Tombs must go despite halt to removals
Source: Agencies |
February 22, 2013, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
VILLAGERS in a central China city who secretly rebuilt tombs after they were flattened by officials to provide more farmland are being forced to pull them down again.
Authorities caused uproar last year in Henan Province by demolishing more than 2.4 million tombs but residents rebuilt hundreds of thousands of them over the lunar New Year holiday, the Southern Metropolis Daily said yesterday.
Respect for ancestors is a deeply ingrained aspect of Chinese culture, with a major annual festival dedicated to maintaining tombs, and officials halted the "flatten graves to return farmland" policy in November in the wake of a public outcry.
But a report in the Henan Daily newspaper said residents had "misunderstood" new rules on burials, wrongly believing that authorities would not remove the tombs if they were rebuilt.
A local official quoted by the Southern Metropolis Daily said: "The action of flattening the tombs for the second time is proceeding. This started on February 14 and is nearing completion."
The newspaper quoted online forum users saying officials were threatening fines if residents did not remove the rebuilt tombs.
China's government encourages cremation, citing a shortage of land for burials, but many in the countryside continue to construct tombs due to traditional beliefs.
The rebuilt tombs accounted for about 7.7 percent of those that had been removed, sources with Zhoukou's civil affairs bureau said, denying online rumors that a million had been rebuilt.
The city's campaign to encourage the relocation of remains to public cemeteries so land could be reclaimed for agriculture met great resistance from local residents and aroused concern it contradicted traditional culture.
Even so, more than 2 million of 3.5 million burial mounds were moved, allowing 2,000 hectares of farmland to be reclaimed before the operation was called off.
Zhoukou has been dubbed the "barn in the east of Henan Province" due to its grain production.
However, scattered burial mounds have severely eroded farmland and hindered mechanization, government sources said. Civil affairs officials said going against traditions that had existed for thousands of years was not an easy task.
Authorities caused uproar last year in Henan Province by demolishing more than 2.4 million tombs but residents rebuilt hundreds of thousands of them over the lunar New Year holiday, the Southern Metropolis Daily said yesterday.
Respect for ancestors is a deeply ingrained aspect of Chinese culture, with a major annual festival dedicated to maintaining tombs, and officials halted the "flatten graves to return farmland" policy in November in the wake of a public outcry.
But a report in the Henan Daily newspaper said residents had "misunderstood" new rules on burials, wrongly believing that authorities would not remove the tombs if they were rebuilt.
A local official quoted by the Southern Metropolis Daily said: "The action of flattening the tombs for the second time is proceeding. This started on February 14 and is nearing completion."
The newspaper quoted online forum users saying officials were threatening fines if residents did not remove the rebuilt tombs.
China's government encourages cremation, citing a shortage of land for burials, but many in the countryside continue to construct tombs due to traditional beliefs.
The rebuilt tombs accounted for about 7.7 percent of those that had been removed, sources with Zhoukou's civil affairs bureau said, denying online rumors that a million had been rebuilt.
The city's campaign to encourage the relocation of remains to public cemeteries so land could be reclaimed for agriculture met great resistance from local residents and aroused concern it contradicted traditional culture.
Even so, more than 2 million of 3.5 million burial mounds were moved, allowing 2,000 hectares of farmland to be reclaimed before the operation was called off.
Zhoukou has been dubbed the "barn in the east of Henan Province" due to its grain production.
However, scattered burial mounds have severely eroded farmland and hindered mechanization, government sources said. Civil affairs officials said going against traditions that had existed for thousands of years was not an easy task.
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