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Cecilia Lim | all galleries >> travel >> malaysia > A Rich Afterlife
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2 September 2007 Malacca, Malaysia

A Rich Afterlife

Poorer families who cannot afford fancy memorial tablets could settle for very simple ones made from wood. However, you can send money to the departed for a better afterlife by burning hell money, which are paper printed to mimic money. I noticed one here in a huge denomination of at least $500 (they can go up to $500,000,000) tucked between two ancestral tablets. What I found ironic was that an accidental fire years ago left many of the tablets and photos singed, but the hell money which should be burnt in offering was not.


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Phil Douglis04-Jul-2008 18:45
Sometimes a story is best told through a small detail. The single corner of a single piece of paper currency, peeking out between the faded snapshots and wooden memorial tablets, adds a poignant comment to the aphorism "you can't take it with you..."