GRAVE ROBBERS SELL FEMALE CORPSES FOR GHOST MARRIAGES

When I was in primary school I had heard the story of a ghost marriage being conducted in my town.  As the  story went, a loving couple met with an accident.  The boy succumbed to his injuries while the girl survived.  The heart broken mother of the boy deviously buried a picture of the girl with the corpse of his son with the intention of 'him' taking her along to the after-world and living happily there as man and wife.  From what I heard, the girl became seriously ill after her boyfriend's funeral and was on the brink of death.  Sensing that something was amiss, the girl's family went to a medium and discovered what had happened.  

On advice of the medium, a ghost marriage was conducted whereby the dead man was married to his girlfriend.  In her place was a paper effigy.  It was after this ceremony that she became better. 

However, there is another type of ghost marriage in China that is a bit different than the one I described.  This ancient tradition of Chinese ghost marriages is where dead boys or girls are married to other dead or people. It seems that when an unmarried son in ancient China dies, his parents will sometimes get the body of a dead woman – it would be best if she just died– to be his wife in the next life. A “marriage” ceremony is then held for the two corpses and the “bride” is placed in the same grave as her “husband.”

Well, I read a news article today about this ghost marriage happening in present day China.  Yeah!  It is still alive.

Here is the article ...

Men dig up corpses for the lonely dead to wed

FOUR men stole 10 corpses of women to sell to those wanting to conduct “afterworld marriages” for their dead family members in Shanxi, China, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The men, mostly in their 60s, had dug the graves and stole the bodies within the last four months, it reported.

They had sold the 10 bodies for about RM120,000 to families who wanted their unmarried family members not to feel lonely as they would have “wives” to accompany them in their afterlife.

They cleaned the bodies and dyed their hair to make them look younger as the buyers preferred women who died young.

The men were caught and jailed, it reported.

The China media reported that young female bodies could be sold for between RM20,000 and RM40,000 each in Shanxi as some rural villagers still conducted “afterworld marriages”.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/3/5/nation/12790908&sec=nation

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