Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
The number of people being cremated or getting “green” burials is increasing, the
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen, second left, speaks as National Fire Agency Deputy Director Chiang Chi-jen, second right, and others look on at a news conference at the Ministry of the Interior in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
Ministry of the Interior said yesterday ahead of Tomb Sweeping Day, which falls on Friday next week.
Cremations reached a record of 96.3 percent in 2017, up from 88.1 percent in 2008, ministry data showed.
The ratio of green burials — such as tree, flower and sea burials in which incense is not burned and steles are not erected — increased from 0.47 percent in 2008 to 4.5 percent in 2017, meaning 7,743 people were buried that way in 2017, the data showed.
Local customs are evolving with an aging population, while funeral operations and facilities have been modernized and made environmentally friendly, the ministry said.
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