KUCHING: Chinese families have started visiting cemeteries for the annual Qing Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day, to pay respects to their departed loved ones since last week.
Nirvana Memorial Park, Kuching, has expected the place to be packed, leading up to the actual day, which falls on April 5 this year; thus, the management has stationed more staff as well as People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) personnel to ensure smooth traffic flow.
“Yes, more families come and visit the cemetery, cleaning the graves, bringing various foods and prayer items as offerings, compared to the last three years, when there were various restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19,” said executive director Siaw Chow Jin.
Apart from that, he also noticed that pet owners had visited their deceased ‘furkids’ at the pet columbarium and cemetery at the memorial park as well.
“Actually they (pet owners) always come on normal days, thus, I was surprised they are also visit their (deceased) furkids for Qing Ming.
“They brought along some food, snacks and toys too,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted.
According to Siaw, the pet columbarium at Nirvana Memorial Park was set up in 2011; with more than 700 compartments, in which 230 had been sold or occupied.
Meanwhile, the pet cemetery only started two years ago, with 58 burial plots of different sizes; allowing pet owners to visit their pet in a physical burial site.
“We set up the pet cemetery in 2021, after my friend’s dog passed away yet she refused to cremate it. She approached me and asked if there was any burial ground for the dog.
“As a pet owner myself, I know losing a pet is difficult, and we want to lay them to rest peacefully. Thus, I decided to create a zone as a pet cemetery at the memorial park and it was named after my friend’s pet – Bibi Zone,” he said.
Siaw said Bibi was the first occupant of the pet cemetery while his own pet dog Kaya was the second occupant.
Pet columbarium, he said, would start from RM1,980, which includes cremation. The remains would be stored in an urn before placing it at the columbarium.
As for the pet burial at the cemetery, he said, it starts from RM3,888.
According to him, there is an increasing demand for these services in recent years, especially the younger generations, those in the age of 20s or 30s.
For most of them, their pets were considered as part of their family; thus, they wanted to honour their furkids; similarly the way they honour their deceased family members.
Meanwhile, Nirvana Memorial Park, Kuching is the only one offering such services for deceased pets.
Apart from dogs and cats, Siaw said, they also cremated other animals such as fish and hamsters.
