第二埋葬 Dì èr máizàng
I was privileged to meet Helen Wong, writer and Historian. We compared notes and she gave me her two books, Second Burial and In the Mountain's Shadow.
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Second Burial is my Mum's Kwang Ning hakka's custom. I recall as a teenager, attending the grand ceremony of my Great Grand Father Kong's second burial.
When I was there at the ceremony in the cemetery, his bone had already been exhumed, cleaned and assembled in a big jar as though he was sitting inside the jar.
The jar was lowered into the tomb, and I vividly remember all the descendant were given small tumblers of wine to be thrown into the tomb. There was great pomposity. At that time my Grand Uncle was a high ranking assembly man and the head man of the region.
I had written about Great Grand Father's death. He and the family had just arrived in Borneo from China. He was buried in a simple grave. I am not sure if this second burial was because the first grave was a simple one, and they gave him and Ah Tai a grand grave befitting of them.
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