Grave robbers in rural China are stealing women's corpses to feed new demand for "ghost weddings" - an ancient ritual whereby elderly bachelors are given a "bride" to be buried with when they die.
Under a rural tradition that began nearly 3,000 years ago, families in rural areas consider it bad luck for a single man to pass into the after-life without a female companion at his side.
While the ghoulish practice has long been outlawed, it has now revived as newly wealthy country dwellers pay up to £10,000 per "bride".
The Sunday Telegraph visited the village of Dongbao, in the northern Shanxi province, which has seen 15 corpse thefts in the past three years. At least 15 others have vanished from other hamlets across the region.
"Who knows where they took my mother?" said Li Fucai, 53, standing over a tomb where his father now rests alone. "She is ill-gotten gains for thieves."
Ancestor worship is deeply rooted in China, and many people will burn fake money and other tributes to the dead at this year's annual Tomb Sweeping Festival in April. For those who have been the victims of grave robbers, the yearly festival visit to the family tombs can be a difficult one.
"My grandmother must now be wandering other villages, experiencing a painful after-life," said Jiang Chaohui, 43, who had the remains of his great aunt and great-grandmother stolen.
"Ghost weddings" are said to date back to the 17th century BC in China, and the superstition has persisted despite more than half a century of effort by the Communist authorities to stamp it out.
The ritual involves the extra body being reburied and placed along the deceased in their tomb, with gongs and drums played as relatives look on.
Brides are more commonly sought by families because of China's gender imbalance in favour of males. A deceased single man is also seen as making a family tree incomplete in the traditional Chinese social order.
Some families will give such a man a "wife" in a form of a silver statuette or a dough mould of a woman, using black beans for eyes.
But a handful of communities in inland backwaters still believe that if they fail to provide a real corpse, the dead relative could return to haunt the family and bring misfortune.
The black market in selling human remains is believed to have grown in recent years as China's economic boom has seen the rural wealthy pay large sums to meet the needs of their deceased loved ones.
In October police in Shanxi detained three people suspected of stealing a corpse which they aimed to sell as a bride. In 2013, a gang of four men were jailed after they sold 10 corpses in Shanxi and neighbouring Shaanxi.
Remains of younger women and those who have recently died are more expensive on the black market, but decomposed female skeletons can be reinforced with steel wires before they are clothed and buried, according to Chinese media.
Matchmaking agents provide the ghoulish service of pairing dead bachelors with the bodies of women from consenting families - which appears to be more tolerated by authorities than the illegal corpse trade.
Residents of Quting village, a few miles from Dongbao, told The Sunday Telegraph that a local man named Jing Gouzi had purchased a corpse for his recently deceased elder brother, who had died a bachelor.
When visited at his home, Mr Jing ran out of the back door and left the house unattended. However, local media reported the purchase, and quoted Mr Jing saying: "I thought of using a woman made of dough, but the old men in our village insisted only real bodies could prevent misfortune."
Meanwhile, Mr Li and others in Dongbao met to discuss how they could locate their relatives' bodies.
"I don't know whether police can solve this case," said 53-year-old Jing Dongxi, whose mother was taken last year.
Jing Yinliang, aged 47, whose mother was also stolen, said some residents had filled the tombs with concrete to stop potential thieves, while others carried out daily patrols, hired security guards, or moved the burial sites nearer to the village dwellings.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Chinese grave robbers sell 'dead brides'
Grave robbers in rural China are stealing women's corpses to feed new demand for "ghost weddings" - an ancient ritual whereby elderly bachelors are given a "bride" to be buried with when they die.
Under a rural tradition that began nearly 3,000 years ago, families in rural areas consider it bad luck for a single man to pass into the after-life without a female companion at his side.
While the ghoulish practice has long been outlawed, it has now revived as newly wealthy country dwellers pay up to £10,000 per "bride".
The Sunday Telegraph visited the village of Dongbao, in the northern Shanxi province, which has seen 15 corpse thefts in the past three years. At least 15 others have vanished from other hamlets across the region.
"Who knows where they took my mother?" said Li Fucai, 53, standing over a tomb where his father now rests alone. "She is ill-gotten gains for thieves."
Ancestor worship is deeply rooted in China, and many people will burn fake money and other tributes to the dead at this year's annual Tomb Sweeping Festival in April. For those who have been the victims of grave robbers, the yearly festival visit to the family tombs can be a difficult one.
"My grandmother must now be wandering other villages, experiencing a painful after-life," said Jiang Chaohui, 43, who had the remains of his great aunt and great-grandmother stolen.
"Ghost weddings" are said to date back to the 17th century BC in China, and the superstition has persisted despite more than half a century of effort by the Communist authorities to stamp it out.
The ritual involves the extra body being reburied and placed along the deceased in their tomb, with gongs and drums played as relatives look on.
Brides are more commonly sought by families because of China's gender imbalance in favour of males. A deceased single man is also seen as making a family tree incomplete in the traditional Chinese social order.
Some families will give such a man a "wife" in a form of a silver statuette or a dough mould of a woman, using black beans for eyes.
But a handful of communities in inland backwaters still believe that if they fail to provide a real corpse, the dead relative could return to haunt the family and bring misfortune.
The black market in selling human remains is believed to have grown in recent years as China's economic boom has seen the rural wealthy pay large sums to meet the needs of their deceased loved ones.
In October police in Shanxi detained three people suspected of stealing a corpse which they aimed to sell as a bride. In 2013, a gang of four men were jailed after they sold 10 corpses in Shanxi and neighbouring Shaanxi.
Remains of younger women and those who have recently died are more expensive on the black market, but decomposed female skeletons can be reinforced with steel wires before they are clothed and buried, according to Chinese media.
Matchmaking agents provide the ghoulish service of pairing dead bachelors with the bodies of women from consenting families - which appears to be more tolerated by authorities than the illegal corpse trade.
Residents of Quting village, a few miles from Dongbao, told The Sunday Telegraph that a local man named Jing Gouzi had purchased a corpse for his recently deceased elder brother, who had died a bachelor.
When visited at his home, Mr Jing ran out of the back door and left the house unattended. However, local media reported the purchase, and quoted Mr Jing saying: "I thought of using a woman made of dough, but the old men in our village insisted only real bodies could prevent misfortune."
Meanwhile, Mr Li and others in Dongbao met to discuss how they could locate their relatives' bodies.
"I don't know whether police can solve this case," said 53-year-old Jing Dongxi, whose mother was taken last year.
Jing Yinliang, aged 47, whose mother was also stolen, said some residents had filled the tombs with concrete to stop potential thieves, while others carried out daily patrols, hired security guards, or moved the burial sites nearer to the village dwellings.
Source: Daily Telegraph
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