads or in the bush in random places around the Island. We decorate them with upside down beer bottles and plastic flowers. They have mounds of sand over them that you sit on and talk to the dead.
‘Eua is part of Tonga and we have some funny ways here.
Take the plastic flowers, for example. The Island is full of plant life when I meet tourists they talk about all the wonderful flowers that they can only dream of in their countries, that just grow wild all over our island, and we go and stick beer bottles and plastic flowers all over our graves.
Tongans are weird folk. All our florists on the main island of Tonga don’t have anything but plastic flowers in them. We think death is kind of cool and nothing to worry about and if you ask why or how someone died the only answer you will get is they were puke (pookey) — which means sick.
The church in Tonga will loan you money to give to them as a donation, your names get read out every quarter in the church so everyone knows who gave the most and who gave the least. They tell me that I’ve lost the Tongan way cause I don’t go to church. Even when I point out that church is a western thing not a Tongan they just think I’m weird.
Just the other day when I explained to the Faifakau (church minister) that Jesus didn’t eat pork cause he was a Jew, he just laughed at me, called me misguided and said I was stupid and must go to church and learn that Jesus was not a Jew he was a Christian.
So to summarize — Tongan graves are weird, however Tongan ministers are weirder.
Ofa Atu
December 4, 2008 at 10:46 pm |
P.S. We don’t spell too good either.
December 4, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
Tim: That is one of the most interesting comments I’ve ever gotten here. Like a piece of local history or brief anthropological lesson. Awesome. Would like to visit your part of the world one of these days, dude.
P.S. I’m a perfectionist and edit people’s comments. So no worries, mate. :)
December 4, 2008 at 11:52 pm |
Thanks Necy
If you’re in the neighborhood stop in. Did I mention there are 23 different species of whale around the island and that it has its own rain forest. Geologically it’s not part of Tonga — it’s ten million years older and the Tonga trench which is the second deepest trench in the world (being just over 10 kilometers deep) runs round the back of the island which means you get to see whales that normally researchers have to go out on boat for days to find, just bouncing up and down a couple of meters away off the reef…honestly mate you should come by.
P.S. Don’t tell too many people about the whales — we already have two German whale researchers here for three years, don’t know if we want many more. I’m building a website for them. Have a look if you like it’s http://www.whale-info.com
My friend Taki owns a resort (loose use of the word) so accommodation isn’t a problem.
P.S. Tongans stopped eating people about 150 years ago so don’t worry bout that.
December 5, 2008 at 1:04 am |
Hey Tim, I’d like to go to Tonga now too…
December 5, 2008 at 1:20 am |
Hi Nurseypoo
The more the merrier as they say. There are only 5000 people on the island and God knows we need a nurse, though I don’t know what the villagers would make of that blue corset of yours. But I liked it — very flashy. I love blue, it reminds me of blue things.
December 8, 2008 at 8:52 pm |
This image holds an energy…I am drawn to this photo…I wonder why.
December 8, 2008 at 10:08 pm |
enreal: The cemetery is organized using the principles of feng shui and is a deeply mystical place…
January 4, 2012 at 3:47 pm |
[...] was the original name identified by Songhees elder James Fraser for the point where the Chinese Cemetery is located: Hayls the Transformer, with spirit companions Raven and Mink, came by in his canoe, [...]