Has your loved one dreamt of owning that special home? Well she can, if not in this lifetime then there’s the next. Beautifully designed homes are now available through skea.com.tw that can be purchased online to be burnt as paper offerings.
▲ Thermal Green Hill House
▲ Bali Villa
Wherever your loved one’s soul may be after he has shuffled off his mortal coil, rest assured that the quality of her after-life is as good if not better than her living life. Material possessions, desires and addictions can all follow along. Letting go for the living could not have been easier too knowing the departed has been well provided for.
▲ Cancer in hell? Never happens.
The paper offerings industry is now making a killing as the objects of desire are updated to cater to today’s lifestyle. Gone are the mansions modeled after Ming Dynasty architecture unless the person had dreams of owning one while he was alive or she loved the period dramas on TVB. But to each his own. So why not park a yacht next to the ancient Ming styled villa. Is anyone going to question her taste?
▲ Luxury yacht
Today, you will find paper structures, modeled after designer homes complete with an SUV in the garage, jacuzzi, modern appliances like a dishwasher, 500 horse power air conditioner (we know it’s hot down there), LED tv, Sony PS3, Blu Ray player, jewelry from Tiffany’s, a wardrobe of branded outfits with matching accessories, Mac, iPad and stuff any living middle-class soul would envy. Is this really hell or paradise?
▲ Stuff to die for? You bet.
As a marketer, I keep an eye on what items have been added to the catalog. The items reflect the market segment’s needs, hopes or aspirations. Say you work for Apple Inc. and you see iPhone 4s flying off the shelves and into the fire, you know whatever you’re doing in marketing is working. Don’t need to question logic as to why a bill from AT&T (or any telco providing the data service) wasn’t burnt along with it. The living can always burn and send hell money for the dead to pay their own bills. This could really be a chore and lately with global warming on everyone’s mind, a better option might be an iPhone app call Hell Bank Notes.
The ritual of burning material items made of paper to a dearly departed has been an Asian practice for hundreds of years especially to Chinese who are Taoists. The belief is that all life after death starts in hell, like purgatory rather than one giant torture chamber. The torture chamber is on the 18th level. There are many levels apparently though no one has been there and back to confirm this. In any case, it makes a great bedtime story.
If someone has been good while they were alive, their stay would be short before their number is called up for reincarnation. Otherwise their stay in hell could be longer than the life of planet earth itself. The best the living can do is to make sure their dearly departed soul’s stay below is as pleasant as possible so that everyone up here can sleep at night.(This article was written by Carolyn Chan in collaboration with Chew Lin Kay – fellow explorer of life, and death?).
