Cremation Equipment Made In China

Deaths in Singapore offset the population increase from live births. In 2007, 17,140 people in Singapore died from various causes. The death rate was 4.5 deaths per 1,000 of the population. There are strict regulations surrounding death and treatment of the body after death. Cancer is the number-one killer in Singapore.

Cremation history of Singapore

In the days of British rule, the number of Chinese burial grounds in Singapore increased very rapidly and the colonial government had little power to control burial spaces because it did not possess sanctions of sufficient strength. Clan associations met all the physical and social needs of the Chinese majority, and the result was the creation of segmented Chinese immigrant communities separated by kinship ties and operating independently of the state, each conducting their own death rites and running their own cemeteries. The local authorities began to view these cemeteries as hazardous sources of disease-causing vectors such as mosquitoes, as well as a form of land waste. There were urgent demands on space in land-scarce Singapore in the name of national development. In the words of E. W. Barker, then the minister for law, environment, science and technology, “The needs of Singapore’s young population must require the use of sterilised land, for the economic and social good of all citizens of Singapore.”

In the 1965 Master Plan, which was designed to guide land-use development in Singapore, cemeteries were identified as land “considered available for development”, and cremation was mooted as a viable option to deal with the exhumed bodies from these burial grounds, and as a way to dispose of people who died. To encourage the population to adopt this relatively new way of treating the dead, the state employed the help of “funerary middlemen” who could erode the distrust of cremation because they were respected for their knowledge of death rites and disposal. In addition, the rallying cries of national development, the common good, and the country’s future were used to encourage the populace to take up the idea of cremation and to abandon their insistence of traditional burial grounds.

In 1972, the state made it clear that it would close all cemeteries near and around the city area to “conserve land”. State power over cemeteries was considerably strengthened by an alteration in the law allowing the public commissioner to “close cemeteries without assigning reasons for doing so”. As an alternative means of managing the disposal of the dead, the state offered burial space at a state-owned public cemetery complex at Choa Chu Kang, although it made it clear that it considered cremation as the only viable long-term option. As various academics have pointed out, the clearance of ethnic burial grounds served more than a practical purpose as it signified the transferring of power from clan- and ethnic-based associations, which had previously ran these burial grounds, to state organizations.

Development and evolution of crematoria and columbaria

The earliest government crematorium, situated at Mount Vernon, began operations in 1962 with only one funeral service hall and about four cremations a week. By 1995, it had three service halls and was averaging 21 cremations a day, with operations beginning everyday at 9:00 am with cremations scheduled at 45-minute intervals until about 6:00 or 7:00 pm. The site includes a columbarium built in several phases, comprising niches arranged in numbered blocks which either feature Chinese-style green roofs, or housed within a nine-storey pagoda-style building. There also exists a two-storey “church-style” building.

Towards the end of the 1970s, the Mount Vernon complex, which was initially intended for the storage of ashes from recent deaths, could no longer cope with the scale of exhumation projects fuelling the demand for columbarium niches. Another crematorium and columbarium complex was built at Mandai, and this commenced operations in 1982, equipped with eight small and four medium-sized cremators and a total of 64,370 niches for the storage of cremated remains. Chinese voluntary associations such as Pek San Theng were allowed to build columbaria to house the remains of those exhumed from clan-owned cemeteries, and temples and churches were allowed to accommodate cremated remains. Mount Vernon Crematorium ceased operations on 30 June 2004.

Present

After a body is cremated, the family of the deceased can store the ashes at home or in a columbarium, or scatter them in the sea about 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) south of Pulau Semakau. There are three crematoria in Singapore. The Mandai Crematorium, the only government facility, is now operated by the National Environment Agency. The other two crematoria are privately operated; one is in the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery at Bright Hill Drive, Bishan, and the other is in Tse Toh Aum Temple at Sin Ming Drive.

There are three government columbaria and 57 private ones. The government-operated columbaria are at Mandai, Yishun and Choa Chu Kang. (A fourth government columbarium at Mount Vernon is due to close at an unspecified date due to redevelopment of its surrounding area into a public housing estate.) Private columbaria are operated by the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery(simplified Chinese: 光明山普觉禅寺), the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Mary of the Angels in Bukit Batok, and the Singapore Soka Association, among others. As with crematoria, there is a significant price difference between niches in private and government columbaria. A standard niche in any government columbarium costs less than $900, but one at the Kong Meng San monastery costs more than $15,000. The government columbaria allocate niches sequentially, and charge an extra $250 for any location change request; for an extra price, the private columbaria allow families to choose niche locations subject to availability, and even to pre-book niches before death.

Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Temple

There has been an increase in the number of Singaporeans pre-booking niches at private crematoria, even though some people consider talking about death and pre-booking a final resting place inauspicious. Reasons for pre-booking include wanting one’s ashes to be close to those of loved ones, and hedging against higher prices for niches in future.

Foreigners who die outside Singapore are allowed to be cremated in the country, but their ashes have to be placed in private columbaria.

It has been observed that the architecture of government columbaria reflects the outlook of the Singaporean nation. The early columbaria were simple, with few aesthetic ornaments, just like early Singaporean housing flats. The later columbaria have more modern designs, with well-designed landscaped environments, and looking similar to contemporary HDB (Housing and Development Board) flats. These columbaria include the Chua Chu Kang Columbarium and the Mandai Columbarium, which was renovated and expanded in 2004 to accommodate approximately another 60,000 niches.The designs are more elaborate, and are often reminiscent of other structures people often encounter in everyday life. Comparisons have been drawn between the architecture of these columbaria and that of schools and condominiums,and hypotheses have been made that such are deliberate efforts to eliminate the sense of fear and dread traditionally associated with landscapes of death.