Chinese "wedding Ghost": how much is the bride for the deceased?

For nearly 70 years, China is building socialism. During this time was created one of the strongest economies on the planet, built huge businesses, skyscrapers and high speed railway. Surprisingly, with all of that close to along most medieval superstitions and ancient blood-curdling customs, the existence of which is hard to believe.

The first Chinese emperors of the Han dynasty, who reigned in the III—II centuries of ecah BC, was buried with special honors, and to provide the monarch in the afterlife comfort and safety, killed and buried with him concubines, servants, cooks, guards. In which case the Emperor was in the afterlife under supervision.

Today archaeologists have found huge tombs filled with skulls, bones and utensils, and the more "good" in the grave, the more noble people buried in it. But all things of bygone days — we're talking about modern China, where the dead, it appears, continue to care touching.

A typical cemetery in the Chinese city. All nice and neat

Every week with the Chinese cemeteries missing women's bodies and sometimes several at once. In November of 2017 at one of the graveyards in Guangzhou were dug up and stolen overnight from 4 body. In that time the criminals were caught and convicted, and the body returned to the grave. But so happens not always.

The kidnapping of female bodies from cemeteries is a secret industry, to combat which is taking very serious measures. The cemetery, in addition to conventional protection, equip with alarms and video surveillance systems, but that does not stop the body Snatchers.

The owner of the funeral home van long, are on duty faced with this terrible phenomenon, described the situation with the kidnappings:

Minjung is a tradition to arrange a wedding between the dead people have always existed, but especially of such ceremonies in recent years. When he dies unmarried young man, his relatives are on the verge of despair, not only from loss, but from knowing that he will be lonely in the afterlife. Therefore, in some provinces, these men decided to bury itself, but in company with "brides" — any of the deceased female.

It is believed that in this way it ensures family in another world, where he learns the happiness of marriage, which they were deprived in this world. Also, looking for the dead man's companion in the afterlife, relatives and pursuing their interests in China have long been believed buried without a wife a man will not find peace and will come to your house at night, demanding the bride.

In a country where only in road accidents annually kill more than 100 thousand people search for the bride "wedding Ghost" is very relevant. This ritual is outlawed since 1949, when came to power the Communists. Mao Zedong was one of the first decrees forbade this unnatural custom.

This is an option for the poorest people, as more "fresh" girls cost much more. The most valuable are just buried bodies of young girls. To protect the graves and cemeteries of Shanghai and Beijing police puts the posts, and the relatives of the dead persons of the female sex hire a guard who is on duty at the tomb around the clock a couple of months until the body would decompose and its value falls to a minimum.

In 2016, Guangzhou was struck by the audacious theft of a body quite young, 18-year-old girl who died from a heart attack. It was professionally embalmed and she looked like a living funeral. The body was stolen three hours later after the last relatives left the cemetery.

Surveillance camera recorded a video which shows how the grave of the truck and the masked men quickly begin to dig. Despite the complete survey of the process of the crime, fell into the hands of the police, no body, no intruders could not be found. Most likely, the corpse was immediately taken to one of the Northern regions of China.

Burial new couples in the same grave

There are more wild cases. In 2007, a man named Dream Tiantang killed 6 young girls to sell their bodies for "Ghost weddings". His act, the killer explained at the first interrogation, he told investigators that to kill the young woman is much easier than to waste time monitoring of the cemeteries, and then to steal the body.

In 2016 in the province of Shanxi police stopped a car in which were three men and the corpse of a young woman. As it turned out, it was a criminal group that had been killing for resale telephone One of the attackers was acquainted with the victim in social networks and invite her on a date. The victim then injected a lethal dose of sleeping pills of the drug, and the body transported to customers.

At that time the "bride" was waiting in the family drowned while swimming student, where he was willing to pay for a corpse in perfect condition 35,000 yuan (about 300 thousand). About the same time detained a group of grave diggers who managed to sell the same body twice.

The first time the dead woman was dug up and sold to one family, and the second time pulled out of grave where she was buried with a new "spouse" to sell another grieving family. During the second sale they were detained red-handed.

The "black gravedigger" Chinese law is pretty harsh for stealing the body can give up to 10 years in prison. Provides for liability and for buyers of the bodies of the relatives of the groom-to-be sometimes sentenced to 4-5 years of age. Despite this, the business continues to thrive — millennial tradition require, and the profit of suppliers of bodies is very good.

This may seem strange, but the market of corpses prices are constantly rising. Over the past 10 years, the cost of "fresh" bridesmaid rose almost 5 times. The highest transaction price recorded by law enforcement officers, amounted to 180,000 yuan (1 million 600 thousand rubles). That is how much the family of the dead groom was willing to pay for the body of a young model who died in a car accident.

Chinese tradition to provide the deceased with everything necessary, more than one thousand years

Among the population are constantly being educated, but to convince people that many generations believed in "the wedding Ghost", it is not possible. The wedding takes place on all canons of this ceremony — with guests, with a feast and Buddhist monks. Guests give "newlyweds" gifts and wish the family happiness. Monks should not attend such ceremonies that are contrary to the canons of Buddhism, but, having enough money, the relatives of the deceased can easily attract them.