Originally Posted by abaya

In the Muslim graveyard (Sunni, to be exact, though I am not sure what the differences would be for Shi'a), the bodies are buried almost immediately after death, and without a coffin of any kind. The body is wrapped ceremonially with a white sheet and laid in the bare earth, then covered up with more earth. Then a smooth cement slab is poured over the top, with a small tombstone (written in Arabic) at the head. The cool part is that a round opening is made at the foot of the slab, opening directly into the earth, over the body. Each grave typically has at least one tree or large plant growing out of that hole, and it's obvious that it's being nourished by the decomposing matter below. The point, if I remember correctly, is the idea of "from dust we came, and to dust we will return," and that the body should become part of the earth again. I found it quite beautiful, actually.



But the part of burial that I do like is that it gives a place for the living to come and grieve, and hopefully heal from their loss. Not that I think I'm some terribly important person, but I know the psychological comfort that a tangible gravesite provides for the living, and I know that ktspktsp or my parents or my friends and family (if they outlived me) would need something like that. My father's body was never found when he drowned suddenly, and I think the lack of a body really ripped the heart out of his family for many years... they had nowhere to go to mourn him. Eventually, his mother put up a tombstone in the family graveyard, and while there is no body beneath it, it gives a place for us to go and recognize his death.