Graves range in type, from the more traditional, to the standardised, to the individual, to the collective and yet personal. These do differ in price, which may not be especially egalitarian but at least does offer the opportunity of an enviable grave site for almost everyone.
Bundang Memorial Park is undeniably attractive, and in many parts have a level of considerate design that shadows even the National Cemetery in Seoul, but look a little closer and there are cracks in the veneer. Some are issues are not limited to this site alone, but others perhaps particular to this example of a contemporary, commercial memorial venture, that leave a rather bitter taste in the mouth.
Give or take a few hundred metres, the cemetery is 18 miles (29km) from the centre of Seoul. This is a similar distance between the London Necropolis (Brookwood Cemetery) and the centre of London. Brookwood Cemetery was the largest cemetery in the world when it was created in 1852, had its own dedicated railway line direct from Waterloo station, and is still the largest cemetery in Western Europe. It was proposed when London filled its local burial sites and had to look outside the city limits for a solution.
Seoul has attempted to solve its own sprawl by the creation of vast satellite cities along its boundaries. At the same time its remaining active cemeteries have begun to sprawl across the mountains they occupy. As fewer and fewer have the space to expand the number of active sites becomes smaller as they grow larger. Koreans increasingly compete for space for the dead as well as the living. The same implications of high demand and low supply apply to both.
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| NOT A BUYERS MARKET |
Only half of these burial plots are occupied. The rest represent a series of options for potential buyers, of colour and shape, with potential oppurtunities to upgrade just up the hill. Its important to give the impression of a fully occupied plot, any otherwise would just look barren. They're modern and convenient, and should you want to retain that traditional charm, well that's just another optional extra, at a premium of course.
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| PICK A COLOUR, ANY COLOUR |
Once the transaction has been confirmed, and the property occupied, should the required rent not be maintained in perpetuity, the resident will unfortunately have to be evicted. Space is at a premium, and there are plenty of people willing to pay good money for a choice plot in such a popular location.
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| NOTICE OF EVICTION DUE TO UNPAID RENT |
Commercialisation does have its benefits. In order to compete, a higher level of service has to be provided, albeit for a higher price, and in the case of Bundang the upgrade is a better service - showing what could be possible if a certain level of design was applied.
Why though, should this be limited to those who can afford the pay scale? Where only the rich can afford some kind of cultural relavence and the others scramble for a hole in the ground, just to avoid what lies at the bottom of the barrel.
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| EITHER |
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| OR |
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