Tombs of indiscretion

Paying tributes to loved ones who have passed away is a solemn old custom that should have nothing to do with materialism. But the craze for building luxury tombs in some localities has reduced it to a rather unseemly show of wealth.

The demolition of more than 140 tombs, quite a few of them actually built for people who are still alive, dealt a blow to the unhealthy tendency in Yunyang county of the southwestern city Chongqing.

The county is not the only one in the country, where tomb-building has become rampant in recent years. This is in keeping with the traditional belief that the dead will not live a peaceful life in the afterworld until their corpses or ashes are buried in a tomb.