Burials at sea keep cycle of nature flowing

The first funeral I attended was in 2009, when I covered a sea burial hosted by the Beijing municipal government for local residents.

Before that, funerals, in my mind, were about black suits, solemn music and endless crying. The bereaved family is often busy hosting many mourners. Friends often burned offerings of paper money at funerals to wish the dead a wealthy life in another world. But the smell made the whole gathering even more heartbreaking, depressing and scary.

A funeral at sea, on the other hand, was a fuzzy concept that I seldom ran across even on television.