00:00This quiet garden high in the mountains above Taipei is part of Taiwan's push for greener burials.
00:05The government is hoping people will forego traditional mountainside tombs in favor of
00:10laying their families' cremated ashes to rest in the sea, in gardens, under trees,
00:16or here in Yangmingshan National Park. Just over 200,000 people die a year in Taiwan,
00:22and the government is pushing natural or green burials as an affordable,
00:26eco-friendly, and forward-looking alternative to traditional grave sites.
00:44Individual graves often retire tending beyond the annual observance of tomb sweeping festival,
00:49so some people don't want to burden their children with the extra duty.
00:56The current generation is moving, so it's a bit of a open thought.
01:01So it's a very good way to do it. It doesn't need to create a frame of the future.
01:10Natural burials like Fees, where the remains are not preserved, aren't yet the norm in Taiwan,
01:15even though around 95% of people are cremated. The country has largely moved from family hillside
01:20graves to towering community columbariums in recent decades, but physical grave sites,
01:26with bones or ashes inside, remain central to ancestor worship, serving as spiritual anchors for
01:31expressing filial piety and channeling feng shui. Still, more people who live in the city over
01:38there are choosing to have their ashes return to nature up here. And while it may be a break of
01:44tradition,
01:44the location really isn't. If you look at the mountain to my side or the ocean, somewhere beyond
01:50the clouds over there, you'd be hard-pressed to find a location with better natural feng shui,
01:56or one better suited to honor your ancestors. Taipei's mortuary office says about 20% of people
02:02are opting for eco-friendly burials, with this park alone now the final resting place for some 40,000 individuals.
02:08As Taiwan marks tomb-sweeping festival, the tradition of honoring the dead, through preservation
02:14or internment, remains deeply rooted, even as the ways people observe it continue to evolve.
02:19It's not different. It's a traditional tradition. It's a traditional tradition.
02:25It's just different ways. It's different ways. It's different ways. It's different ways.
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