Families of Missing Persons in Nepal Hold Funerals with 'Straw Effigies' After Failing to Find Their Bodies

[Financial News] Nepalese families who could not find the bodies of their loved ones following last week's massive floods are holding funerals using straw effigies instead. They have determined that there is virtually no possibility that their loved ones are still alive and are performing these rituals to at least free their souls.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the 1st (local time), 12-year-old Roselle Shurestha set fire that day to a small effigy made of straw and barley symbolizing his missing father at Pashupatinath Temple, located on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu.
His father, 37-year-old Krishna Shrestha, was in Rasuwa, the area hardest hit when the massive floods struck on the 26th, and has been missing ever since. His family said, "We searched everywhere and went around to morgues across the country, but we could not find his body," adding, "So the family decided to perform a traditional ritual to free his soul."
The family of Newar, a 35-year-old truck driver, also searched far and wide for him. At the time of the floods, Newar was in Timure, a border city in Nepal, while heading to China. After their last phone call the previous night, they set out to find him when they could not reach him the next day, visiting hospitals and morgues several times. Newar's wife said that she finally accepted on the 31st the possibility that her husband might not return.
Sobbing, the wife explained the reason for holding the funeral, saying, "To set his soul free so that he can be at peace and happy wherever he is."
In Hindu and Buddhist cultures, including Nepal, it is believed that if a body cannot be found and a funeral cannot be held, the soul wanders between this world and the afterlife without attaining salvation. For this reason, when death is certain but the body cannot be recovered, people are known to make and cremate a straw effigy so that the deceased's soul can depart peacefully for the afterlife.
Of the more than 1,000 bodies recovered by Nepalese authorities so far, only a tiny fraction have been identified, and Nepal's already inadequate morgue capacity is reaching its limit. According to the Nepalese government, the flood death toll has risen to 1,050; including figures from China, the total death toll stands at 1,066.
[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter