Laser beams and music bring life to Malaysia cemetery

Laser beams and music bring life to Malaysia cemetery

By Chisa Fujioka

KAJANG, Malaysia (Reuters): Imagine a funeral bathed in laser
beams inside a 1,000-foot (300-metre) dragon structure painted
the colors of the rainbow.

Inside the narrow interior, mourners and visitors can watch a
statue of a Buddhist deity slowly emerging from smoke and
flashing laser beams surrounded by soft music before the ashes of
the cremated dead in urns are laid to rest.

The dying business, or the deathcare industry as it prefers to
be known, has become alive and big in Malaysia.

And now one company is hoping to turn its vast, modern
cemetery into a tourist playground as well.

"I thought we should have something like a garden so people
could spend more time in the cemetery and then leave with some
nice memories," says operator David Kong Hon Kong.

Kong, 46, is the chief executive officer of NV Multi Corp,
which runs a cemetery called Nirvana Memorial Park in Kajang, an
hour's drive from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.

Sprawling over 206 hectares staked in by fluorescent-colored
flags, the leafy cemetery aspires to shed dreary images of death.

Speaking at a recent media tour of the 40-million-ringgit
($10.5 million) cemetery meant for Christians, Taoists and
Buddhists, Kong said he hopes his creation will turn into one of
Malaysia's top tourist spots.

"Busloads of local and foreign tourists come every week," he
said.

There are no gimmicks for Christian and Taoist funerals.

Dragon structure

Top attractions of the cemetery include the massive dragon
structure which is as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and home
to over 6,700 urns for cremated ashes.

The air-conditioned dragon stores gilded urn compartments
priced at 6,000-30,000 ringgit each in addition to playing host
to laser show-style burial services.

Soothing Chinese synthesizer music fills the narrow interior
as a statue of a Buddhist deity slowly emerges from smoke and
flashing laser beams.

Outside, the Feng Shui-approved cemetery is dotted with
symbols of good luck -- statues of Chinese mythological
characters, Buddhist arches and fountains.

NV Multi's Kong expects the features, inspired by trips to
Taiwan, will not only attract families of the deceased, but
tourists as well.

Regular tours, though mostly promotional, keep the site lively
with chatter and make it an unlikely graveyard.

Megaphone-aided sales agents guided some 80 local visitors on
a recent Sunday morning.

"We have tours like this about one to two times a month, and
they are very popular," said sales executive Goh Yin Suan,
guiding his group of 10 ethnic Chinese through the cemetery's
various urn pavilions and tombstones.

Though sales agents -- who pocket a seven to 10 percent
commission for each sale -- are quick to hand out business cards,
some people say they visit out of sheer curiosity.

A 40-year-old visitor from the southern Johor state said she
was lured by a company advertisement offering free
transportation, food and refreshments.

"I'm not really interested in buying a plot," she said,
walking through some burial plots including a tombstone that
plays music when approached.

"Besides, this place is too far away from home."

Merit awards

Kong said his company's efforts to landscape a clean, well-
managed cemetery naturally led it to win merit awards for
promoting tourism by the government in 1995.

His company plans to list on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange
in mid-August.

Aiming to expand to other Asian countries, Kong said his
business started with the death of his father-in-law 15 years
ago.

"My mother-in-law asked me to make the funeral arrangements,
and it was really an ordeal I would like to forget," he said.

"First, I had problems looking for the right burial ground.
The hassle involved plus the unkempt conditions of the
traditional Chinese cemetery set me thinking."

Malaysian funerals are traditionally handled by community
groups.

Kong, joking that friends initially shunned him from Chinese
New Year gatherings because of his business, said it took him
some 10 years to win their acceptance.

"People realized that this business is not actually making
money from deaths," Kong said.

"Besides that, we are doing some charity. We are doing good
things for the family," he said.

"A lot of friends invite me now," he said.