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Traveling 1st-class to afterlife
Source: Agencies |
September 25, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DEMAND for luxury funerals is booming in Southeast Asia, driven by the rising ranks of the wealthy in the region.
From gold-plated caskets to million-dollar burial plots, a growing number of the rich are making the passage to the afterlife with the best that money can buy.
"Our clients tell us their loved ones deserve the best in life and in death," said Au Kok Huei, the group chief operating officer of Malaysia's NV Multi Corporation Berhad, Southeast Asia's sole listed bereavement services provider.
The company offers a range of funeral services and runs cemeteries and columbaria in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Taiwan.
Its 100,000 clients are mainly ethnic Chinese who make up more than 40 million of Southeast Asia's population. Muslims make up the majority of the population in the region, but lavish funerals are frowned upon by the religion.
Company officials said demand for luxury funerals among the ethnic Chinese has been growing especially in Indonesia, which has a small but affluent Chinese community and in Singapore, where the company runs a US$22-million columbarium.
Among the more popular top-of-the-line products are a burial urn crafted from Canadian jade priced at 188,000 Malaysian ringgit (US$60,750), while a gold-plated casket costs 388,000 ringgit. Basic burials by smaller firms start from about 4,000 ringgit.
The company's most expensive burial plots are on hilltops, conforming to Chinese traditions. Each costs 1.6 million ringgit and wealthy customers usually purchase several adjacent plots for their family members.
NV Multi aims to finalize a foray into China with a Chinese partner next year, where it will eventually compete with players outside Southeast Asia including Hong Kong-listed Sino-Life Group Ltd, a funeral service provider in Taiwan.
Kong Hon Kong, who founded the company 20 years ago, said the idea to set up the company came after he was asked to manage the funeral of a relative.
"Local cemeteries were poorly run and eerie, so I thought, 'why can't we manage a cemetery like a garden so our children will want to visit us after we pass away'?"
The goal led him to design a showcase memorial park near Kuala Lumpur, currently the largest in Southeast Asia.
Landscaped to resemble a recreational park, the sprawling 327-hectare facility features burial plots divided according to respective religious beliefs.
A statue of Guan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, venerated by Taoists and Buddhists, stands on the head of a kilometer-long dragon replica. A 6-meter statue of Jesus takes center stage at the Christian section of the cemetery.
The dead buried at the memorial aren't limited to humans.
A corner is dedicated to cats and dogs, with over 100 burial plots costing 4,900 ringgit each.
"The next generation won't be afraid to go to the cemetery again," said businessman Loke Kam Weng, whose father is buried in the cemetery.
From gold-plated caskets to million-dollar burial plots, a growing number of the rich are making the passage to the afterlife with the best that money can buy.
"Our clients tell us their loved ones deserve the best in life and in death," said Au Kok Huei, the group chief operating officer of Malaysia's NV Multi Corporation Berhad, Southeast Asia's sole listed bereavement services provider.
The company offers a range of funeral services and runs cemeteries and columbaria in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Taiwan.
Its 100,000 clients are mainly ethnic Chinese who make up more than 40 million of Southeast Asia's population. Muslims make up the majority of the population in the region, but lavish funerals are frowned upon by the religion.
Company officials said demand for luxury funerals among the ethnic Chinese has been growing especially in Indonesia, which has a small but affluent Chinese community and in Singapore, where the company runs a US$22-million columbarium.
Among the more popular top-of-the-line products are a burial urn crafted from Canadian jade priced at 188,000 Malaysian ringgit (US$60,750), while a gold-plated casket costs 388,000 ringgit. Basic burials by smaller firms start from about 4,000 ringgit.
The company's most expensive burial plots are on hilltops, conforming to Chinese traditions. Each costs 1.6 million ringgit and wealthy customers usually purchase several adjacent plots for their family members.
NV Multi aims to finalize a foray into China with a Chinese partner next year, where it will eventually compete with players outside Southeast Asia including Hong Kong-listed Sino-Life Group Ltd, a funeral service provider in Taiwan.
Kong Hon Kong, who founded the company 20 years ago, said the idea to set up the company came after he was asked to manage the funeral of a relative.
"Local cemeteries were poorly run and eerie, so I thought, 'why can't we manage a cemetery like a garden so our children will want to visit us after we pass away'?"
The goal led him to design a showcase memorial park near Kuala Lumpur, currently the largest in Southeast Asia.
Landscaped to resemble a recreational park, the sprawling 327-hectare facility features burial plots divided according to respective religious beliefs.
A statue of Guan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, venerated by Taoists and Buddhists, stands on the head of a kilometer-long dragon replica. A 6-meter statue of Jesus takes center stage at the Christian section of the cemetery.
The dead buried at the memorial aren't limited to humans.
A corner is dedicated to cats and dogs, with over 100 burial plots costing 4,900 ringgit each.
"The next generation won't be afraid to go to the cemetery again," said businessman Loke Kam Weng, whose father is buried in the cemetery.
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