The much larger Ile Royale housed prison guards, administrators, and the death row inmates. The entire complex included a hospital, meat market, bakery, church, and a small cemetery for children and wives of the guards. Few prisoners lived more than a short time in the dark and forbidding environment of harsh conditions, prevalent disease, hard labor, and severe punishment. Death by guillotine was the fate for many, and burial rites were non existent, as the dead were tossed to the hungry sharks circling the island. Five to eight year sentences were the minimum, and these were doubled, as prisoners had to serve an equal amount of time by remaining on French Guiana even after release. Many would never leave, as those with sentences over 8 years were forced to stay on French Guiana. The French government brought in the first 28 female prisoners in 1889, in hopes of their marrying released prisoners and thus adding to the population. This effort was eventually abandoned, and no other women were sent here after 1914.

The remote and isolated prison site, Camp Reclusion, on Ile St. Joseph was known as the Devourer of Men by prisoners placed there in solitary confinement, or locked away as criminally insane. Remnants of steel bars and chains used to secure prisoners to their beds lie scattered across the bare dirt floors of the cells. Today, Camp Reclusion is home for hundreds of monkeys, where towering coconut palms grow through the iron grates above the cells, mosquitoes and spiders thrive in the damp and humid jungle air, and vines cling to empty prison bars.

The prisons housed the worst incorrigibles, the thieves and murderers, but many were exiled from France for political reasons, the most noteworthy being Alfred Dreyfus. In 1894, Captain Dreyfus was convicted on false charges of treason and sentenced to life in prison in the Green Hell of Devil’s Island. He spent 5 years of a miserable, lonely existence in a 13-foot, one-man cell, with only a bench to sit upon and wait for freedom from across the sea. The Dreyfus Affair is well known in history for the unparalleled political, religious, and moral controversies that occurred, goaded by the media and divided public opinion – support of Alfred Dreyfus was well presented in Zola’s “J’accuse” in 1898. Eventually pardoned by former President Loubet and completely exonerated of these crimes in 1906, he was reinstated to major and awarded the French Legion of Honor.

Although many prisoners tried and failed, we know of three inmates who managed to escape and live to tell their stories. Clement Duval, a political anarchist, was tried and sentenced to death in 1886. Although he served time in hard labor and contracted smallpox, he managed to escape from Devil’s Island in 1901. Duval spent the rest of his life in New York City, where he wrote about the evils of the prison in his book “Revolte.”

Henri Charrière has given us a fascinating tale of his 12 years on the Iles and his carefully planned escape from Devil’s Island. From a rocky inlet, he had determined that the current was strong enough in every 7th wave to carry someone to shore. Charrière and a fellow inmate floated for days on a crudely built raft of large bags filled with coconuts and eventually reached the mainland. Whether his memoir, “Papillon,” (French word for butterfly, the tattoo on Charrière’s chest) detailing his adventures is entirely factual has always been questionable, but it does provide interesting insight into his experiences and prison life. In fact, so intriguing is his narrative that the film on which it was based is still considered a classic and often compared to the “Shawshank Redemption.”

Much later, René Belbenoît was convicted of stealing a set of pearls in 1920 and sent to Devil’s Island to serve 8 years. His first attempt to escape in a canoe failed, when he was recaptured and sentenced to solitary confinement. Although he was able to spend a year as a gardener in Panama on a prison pass, he foolishly decided to return to France. Here, he was arrested again and returned to Ile St. Joseph. Finally released from prison in 1935, he fled from French Guiana and eventually made his way to Los Angeles. Belbenoît wrote two memoirs of his frightening experiences during those years, “Dry Guillotine” and “Hell On Trial.”

Fortunately, this incredible mass destruction of humanity and cruel punishment such as this ended when the prisons were eventually closed in 1946. Today, tourism has become the economic redemption for these islands. Ile Royale, a resort destination, is a picture perfect tropical paradise of abundant wildlife and lush vegetation where South America cruise ships dock regularly, airlines fly frequently, and tourists come to visit, relax, and explore. A museum of exhibits and history has been established in the old administrator’s house, but the religious murals by Francis Lagrange, former inmate convicted of counterfeiting, have almost completely disappeared from the walls of the small chapel. An interesting 2-hour guided tour (in French) of the island may be available which includes the abandoned prison buildings where monkeys chatter and play in the ruins, and the original lighthouse built in 1914, which is still in operation.

Hours: 10:30am – 4:30pm, Tues thru Sun. Admission: $6.00

For a much more realistic, but depressing visit to the grim past, there is no charge to wander through the rusted iron gates into the Crimson Barracks, so named for the blood shed as prisoners frequently attacked and killed each other. The old foundation of the guillotine remains a tragic reminder of the cruel executions that took place in front of the entire prison population. Beheadings were ordered often at the whim of the guards, and carried out by a fellow inmate. Once this so-called justice was done, proof of the executions was required, and the heads were carefully preserved in jars of alcohol and shipped back to France.

Accommodations: The inn (Auberge) on Ile Royale offers simple guest rooms for 60 Euros, rooms with terrace for 70, and hammock only for 10 Euros. Restaurant, gift shop, and bar onsite, and daily catamaran service to and from the islands and the mainland.

Transportation: Catamarans depart around 8am from Kourou, the main port on the mainland, and return around 4pm. Service on the 2-hour boat ride often includes rum punch and other amenities.

Popular boats: La Hulotte visits Ile Royale and St. Joseph and sails around Ile Diable, price $55 U.S. Royale Ti’Punch, owned by the inn (no extra charge for overnight stays), price $57 U.S. Sothis, ferry to Ile Royale, one-way $35. Tropic Alizés leaves from Kourou or Cayenne, price $55. (Cayenne, the capital, is a popular tourist city, with numerous hotels, restaurants, and shops.)

At certain times and dates, you may be able to view another popular tourist attraction while visiting these islands and French Guiana. The Guiana Space Centre has been in operation near Kourou since 1968 and serves as an excellent location for European, Russian, and commercial launches. Its proximity to the equator, as well as speed and maneuverability, provides an effective cost saving spaceport. Since this area encompasses the Iles du Salut, evacuation takes place during launch times. For visitors interested in seeing the actual launch, there are a limited number of viewing seats available in the spaceport itself. You must be 16 years or older to view the launch from a 4-mile distance, and at least 8 to view from a distance of 7 miles. Seats are free, but reservations are needed well in advance. There are no age or reservation requirements to view the launch from the beach at Kourou. The Guiana Space Centre averages 10 space launch missions each year.

Sharon L. Slayton

The Jews had lived quietly and unobtrusively in Paris up until the Vichy government replaced the Republic, and the systematic selection and categorization of Jews began. Created by the government of Philippe Pétain and controlled by the French police, anti-semitic propaganda circulated freely. Many of the French citizens were unduly influenced by the powerful Vichy regime, which persuaded them to accept Nazi control. As early as October 1940, a set of laws for the Jews in France to follow had already been established. In effect, they were required to register with the local police, and by doing so, virtually lost their rights as citizens of France. Jewish children over 6 years old were sent to school wearing the yellow six-pointed Star of David, as a mark of shame, to further identify and segregate them from the rest of the populace.

By August 20, 1941, massive citywide raids were rounding up thousands of these so-called “undesirables, and housing soon became a problem. A convenient solution was to include the low cost public housing project, La Cité de la Muette in the suburb of Drancy located about 4 miles from the center of Paris. Although La Cité had not been fully developed, Drancy had been used as an internment camp as early as 1939, and it was easy to incorporate the partially constructed buildings of La Cité as temporary housing From a public holding place for criminals, the Roma people, and other outcasts of society, Drancy now became an interim detention center, a barbed wire, heavily guarded camp managed by the French police and SS Captain Dannecker. Full control of the camp was eventually turned over to Alois Brunner, the righthand man of Adolph Eichman, who served as the administrator from June 1943 until its liberation. (Brunner, a recognized Nazi war criminal, was responsible for sending over 140,000 Jews to the gas chambers.)

At times, over 4,000 Jews were crowded into an area designed for only 700 people, where they were treated like animals, subject to the most inhumane brutality and substandard living conditions with little food and water. Families were immediately separated, as long lines of women and men were loaded like cattle onto boxcars. While convoy after convoy of human freight left Drancy for Auschwitz, children starved and died, and those left behind awaited an unknown fate and despaired of ever seeing their relatives again. Some 40 prisoners, former members of the Resistance, failed in a desperate attempt to escape through a 115-foot tunnel they had dug, which was soon discovered by the Nazis. Of the 70,000 or more Jews who were brought here, it is estimated that only 2,000 managed to survive the nightmare of Drancy.
As Hitler’s megalomania raged on, so did mass genocide and the size and frequency of these raids. No Jew was exempt, and no distinction was made among the registered and non-registered, the commoner, or the prominent citizens of France such as Max Jacob, Tristan Bernard, and Rene Blum. By far, the most infamous of these raids was the Grande Rafle du Vel’ d’hiv when an estimated 13,000 Jews were rounded up on July 16 and 17, 1942, and herded into the Vélodrome, a large sports stadium. From here, they were further categorized and sent to Drancy and other detention camps.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Vel’ d’hiv was in the number of children who were taken before their lives had hardly begun. The age limit of 16 or over had been changed, and in less than three months’ time, 6,000 or more children of all ages were collected and eventually put to death. On occasion, a few young boys were handpicked from the camp and sent to schools and training as future Nazi soldiers. The notorious SS Lieutenant Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” sent over 300 young boys, ages 14 to 19, which he had taken from a children’s home, to Drancy and on to the gas chambers.

Fortunately, the insanity of Hitler’s “final solution” ultimately failed, but not before at least 25% of the Jewish population in France were virtually eliminated. Some years after the war had ended, only a few attempts were made by the French government to make amends and recover from the overwhelming embarrassment of this deplorable time in the eyes of the world. Even before WWII began, however, the French regime had offered refuge to those fleeing from Franco’s Fascist Spain, but then later turned them over to the Nazis for extermination. Although Petain and many others who were put on trial claimed no knowledge of these events and the persecution, it is hard to refute what history has told us.

In 1976, a Polish Jew Shlomo Selinger designed an interesting statue consisting of 3 large blocks to be erected on Charles-de-Gaulle Esplanade. There is considerable significance and reference to the Jewish religion and culture in the intricate details of his sculpture, including the letter Shen for Shaddai, the words used over doorways of Hebrew homes to signify God or the Guardian of Israel’s Doors. Ten figures in the center of the statue represent the gates of death, with 10 being the required number for religious prayer. Two more at the top form the letters for Lamed and Vad, which combined represent the Lamedvavniks, the 36 who save the world from destruction. Two sets of 7 steps, representing the degrees of Hell, lead to the “path of martyrs” and across the street to an old freight car that features an exhibition narrating the tragedy of deportation.

Years passed and still there was no apology from the French government until 1994 when former President Mitterand authorized the construction of a memorial to be sculpted by architect Azagury and Walter Spitzer, whose family had survived deportation. In a special tribute to Vel’ d’hiv, the statue features a sick man, a pregnant woman, and several children. The words on the monument are worth noting: “The French Republic in homage to victims of racist and anti-semitic persecutions and of crimes against humanity committed under the authority of the so-called ‘Government of the State of France’.” Since 1995 when Chirac formally acknowledged the guilt of the French police and others who collaborated with the Nazis during the Occupation, the president of France has held a ceremony here each year.

Visitors to the former camp at Drancy will find only a small area of public housing, as much of the Vélodrome was destroyed by fire in 1959, and what remained was demolished. In May 2001, the Minister of Culture, Catherine Tasca designated La Cité de la Muette as a national monument, which houses a small conservatory of documents, a few memorial plaques including one to Max Jacob, and three more collectively dedicated to 100,000 Jews and other French and British soldiers held at Drancy.

Further tributes to Holocaust victims in France can be seen in the Wall of Names, dedicated in 2005, which is located at the entrance of the Shoah Memorial in Paris. The stone wall is engraved with the names of 76,000 Jews who were deported to Nazi concentration camps from 1942 – 1944, and of these, over 11,000 were children. The Memorial serves as the Centre for Jewish Contemporary Documentation, and is dedicated to the Unknown Jewish Martyr, with a crypt in the basement that holds ashes of only a few who died in the death camps.

Within the Memorial, small family photographs and drawings made by the children are the saddest part, perhaps, of it all. These are the faces of children who were victims of terror and the tragedies of war, faced with the unimaginable loss of parents and family, and the horrors of punishment and death. Surrounded by circumstances beyond their control, many too young to understand, they lived in fear of what lay ahead. For the few who did manage to survive, their lives would never be the same.

Shoah Memorial, 17 rue Geoffrey l’Asnier, Paris
Hours: Sunday – Friday, 10am to 6pm; Thursday to 10pm. Closed Saturdays, national, and Jewish holidays – April 9 & 15, May 1 & 21, & July 14th.
Admission: Free
Guided Tours: Free on Sundays (in French), 3pm, second Sunday of the month (in English). Handicap accessible, book/coffee shop, underground parking nearby.

A visit to Drancy will remind us all that evil does exist in this world, and tragedies such as this can never be forgotten

Sharon L. Slayton

The ill-fated ship had the dubious honor of being named after the leader of the Nazi party in Switzerland, who was assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical student, in January 1936.  It was officially christened by Gustloff’s widow on May 5, 1937 in a flurry of Fascist cheers, flags, and salutes as Hitler and other party members watched from above.  This was the grandest ship of the Kdf “strength through joy” fleet of luxury cruise liners created for loyal Nazi followers to enjoy.  There was no class division among the passengers; all cabins had a view and were of equal size.

From its maiden voyage on March 24, 1938, to just before WWII, carefree vacationers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland mingled freely with each other and the crew on cruises to the Mediterranean and the North Sea.  Cruise fares were reasonable and within the budget of most of the working class in keeping with Hitler’s false promises of a perfect world.  Free entertainment was provided; daily activities were structured, and Hitler’s propaganda circulated freely among the passengers who seldom went ashore.

Prior to the annexation of Austria by the Nazis, it was also used as a floating voting station for citizens of Austria and Germany, who were then living in England.  They were ferried 3 miles offshore to the ship, many unaware they were casting their vote in approval.  Other than transporting German troops from Spain after Franco’s victory in 1939, the Gustloff remained a pleasure ship carrying over 65,000 passengers on at least 50 different excursions.  The pleasure ended, however, with the final cruise in August 1939, when she was converted to a hospital ship in September 1939.  Serving a less humanitarian purpose during the war, it was camouflaged to house U-boat sailors in training.

At the end of WWII, on January 30, 1945, the Gustloff was put into service this time as a part of Operation Hannibal, a massive wartime relief effort.  Over 10,000 refugees, navy personnel, and the wounded, including an estimated 4,000 women and children, sought refuge on the ship from the advancing Soviet Red Army.  Although the Operation itself evacuated over two million people, the most successful wartime evacuation in history, the ones who made it to the Danzig port and the Wilhelm Gustloff were not so lucky.  Leaving many behind, the ship left port without ceremony heading for Kiel on the mainland of Germany.  Although thousands had escaped the atrocities of the Russian troops, none could know what lay ahead.

The ship and its crew were ill prepared for the mass of people that overflowed the decks and cabins below.  As the Gustloff made its way through sleet and snow, there was little protection from the weather or the enemy.  The ship was virtually alone on the Baltic Sea with only one small escort boat.  However, the U-boat detection equipment on the Lowe had frozen, and the boat was relying primarily on lookouts.  While anti-aircraft guns and the few lifeboats also remained frozen and inoperable on the deck of the Gustloff, the people suffered terribly in the packed quarters of a ship built to accommodate about 1800 passengers.

Some 9 hours later, disaster struck, as three torpedoes labeled For Leningrad, the Soviet people, and the Motherland were fired from an undetected Russian submarine.  After a direct hit on the ship‘s bow, the forward part of the ship was sealed off, and many of the crew were then unable to get to the lifeboats or carry out emergency procedures.  The lavish swimming pool amidships was now filled with floating bodies, broken metal, and flying tile.  After the 3rd and final torpedo destroyed the engine room, the Wilhelm Gustloff lost all power and communications.  The scene was one of total chaos, resembling the panic of the Titanic on a much larger scale.  Only a very few were rescued, as over 9,000 lives were lost in the sinking of the Gustloff, by far the greatest number in a single disaster at sea.  A journey that promised safety had ended in indescribable tragedy.

A second refugee ship, the General Steuben, was also hit on the same mission carried out by the Russian submarine commander Marinesko and his crew, raising the total lives lost to over 10,000.  Ironically, Marinesko was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union by Gorbachev in 1990, officially giving him credit for supposedly destroying German armed forces, but neglecting to mention the loss of innocent refugees and their families.

Unlike the Titanic, the shipwreck’s position in relatively shallow water was accurately recorded, so there is little mystery involved.  The Polish government retains control over this designated area, but there are few visitors or memorials to such a burial site.  A team of Polish divers, headed by Mike Boring, explored the shipwreck in May 2003 on a salvage expedition.  No evidence was found of a so-called Amber Room, or a secret treasure worth over $350 million stolen during the war years.  It is possible that some, if not all, the loot was recovered by the Russians soon after their deadly mission was accomplished.

(Notes:  The ship’s purser, Heinz Schon, one of the few survivors, has written numerous books and is considered the leading expert as manager of the Gustloff archives in Germany.)

(David Frankfurter was later pardoned, released from exile, and managed to live out the rest of his life in Israel.)

(The wreck is a war memorial and her location is disguised by Polish navigational charts that register her only as Obstacle No 73 – 180 feet deep in the Baltic. However, she is easy to find and most of the diving clubs between Gdansk and Kolobrzeg offer trips to the wreck.)(In Germany, the Wilhelm Gustloff has become a focus for war remembrance. Germans are lobbying to build a museum or a shrine on the Polish coast to mark the 60th anniversary of the disaster, on January 30.)
Sharon Slayton

You can find more on ghost hunting vacations here and here.

I’d like to share a few posts from a football message board regarding Memorial Day (these posts were made on an around the US Memorial Day Holiday in 2007) and burials in Arlington National Cemetery:

1. I  recently layed my father to rest in Arlinton. I have to say It was the first and I can only hope the last military funeral I have ever been to. But what a true honor it was to be there and experience such a thing. They truly do not forget a man’s service for his country and make every effort to make the families comfortable.

It was quit sobering to hear taps and the 21 gun salute as many times as we did during our service throughout the grounds.

I have to admit prior to this weekend memorial day was a day for remembrance for me but it was also a extra day off from work and grill out and what not. But now its a lot more than that not just becauce of my dad but all of the men and women who we have all lost.

2. Arlington is a very special place, and your Dad now rests in his rightful place among the other heroes.

3. Military burials are extremely emotional. Never experienced a burial at Arlington but my father & Grandfather were both buried at Calverton National Cemetery (as I will be eventually) and the playing of Taps & the presentation of the Flag to the family (my mother in both cases) were the toughest things to handle. Besides being present when both of them passed away those were by far the most emotional situations I ever had to deal with.

4. As a former soldier and member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry “The Old Guard” based at Ft. Myer, Arlington, VA … some of my duties included marching as part of a military escort/marching platoon (dress blues with almost razor-sharp creases, highly polished brass, etc.) for military burials “with honors” at Arlington National Cemetary.

After going through several burials it became pretty routine (almost as if it were like you had iced water running through your veins … basically you were totally focused on performing all of your rifle drill and ceremonial movements with near perfection). Besides, as part of the honor guard you cannot move, glance around, or hardly breathe let alone show/display any emotions.

It was an interesting, honorable, and memorable experience for me to have been a member of the Army’s most prestigious and elite ceremonial unit.

I wish all of the other veterans and active service members alike a very happy and safe Memorial Day!!! May those who served and paid with their lives while protecting the sovereignty and national interests of this great, great country … never be forgotten!!!

5. My grandfather was a SGT in the Air Force during WWII and wow what a service they put on for him in Aug of 2004. I honestly felt like my grandfather was an ex president of the US the way my grandfather and our family were treated during the ceremony. The gun salute and all. It was truly breath taking. Glad to hear your father received the same treatment.

Hart Island is said to be a ghost town with an abandoned church, asylum, and military base. The military base has Nike missile silos left over from the late 50’s and the cold war. These missiles were supposed to shoot Soviet ICBMs out of the sky before they landed in New York City.

But it’s not the abandoned military base that really qualifies Hart Island as a grief tourist destination. That distinction belongs to Potter’s Field.

Potter’s Field on Hart Island has been the burial place for New York’s unclaimed dead bodies since 1869. There are now over 700,000 bodies on Hart Island. This cemetery is unlike more famous and touristy cemeteries:

There are no ceremonies for the dead here on Hart Island.  Inmates from Riker’s Island are assigned burial detail and are ferried over to do the work.  Coffins are stacked beneath the ground–3 high, 10 across, 5 rows deep, between each of the white grave markers–crowding 150 adult bodies into each marked square.  Infant’s coffins are stacked in trenches and buried.

The most accepted scholar is probably A.V. Seaton. In his 1996 article, From Thanatopsis to Thanatourism: Guided by the Dark, Seaton argues that thanatourism is dependent on the traveller’s frame of mind. The thanatourist is “motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death.”

Seaton claims that there are various degrees of thanatourism:

1. Travel to watch death (public hangings or executions)

2. Travel to sites after death has occurred (Auschwitz)

3. Travel to internment sites and memorials (graves and monuments)

4. Travel to re–enactments (Civil War re–enactors) 

5. Travel to synthetic sites at which evidence of the dead has been assembled (museums)

This leaves quite a bit of overlap and makes thanatourism seem like a common word that could encompass holocaust tourism, cemetery tourism, a visit to Strawberry Fields, or just about any type of grief tourism.

However, on the rare occasions when the word thanatourism is used, it often refers to very specific types of tourism (primarily type 1 – watching death – when the traveller most clearly wants to encounter actual death). This must include burials, such as Tibet’s famous sky burials. I have not heard thanatourism used to refer to celebrity burials, but I suppose it could be used for tourists who visited Reagan’s wake / funeral in Washington D.C.

The fact is we can not rely on scholars to define words for us. We have to see how the words are used in real life by normal people. This is difficult with uncommon words, but I think we can see that dark tourism and grief tourism are the more general terms that refer to many sites associated with death and disaster. Thanatourism is sometimes used for sites associated with violent death, particularly when travellers actually want to see a death or burial.

The KZ Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp was home to a rock quarry that the prisoners were forced to work in.  The effects of malnutrition left the prisoners underweight and weakened.  These prisoners were forced to carry rocks weighing up to 100 lbs up 186 stairs, known as the “stairs of death.”  They were forced to climb one directly behind the other so that when one would collapse, they would fall back onto those behind them and cause a domino effect.  If they were unable to work or to complete their tasks they were either shot, beaten to death, or taken to the gas chamber. 

The number of people who where killed at KZ cannot be proven definitively because the Nazi’s attempted to destroy all records when they left the camp in 1945.  However, through eyewitness accounts and records kept by those who worked at the camp it has been determined that somewhere between 180,000 to 300,000 people lost their lives. 

The KZ camp was the last to be liberated at the end of World War II.  When the U.S. Army arrived to liberate the prisoners, the prisoners affected a small amount of revenge upon their tormenters when they turned on the approximately 30 guards who remained and hung them. 

The torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of prisoners led to the installation of a museum at the camp.  Today, people from all over the world go through the museum to learn more about the people who lost their lives there.  The hours of operation are Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm.  They offer explanations in German and English and have descriptive flyers in Polish, French and Italian.  The point of the museum is to remind us all what happened there and why we can never allow it to happen again.  For more information about the museum you can contact the KZ Gusen Visitors Center by telephone at ++43 7238 2269 or online at http://www.gusen.org/ – The site provides detailed information about the history of the camp, the current museum tours and much more.

It must be remembered that Tibet is a land where sky burials are closely associated with nature, partially due to necessity.  Here, soil is at a premium and wood for funeral pyres, other than yak chips, is practically nonexistent on the 12,000-foot plateau.  Beyond Llasa, the spiritual heart of Tibet, the area is remote and regulations seem too distant to apply.  There are 1,075 sky burial sites, where about 100 people called sky burial operators, are designated to perform the rituals.  The largest sky burial site, Drepung Monastery, founded in 1416, has received an average of 10 bodies per day for thousands of years. 

Sky burial rituals are not performed on the 19th day of the Tibetan calendar, a day of reading the sutras for the dead, a divine procedure in Buddhism.  The sky burial takes place, usually at dawn, and tourists, if allowed, are bathed in juniper incense, while three or four attendants wrap the bodies of the dead and lay them on flat rocky ledges.  Monks lead the procession to the burial ground where Tibetan prayer flags surround the area.  The higher up the mountain the more precedence is given, as in a burial site for a monk, rather than for a commoner.  The vultures or lammergeyers, known as “dakinis,” or “sky dancers,” hover above the site while strange calls emanate from attendants summoning these birds of prey to devour the pieces of carcass that are tossed 10 to 15 feet in the air toward the sky.  Bones are chopped and tossed aside in a methodical and solemn procedure, designed to emphasize the impermanence of life.  Since Buddhists believe there is no purpose in keeping the body after death when the spirit has gone, the actual feeding to the vultures is considered a final act of charity, an essential part of the cycle of life and death. 

In some cases, the body is tied to a pole, and slowly stripped of flesh by the vultures.  A Tibetan monk arrives with a sledge hammer and a burlap apron around his waist to continue chopping up the skeleton and the head, and these small pieces are mixed together with a paste of roasted barley flour, sugar, and butter to further attract the birds.  At the end of the ritual, the entire area is swept clean, although some religious sects retain pieces of the skulls to use as teacups. 

For many, the visits to the sites of these rituals near Mt. Kailish, the home of the Buddhist God Kang Ringboche, are pilgrimages, firmly rooted in religious beliefs.  For others, it is a way to connect with nature, to rejuvenate the mind and spirit, to regain a feeling of perspective between man and the universe.  Tibet itself is a country so distant that its spirituality seems to be everywhere.  Indeed, the entire land of Tibet seems to hold a magical attraction, a Nirvana where time stands still and pleasure comes from meditation and deep reflection. 

The media has brought death and tragedy in lurid, morbid details and reports from the far corners of the world to us all.  It is entirely possible that thanatourism in Tibet exists simply because of the unknown, mysterious phenomenon of death itself.  Although the sky burial may seem primitive and bizarre, its apparent link between the living and the dead seems to provide an opportunity to experience death vicariously.  Thanatourists are fascinated with symbolic encounters with death and the more realistic the ritual appears, the greater the fascination. 

Sky burials were banned in the 1960s and 1970s to foreigners or Westerners; however, Chinese officials began allowing sky burials again in the 1980s.  Again, in 1983, the sites were closed for a time when a group of tourists were stoned by grieving relatives.  Although the government has banned outsiders from actually participating, unless by invitation, and photography is forbidden, many monks act as guides and take tourists to these sites.  The compensation they receive is usually left as donations for the monastery or collected by the government.  The Chinese government, anticipating over 5 million tourists to visit Tibet in the next few years, is actively arranging tours and encouraging hotels and travel agents to promote tourism of any type.  Whether the Tibetans will be able to keep their religious beliefs and traditions to live in peace or whether pressure from the Chinese government, the media, and the thanatourist will take precedence remains to be seen.

Sharon L. Slayton

Pere-LaChaise in Paris, France, a burial place for such notable figures as Maria Callas, Modigliani, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Chopin, and Gertrude Stein, is thought to be the most visited cemetery in the world.  When first established in 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the cemetery attracted few funerals and fewer visitors due to its remote location.  In an effort to exploit the potential profit from tourism, marketing strategists moved the remains of Moliere and the legendary lovers Heloise and Abelard to a more accessible site.  As more famous people were interred in Pere-LaChaise, it soon became a much sought-after burial place.  In the rows and divisions of gravesites for the rich and famous, there is only one monument that remains unknown.

Today, tourists come each year to view the grand mausoleums, private chapels, and elaborate tombs of the people who made history.  Crowds of melancholics and incurable romantics, grief seekers, and even so-called professional mourners arrive by the thousands to Pere-LaChaise.  Aside from the ghoulish pleasure they may receive, there is little cause in most cases for quiet reflection and no apparent connection with the dead.  Cemetery tourism, oddly enough, does seem to provide a great deal of satisfaction for many in reliving the excitement and passion of long ago.  Some tourists bring the appropriate flowers, wreaths, or other tributes, while others simply follow tradition, leaving lipstick kisses on the headstone of the infamous and flamboyant Oscar Wilde.  Since the cemetery is quite large, with over 300,000 burial sites and five World War I memorials, navigational maps are provided for tours of the premises.  Visitors and tourists bring lunch on family outings and holiday treks and enjoy the roasted chestnuts and sausages sold just outside the cemetery gates.  At times, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and choir singers perform at open gravesites, adding the customary funeral music to the burial ritual.  Pere La-Chaise is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  Admission is free.
 
In a less remarkable, distant corner of Vienna, Austria, lies the tranquil Friedhof der Namenlosen, the Cemetery of the Nameless.  The first to be buried here were the bodies of strangers who perished and washed ashore in the floods of the Danube in the mid to late 1800’s.  Most of the 500 victims were so badly decomposed, it was impossible to identify them.  A few simple crosses and broken stones reflect the tragedy and sorrow of accidental death, murder, and unrequited love.  After 1940 when the last funeral was held, few visitors returned to grieve their loss.  The Cemetery of the Nameless has no elaborate headstones, few living flowers, and few words in memoriam.  Candles no longer burn for these ghosts of the past who rest amid the rocks and boulders now covered with brambles and thorns.  No names of famous people can be found, no music can be heard, and no professional speakers orate, and yet, the symbolism of the Cemetery of the Nameless haunts us in its neglect and isolation.  There is no admission charge to this lonely place where grief is far too overwhelming to contemplate.

In the movie Before Sunrise, the two lovers meet on a train to Vienna, a city, according to Freud, that has a peculiar obsession for death and melancholia.  In one night of wandering the streets of the city, they discover life, love, and romance.  Their attraction for each other and eagerness to share the past continues to grow as each carefree hour goes swiftly by.  In their visit to the Cemetery of the Nameless, we sense the longing of a woman to recapture her youth and innocence, as she recalls a similar visit as a child.  The scene of nostalgia and romantic illusion leaves us with a feeling of sadness, as we wonder if love too is subject to time and as unpredictable as life itself.  The cemetery is somehow symbolic of opportunities missed and the reality of knowing that some things are truly lost and forgotten, only to be buried in the memories of yesterday.

It has been said that cemetery tourism for some is an “aphrodisiac for necrophilia,” for others, a temporary feeling of sentimentalism and grief, but for many, it is just another form of entertainment.  Cemetery tourism has become far more than a popular tourist attraction; it is, in reality, an institution.

Sharon L. Slayton