COVID-19 corpse management in Nepal: handling the deceased at Pashupati electric crematorium during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Death causes considerable contagion and is fraught with potential danger for Nepali mourners. The main purpose of cremation ritual practice at Pashupati crematorium is to purify and free the soul from the body to secure the transition of the soul to another realm, and subsequently as an ancestor. It is the family’s obligation to facilitate a safe journey and to turn the deceased into a benign ancestor instead of a haunting ghost. Since the first COVID-19 death in Nepal on the 14th of May 2020, the Pashupati electric crematorium has been prioritised for COVID confirmed cremations in the Kathmandu valley area. These cremations were done free of cost by the crematorium staff without mourners’ presence, with the extensive logistic assistance of Nepal Army. The management of the COVID corpses was strictly controlled and regulated to minimise spread of the virus. The severely limited access for bereaved mourners and the obligatory use of closed body bags restricted the cremation ritual practice for mourners to a bare minimum outside the crematorium premises gate. How did mourners comply with these extensive restrictions? In this paper I explore the various factors that influenced the handling of the deceased COVID-19 bodies at Pashupati electric crematorium.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• cremation
• cremation practice
• corpse management
• regulation

Introduction

Since the first COVID-19 casualty in Nepal on the 14th of May 2020, the Pashupati electric crematorium has been particularly consigned for COVID confirmed deaths. All COVID-19 confirmed corpses in the Kathmandu valley area have been cremated at the Pashupati electric crematorium.¹ These cremations were done by the crematorium staff, free of cost for the mourners, with the extensive logistic assistance of Nepal Army. This scheme was initiated by the Nepal government in close collaboration with the Ministry of Defence. The management of the COVID corpses was strictly controlled and regulated to minimise spread of the virus. The severely limited access for bereaved mourners and the obligatory use of closed body bags restricted the cremation ritual practice for mourners to a bare minimum outside the crematorium premises gate.²

The central research question and theoretical approach

Since most Nepalese mourners attach great value to ritually assisting the dying and deceased in their transition from physical individuality to established ancestors, mortuary rituals are considered crucial (Nugteren et al., 2021). The COVID-19 mourners in Nepal were doubly unfortunate. Firstly, because of sudden, traumatic, and untimely nature of the demise of their family member. And, secondly because of the incomplete and diminished form of the mortuary rituals at the time of the COVID-19 cremation at the Pashupati electric crematorium premises. In situations in which people have died ‘an abnormal inauspicious death’ during a disaster or a calamity, it is common that much of the responsibility to mitigate the ritual ‘guilt’ of the inauspicious death lies on the shoulders of the closest relatives. How did the mourners comply with the extensive restricted cremation ritual practice at the Pashupati electric crematorium? How were the COVID-19 cremations at Pashupati electric crematorium handled?

Over the last century, social scientists and anthropologists have underscored that the orchestration of mortuary rituals accompanying death of any member of a certain group or society is closely tied to that person’s changing social position in that group or society (Bloch & Parry, 1982; Hertz, 1960; Metcalf & Huntington, 1991; Robben, 2004). Anthropological studies of mortuary rituals pay close attention to the connection between the deceased body, the mourners, and the fate of the soul³ as an illustration of the changing relationships between the living mourners and the deceased during the gradual transformation of the social person.⁴ I borrow insights from this approach in my exploration of the corpse management.

Method

This paper explores and describes COIVD-19 corpse management during the pandemic in Nepal. I follow the corpse ‘in situ’ during cremation practice to explore the various cosmological, eschatological, material and bio-medical factors which shape the form and content of corpse management at Pashupati crematorium. In my exploration of the multiple ‘doings’ during cremation practice I draw on published literature, legal documents, official websites, procedural manuals, internet media coverage, interviews, personal communications, and observations during my fieldwork in Nepal. I initiated my contact with Pashupati Area Development Trust in 2014 and followed the development, inauguration, and management of the electric crematorium since that time. During two visits, in February and November of 2017, one visit in November of 2019 and one visit in November 2022, I conducted four weeks of ethnographic fieldwork at Pashupati electric crematorium. I spent time following the staff of Pashupati Area Development Trust electric crematorium to get acquainted with them and their work. I observed cremation practice at the traditional crematorium, and at the electric crematorium. I also carried out 10 semi-structured interviews with Pashupati electric crematorium staff with the help of three Nepali research assistants (see my acknowledgement below). The interviews were recorded digitally, translated, transcribed, coded, and analysed.

Traditional pre-COVID cremation practice in Nepal

Traditionally cremations in Nepal are performed with open pyres (Gutschow & Michaels, 2005; Oestigaard, 2005). These cremations are fluid public events organised and managed by relatives, local communities, and ritual specialists. The main purpose of the cremation practice is to purify and free the soul from the body of the deceased to secure a rebirth in another realm, render the soul a safe journey to heaven, and to turn the soul into a benign ancestor instead of a haunting ghost. Transmigration and reincarnation play a central part in the cosmology of the boarder religious traditions in South Asia. This practice is tied to cyclical rebirth, known as samsara, and the moral codes for righteous living, known as dharma. Further, tied to these concepts is the law of karma, the inevitable fact that every action has an effect, resulting in merit or sin, determining future rebirths. The final goal is salvation and release from the cycle of rebirths. These cosmological notions are seminal in Hinduism and Buddhism and have far-reaching consequences for mortuary practice (Davies, 1997, pp. 82–83; Filippi, 1996; Michaels, 2016; Nugteren, 2016; Parry, 1994).

Death causes considerable contagion and is fraught with potential danger for mourners, as well as for the community at large. Therefore, mourners must observe several regulations and ritual rules to avoid polluting themselves and others. Performance of various mortuary rituals by ritual specialists and relatives is crucial for mourners to regain ritual purity, for atonement of bad karma and for their social re-integration in caste-oriented community. Thus, the cremation shall take place as soon as possible after death, preferably within 24 hours (Hadders, 2018; Michaels, 2016). It goes without saying that there is great variation within all the various sects, settings, and traditions. Today, as a modern electric crematorium has been established in Nepal, this changed the cremation practices, in some ways (see below). Nevertheless, most of the crucial traditional cremation practices have been accommodated within the electric crematoria at Pashupati (Hadders, 2018; Nugteren, 2016; Poudel, 2018).

Pre-COVID cremation practice at Pashupati temple area

The current Pashupatinath temple, located on the western banks of the Bagmati River, was built in the 17th century and is one of the holy places (dhams) in South Asia, which a pilgrim aspires to visit during a lifetime. To be cremated in the premises of the Pashupatinath temple at the bank of Bagmati is considered highly auspicious, like at other pilgrimage sites such as Varanasi in India, and safeguard a favourable reincarnation (Michaels, 2008, p. 215; Parry, 1994). Pashupati is an important tirtha, a ‘crossing place’, where heaven and earth meet, a place where it is possible to attain liberation (Eck, 1983, p. 34). Approximately 40% of the deceased in Kathmandu valley are cremated at Pashupati area, with an average of 30–40 open pyre cremations per day (see Figure 1). In Nepal, 81% of those cremated are Hindus, while 11% are Buddhist. Cremation is the main form of disposal practiced within these groups (Hadders, 2018). Cremation is also practiced by some Kirantis, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians in Nepal.

Figure 1. The traditional Pashupati crematorium area with the Pashupatinath temple in the background to the right side. Photo by author, 2017.

Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has been providing various services and managed cremation practice at Pashupati area since the PADT was established in 1986 (His Majesty´s Government Nepal, 1987). The foundation for the PADT evolved in the 1970s because some social activists, ‘politicians and influential businessmen of Nepal felt that population pressure had created a situation in the Pashupati area that threatened the authenticity, appearance, and dignity of the site and its vicinity’ (Michaels, 2011, p. 127; Michaels & Tandon, 2017).

On the 24th of January 2016, PADT inaugurated the first functioning modern electric crematorium in Nepal at Pashupati (see Figure 2). This option is an efficient, cheap, and relatively fast alternative for mourners (Hadders, 2018; Poudel, 2018). Since the establishment of the electric crematorium, about 30% of the cremations at Pashupati area have taken place in the electric crematorium, pre-COVID. PADT charges 4000 Nepalese rupees for the cremation of an adult. The electric crematorium has two functioning furnaces, with a wet scrubber smoke cleaning system. The facility is open around the clock the entire week for all groups and faiths, and everyone is free to perform their individual cremation practices and rituals as they prefer with few restrictions.⁵ Pre-COVID, most mortuary rituals, condolences, offerings and prayers were conducted outside the crematorium building, within the crematorium premises. The final crucial cremation ritual of circling the deceased thrice (parikrama), touching the body, and the ritual lighting of the cremation fire by the mouth of the deceased (dagbati) was performed inside the crematorium next to the furnace (PADT, 2023). All main mourners, except Christians, circumambulated the deceased body thrice clockwise with a firebrand (Hadders, 2018). The electric crematorium has been used by a broad cross section of social, ethnic, and religious groups in Nepal, including Nepali Christians (Sharma, 2013).

Figure 2. PADT electric crematorium with the main gate in the lower middle of the image. Photo by author, 2017.

The introduction of the electric furnace to do the cremation practice restricted the mourners access to entire combustion and constituted a major change from open pyre wood cremation burning practice. However, despite the change of the nature of the fundamental element of sacrificial purifying fire, most of the cremation practices of mourners have been accommodated within the changed cremation practices at the electric crematorium. During pre-COVID conditions, there were no restrictions on the time spent and the number of relatives and mourners who take part in the elaborate cremation rituals at the Pashupati electric crematorium premises (see Figure 3 and 4).The only restrictions applied to the number of relatives allowed inside the glass wall next to the crematorium furnace prior to the insertion of the deceased body in the furnace (see Figure 4). According to the pre-COVID Pashupati electric crematorium written guidelines, seven mourners were allowed at this moment (PADT, 2023). However, based on my observations, usually more than seven mourners were present and sometimes up to twenty mourners and even more have been allowed to attend next to the furnace. According to the electric crematorium guidelines, use of coffin is prohibited, and an obligatory bamboo bier is used during the insertion of the deceased body in the oven.⁶. Immediately before the mechanical opening of the furnace and during the insertion of the deceased body into the furnace, no mourners were allowed due to security reasons (see Figure 5). At this moment, the mourners were asked to leave the inner part of the furnace room. However, the mourners were allowed to watch the insertion from the outside of the dividing glass wall in the outer part of the oven room.

Figure 3. Cremation ritual practice performed by mourners inside the electric crematorium gate prior to the COIVD-19 pandemic. Photo by author, 2017.

Figure 4. View inside the PADT electric crematorium with the two electric furnaces behind the dividing glass wall. Photo by author, 2017.

Figure 5. PADT electric crematorium furnace with traces of ritual offering with auspicious red powder. Photo by author, 2017.

When the COVID-19 virus entered Nepal, the virus affected corpse management on many different levels in the country. In what follows, I shall focus mainly how the COVID-19 virus effected the cremation practice at Pashupati electric crematorium. The COVID-19 virus changed the entire cremation practice at PADT electric crematorium drastically.

The COVID-19 virus and the pandemic in Nepal

A virus acts by settling in a live host, attaching itself to the cells of the host, rapidly make copies of itself and spread to other hosts. The COVID-19 virus acted in this manner effectively on a massive scale and created a global pandemic. Thus, the COVID virus fundamentally changed the nature of corpse management globally. COVID-19, coronavirus disease caused by the severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is believed to have originated in the city of Wuhan in China, where it was first detected. The 23 of January 2020, the Ministry of Health and Population declared this case as the first official case of COVID-19 in Nepal. After the second confirmed case was detected in March 2020, the virus rapidly spread throughout Nepal (Pandey et al., 2022). The first death caused by COVID-19 in Nepal was that of a 29-year-old woman on the 14th of May 2020. Her body was cremated two days later, in the Pashupati electric crematorium in the evening of the 16th of May 2020. The first four-month lockdown was imposed on the 24th of March 2020. The second lockdown was imposed from March to September of 2021, after a rapid re-surge of COVID cases due to the Delta variant. The second wave of the pandemic created an unprecedented disaster in South Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Nepal very hard and has been a devastating crisis, in part due to that Nepal was poorly prepared for the disaster. The government of Nepal was slow to respond to the first COVID-19 pandemic wave and did not take necessary precautionary measures to control and prevent the rapid spread of the virus. COVID-19 vaccination started on the 27th of January 2021, using the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine marketed under the local brand name COVISHEILD, imported from India. However, ‘as of 18th of May 2021, 1.86% of the eligible population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19’ (Adhikari et al., 2021, p. 1). The national vaccination rollout was slow and, as of 18th of January 2022, only 40% of Nepal’s 30 million people had been fully vaccinated (Pandey et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the launch of the national vaccine programme made an important difference in Nepal.

National organisation of dead body management

From the very beginning of the COVID pandemic, the Nepali Army personnel was actively involved in COVID-19 prevention and management at national and local level in Nepal (Pant, 2022, p. 285). In March 2020, the government gave the responsibility for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 dead body management to the Nepal Army. This work was carried out by various units of the Nepal Army (Government of Nepal, 2021). The High-Level Coordination Committee (HLCC), chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, was formed on the 2^nd of March 2020. The HLCC made several crucial decisions with the intention of limiting the spread of COIVD-19 (Pandey et al., 2022). The national COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) was formed on the 29th of March 2020, and chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, with a mandate to implement the authority of the HLCC in practice (Pandey et al., 2022). The Coordination Plan and Control Group was central to the CCMC operations, and Nepal Army has been a member of this group together with Nepal Police (NP) and the Armed Police Force (APF). One of the major tasks of Nepal army, within the mandate of The Coordination Plan and Control Group, was COVID-19 corpse management. The Nepal Army coordinated the dead body management with the district or local management committee, the hospital, health centre and the family members. On the 7th of April 2020, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) published an initial brief national guideline for the COVID-19 dead body management. A detailed revised version of this initial national COVID-19 dead body management guideline was published on the 3 of June 2020 via digital platform and printed media. This guideline gave detailed instructions regarding the sanitary handling of dead bodies, their transportation, and the performance of funeral rituals (Government of Nepal, 2021, p. 33). In the case of hospital death and for death at home, a death certificate and a positive COVID test report were obligatory for COVID-19 dead body management. In addition, a letter requesting cremation had to be sent by digital email to the CCMC or the district CCMC (CCMC, 2021). This letter had to be issued by the hospital or, in the case of death at home, by the concerned local government authority. After having received this letter, the CCMC sent a letter to the Nepal Army and requested them to assist with dead body management and transport to the crematorium. Due to these time-consuming obligatory routines and formalities, cremations were often delayed for several days (DCNepal, 2021).

Within the first year of the pandemic approximately 1600 army personnel received 1–2 weeks of dead body management training by the Nepal Army. Nepal Army had dead body management units in all 77 districts of Nepal, with 3–4 trained teams in each district with 3–4 members in each team. In Kathmandu Valley thirteen operative dead body management teams located across Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts managed the corpses. Mandatory sanitary procedures, in accordance with the national guidelines, were practiced by the Nepal army teams, including disinfection, full personal protection equipment (PPE) and closed body bag. Crucial training material about dead body management was prepared and disseminated at every level in the form of various digital and print media; videos posted on YouTube, pamphlets, various documents, and guidelines (Pokhrel, 2020). The Nepal Army has kept detailed records of each COVID-19 dead body they have managed for funerals. While the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has kept separate records of COVID dead body management (Government of Nepal 2021, p. 57).

COVID-19 dead body management at Pashupati electric crematorium

The 29-year-old woman who died on the 14th of May 2020, during lockdown, was the first confirmed COVID-19 casualty to be cremated at Pashupati electric crematorium. Due to various obstructions and delays, her body was not cremated until two days after her demise in the evening of the 16th of May 2020. At this time the national comprehensive Nepal Army COVID-19 corpse management scheme was not yet fully established, and the Pashupati electric crematorium leadership and staff were completely unprepared to handle COVID cremations (The Himalayan, 2020a). Further, there was little knowledge about the nature of the disease in Nepal. Thus, the level of stigma, avoidance and fear was high among the public, as well as, among health workers (Tamang, 2020). Due to fear of infection, no ambulance driver was willing to transport the deceased to Pashupati electric crematorium. Thus, the corpse remained lying in the Dhulikhel Hospital mortuary until Saturday the 16th of May. The Ministry of Health had to intervene and finally the volunteer Bhaktapur Rescue and Awareness team (RNA-16), with wide-ranging training and experience from the 2015 Earthquake in Nepal, agreed to transport the corpse to the Pashupati electric crematorium in their vehicle.⁷ Nepal Army and police escorted the transport of the deceased. The RNA-16 team followed all the Government recommended precautions, wore full PPE, packed the body in plastic, disinfected premises, and placed themselves in two weeks quarantine after they finished the cremation.⁸ Only one Pashupati electric crematorium staff volunteered to assist during the cremation, after his daily duty was over. He operated the cremation furnace from the switch board, whereas the RNA-16 team placed the deceased body on the obligatory bamboo bier at the furnace. There was no performance of cremation rituals, and the woman’s husband watched from a safe distance (Deupala, 2020). The electric crematorium remained closed during the following two days. One Pashupati electric crematorium staff reported that the crematorium was closed because the staff had not received proper training to handle COVID-19 deceased bodies, neither had adequate PPE protection gear, nor satisfactory disinfectant cleaning solution for the premises (The Himalayan, 2020a). After this incident, it still took considerable time before Pashupati electric crematorium staff had received fully adequate training, equipment, infrastructure, and routines for handling corpses at the crematorium. In the end of October of 2020, in charge of the electric crematorium reported that nine out of sixteen crematorium staff had tested positive for COVID-19. At this time, the close collaboration between the electric crematorium staff and Nepal Army was well established and more than 600 COVID-19 infected corpses had been cremated at the electric crematorium (Ojha, 2020).

During the high peak of the extremely challenging second COVID-19 wave in May of 2021, more than hundred COVID-19 corpses per day were cremated at the Pashupati electric crematorium premises. As the electric crematorium had only one functioning electric furnace at that time, with a limited capacity of 12–15 bodies per day, the Pashupati Area Development Trust established an improvised additional area for 16 open wood pyre cremation ‘platforms’ at the banks of Bagmati, next to the electric crematorium and another 35 open wood pyres ‘platforms’ inside the electric crematorium compound, behind the crematorium building (Ojha, 2021). The large influx of corpses, mainly cremated with open wood pyre cremations, posed a huge logistic challenge during lockdown for the PADT electric crematorium leadership and staff. In charge of the electric crematorium hired additional twenty people to assist the regular staff of eleven people with the cremations. The large quantities of combustion materials that were used, such as: wood, straw, camphor, clarified butter (used for open pyre burning particularly), as well as, incense, PPE, gloves, and face masks were purchased regularly by PADT. The electric crematorium administration staff kept detailed record of the number of cremations and all their expense, to receive compensation from Nepal Government in the future.

In May of 2021, during the second COVID pandemic wave, the electric crematorium staff worked long hours with little rest and sleep. Handling corpses, heavy wooden logs, and controlling the smoking open pyre cremation fire was hard work and time-consuming. An open pyre wooden cremation takes at least three to four hours to complete. Wearing full PPE gear the staff sweated profusely, due to the hot weather and the intense heat of the open pyre cremations. They had to be careful during their work as the synthetic material of the PPE could easily catch fire. Nevertheless, the staffs performed their work impeccably, under the full scrutiny of extensive media coverage. The media, mourners, and public watched the cremations from outside the electric crematorium premises fence, from the Ring Road bridge and from opposite banks of the Bagmati river.⁹ During the COVID-19 pandemic, the PADT vaccinated the electric crematorium staff and rewarded them with additional compensation for their hard work.

In charge of the PADT electric crematorium described the situation during the second COVID pandemic wave with these words;

It was difficult for me to manage. I received phone calls continuously … There was shortage of everything. Everything was closed [due to lockdown]. I used to rest only for three hours a day. The regular staff team was there, plus twenty extra personnel I hired … The news media said that the Nepal Army did everything. However, the Nepal Army only brought dead bodies. I, as a member of the PADT [and my staff], received and had to burn the dead bodies. During that time, it was tough for us.

Nepal Army COVID-19 corpse management at Pashupati electric crematorium

Orders from the Kathmandu Valley CCMC division COVID desk to one of the thirteen Nepal Army dead body management teams in the valley could come at any time. The teams were constantly on alert and prepared to act. The dead body management team arrived at the hospital or at the deceased’s home in a separate vehicle together along with specially designated COVID dead body ambulance and escorted by Nepal Army security personnel in a separate Army vehicle. The team members were dressed in full PPE consisting of, full-sleeved gown, waterproof apron, double gloves, gumboots and covers, surgical mask, glasses, and face shield. One of the team members carried a portable canister spray gun with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite disinfectant.

At the hospital, relevant staff on duty placed the COVID deceased body in a sanitary leakproof body bag or wrapped it in plastic according to Nepali national sanitary COVID-19 guidelines. When relatives of the deceased arrived at the hospital, they got a last opportunity to see the face of the deceased from a safe distance. After this final viewing (darsan) the body bag was closed and was not opened again, in accordance with the national COVID-19 guidelines. The Nepali national COVID-19 guidelines were based on the recommendations of the WHO and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The dead body management team arrived at the Pashupati electric crematorium with the dead body ambulance vehicle, escorted by Nepal Army security personnel in a separate Army vehicle. These dead body transport vehicles were strictly used for COVID-19 dead bodies only. The main reason for the Nepal Army escort vehicle was to manage traffic during the transport of the deceased. Additionally, Nepal Army escort was also provided to hinder the spread of infection and to control any obstruction by the public (Government of Nepal, 2020, pp. 63–66). The vehicles parked at the crematorium gates or inside the gates to deliver the dead bodies. Nepal Army, military police, and Pashupati electric crematorium guards kept watch and made sure that relatives and mourners stayed on the outside of the crematorium fence and gates. Several Nepal Army staff on duty inside the Pashupati electric crematorium gate kept detailed records of all COVID cremations at the crematorium. The Nepal Army team placed the bags with the deceased bodies on metal biers in the waiting queue, inside the closed crematorium iron gates or near the fence, when possible (see Figure 6). The Nepal Army staff assisted relatives with the minimal ritual offerings to the deceased. This setup allowed relatives to perform some rudimentary final ritual offerings for the deceased before the cremation. Before they carried the body to the electric crematorium furnace the Nepal Army teams routinely performed a choreographed final ritual gesture of respect. The team members stood in line next to the deceased body and performed a military hand salute to the deceased (see Figure 7). Inside the crematorium, the body bags were placed on the obligatory traditional bamboo bier to be inserted mechanically into the blazing furnace (Dhimal, 2021). During the first COVID pandemic wave, the Nepal Army team delivered one body at the time. However, due to the increasing amount of COVID deaths during the second wave, the team delivered four bodies at the time. During the high peak of the second in May 2021, the Nepal Army trucks delivered up to 18 corpses at the time. After corpse delivery, the Nepal Army team sanitised their bodies, equipment, and ambulance vehicle. When the deceased bodies had been delivered at the cremation sites by the Nepal Army, the Pashupati electric crematorium staff took over responsibility and managed the physical cremations, without any further ritual actions. When the mourners asked for ‘ashes’, after the completion of the cremation, they were delivered to them by PADT staff to the mourners in a small claypot covered with a white cloth.

Figure 7. Nepal Army personnel performing their final ritual salute to the deceased during second pandemic wave. Photo by Angad Dhakal®, 2021.

Figure 6. Members of the Nepal Army wearing PPE take a short rest while mourners performing cremation rituals outside the closed main gate of electric crematorium. Notice traces of ritual offerings with auspicious red vermillion powder on the ground. Photo by Kiran Panday®, 5th of May 2021.

The quote below, the words of Nepal Army dead body management team member

Corporal Parlav Khatri describe the dreadful and difficult situation faced by relatives and mourners at Pashupati electric crematorium during the second COVID-19 wave in May 2021.

Every day when I go to work, I see people looking at the corpses of their loved ones from afar. They can’t see their faces, cry, hold them, or even say a proper goodbye. Misery and pain are a major part of my job these days, but I cannot let that hold me back. I am trained to do my job no matter how emotional the situation gets. But for people without such training, witnessing such heart wrenching sights can leave them psychologically and emotionally devastated. (Nepal, 2021)

Corporal Khatri describes the challenging and risky working conditions at Pashupati electric crematorium during this time and underscores that it requires courage to know that the grieving mourners does not get to say proper goodbye and perform the final death rituals to the deceased; ‘On a single day of work, and individual staff needs to attend to approximately 30 dead bodies, before the shift ends’. At the end of a work shift, every team member has to do a COVID PCR test and quarantine until the test result returns negative, before resuming their work (Nepal, 2021).

Mourners experience of COIVD-19 dead body management during cremation practice at Pashupati electric crematorium

It is difficult to comprehend or to describe in words how traumatised mourners were as they finally arrived at the Pashupati electric crematorium to perform the cremation rituals for the deceased. The final days with their dying relative had been a stressful roller coaster ride, oscillating between hope and despair, desperately searching for last resort treatment (Adhikari et al., 2021). Due to the overburdened condition of the health care system, the government recommended home isolation until an acute or critical COVID condition occurred. Thus, many COVID-19 afflicted died at home. Arriving at the Pashupati electric crematorium gate, some female mourners experienced a breakdown during the diminished final cremation rituals. They wailed loudly and collapsed on the ground outside the Pashupati electric crematorium gate.¹⁰ Women wailing is common behaviour during cremations, but collapsing and fainting behaviour is only observed during sudden untimely ‘bad death’ cremations. However, many mourners did not make it that far, and could not attend the ritual at the Pashupati electric crematorium at all, due to lockdown restrictions or a positive COVID-19 test result. These mourners had to remain in isolation at home or at the hospital. For this reason, these mourners had not been able to spend the final moments with their relative at the time of their demise (Onlinekhabar, 2020). At best, these mourners could view the final farewell at the Pashupati electric crematorium gate via a mobile telephone video stream, arranged by one of their relatives.

As I have pointed out above, during the COVID-19 pandemic, mourners where not allowed anywhere inside the Pashupati electric crematorium premises. However, there were a few exceptions made for some families and mourners of high-ranking political leaders, who were allowed to enter inside the crematorium gate and perform the final ritual offerings to the deceased next to the gate. Nevertheless, without touching the closed body bag and maintenance of physical distance.¹¹ According to the national COVID-19 body management guidelines family members were allowed to ‘partake in the death ritual by sprinkling water, reading scriptures and putting garlands but without touching the body’. Mourners gathered in small groups of approximately 5–30 people, outside the Pashupati electric crematorium gate. Most mourners wore a simple facemask for protection and usually maintained physical distance to people outside their mourning group (see Figure 6). They brought various offerings for the deceased and offered prayers. For instance, ritual offerings such as, flowers and flower garlands, fragrant incense, water, ritual scarfs, coloured and printed cloth, rice and grains, money, and the auspicious red vermillion powder (abhir). In a few cases a priest performed some rituals for the deceased outside the gate. When the deceased body was placed near the closed crematorium gate by Nepal Army personnel, mourners could give the offerings through the iron gate bars on the deceased body (see Figure 6). However, often mourners had to rely on assistance from Nepal Army with the distribution of the offerings when the deceased bodies were placed some distance from the gate. Due to the obligatory use of closed body bags, mourners did not know which body bag contained their deceased relative. Nepal army staff had to help the mourners with the identification, checking with the small obligatory name tags on the bags with date of birth and family contact details. One relative described his experience at the Pashupati electric crematorium with these words;

From a traditional cremation, it was completely different. The flowers, garland, cloth, and ‘panchamrit’ [the offerings of liquid with five auspicious ingredients; milk, curd, clarified butter, honey and sugarcane molasses] that we typically provide during the cremation process were given to the army, which then covered the [deceased] body with them. Both touching the corpse and carrying out our rites were forbidden to us. Only after requesting a family friend, we knew at the crematorium where we handed the ashes. The ashes were disposed of in the Holy Bank of [next to] Pashupatinath temple.

This relative agreed with precautionary measures in general, however, experienced these restrictions as too harsh. In the end, he felt guilty for not performing the final cremation rituals for his father and grandmother;

… I agree that every precaution should be taken during a pandemic to stop the spread of the virus. Yet because our family members were the ones caring for our parents when they were ill with COVID, we were in close contact with them throughout their suffering, feeding them, washing them, and visiting them in the hospital. Lastly, it seems a little cruel to prevent us from performing the cremation rites after everything we’ve been through. It would have been preferable if the government had considered this and permitted us to conduct a few ceremonies. We should have been allowed to offer ‘dagbati’ [circumambulating the deceased with a firebrand and symbolically lighting the cremation fire] the at the very least. Losing a family member is painful and even more complicated when we can’t give them a proper ending by performing our rituals …

Looking back at the past makes me feel a little guilty. I regret not being able to carry out my rites after the deaths of my father and grandma. I was unable to provide them with ‘dagbati’. Considering the situation at the time, even though it was terrible for everyone, I soothed my heart thinking that the cremation method was okay and justified.

Discussion

In my exploration above, I have paid close attention to the connection between the deceased body, the mourners, and the fate of the soul. I followed the corpse during cremation practice to explore the various cosmological, eschatological, material and bio-medical factors which shape the form and content of corpse management at Pashupati crematorium. I argue that corpse management at Pashupati is a multiple affair, embedded in material, social, legal, and bio-medical practice – at collective as well as individual levels. Further, corpse management is a collective achievement accomplished by complex socio-material arrangements that bring together various professionals, procedural manuals, legal framework, equipment, medical intervention, the deceased body, and mourners during the cremation practice. The COVID-19 virus changed the entire cremation practice at PADT electric crematorium drastically. Cremation ritual practice was not only severely diminished and restricted, but the cremations were also delayed. Due to the strict sanitary regulations and the routine use of body bag, Nepal Army corpse transport ambulance, and crematorium iron gate barrier, the mourners were severely restricted and deprived of the final sensorial ritual actions such as viewing (darsan) and touching of the deceased body. These sensorial inter-actions with the deceased are crucial gestures of paying final respect. These unfortunate circumstances strongly influenced the COVID-19 mourners´ bereavement experience at Pashupati electric crematorium.

Finally, then it is time to take stock and ask the rhetorical question; why did the mourners comply with the restricted cremation ritual practice at the Pashupati electric crematorium? The obvious common-sense reply is that the mourners complied due to fear of COVID virus infection and respect for the Nepal Army, police and PADT electric crematorium personnel. In a study by Patel et al. (2022) about mourners’ experience of restrictive COVID guidelines and mourners’ compliance in an Indian hospital, the authors report that ‘Despite all the challenges they faced, the bereaved individuals accepted that there is no choice but to follow the rules and regulations related to the COVID-19 pandemic as public good should always come before personal loss’ (Patel et al., 2022, p. 14). However, in my exploration I have focused not so much on why the mourners complied, but on how they complied within the COVID-19 corpse management practice.

Even though the Government of Nepal responded inadequately to the COVID-19 pandemic, they gradually managed to organise the COVID-19 corpse management properly. Compared to the undemocratic, chaotic, and fragmented COVID-19 corpse management and the resulting loss of public trust reported from India, the government of Nepal handled the corpse management effectively via the national COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre and the Nepal Army (Ghosh & Athira, 2022; Kumari, 2023). The COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre coordinated their work on federal, municipal, and regional administrational organisation levels throughout Nepal and the Nepal Army delivered corpse management in a democratic manner for all citizens free of cost, irrespective of class, caste, or faith (Government of Nepal, 2021). The Nepal Army and the PADT electric crematorium staff have gained public trust and a good reputation for their handling and disposal of the deceased during the pandemic (DCNepal, 2021). Further, through their strong mandate, mercantile advantage, and organisation, PADT could implement comprehensive and overreaching policies for COVID corpse management and cremation practices at Pashupati electric crematorium in collaboration with the Nepal Army. In contrast to the Nepali corpse management policy, early in 2020 the government of Sri Lanka banned COVID-19 burial and decided that all COVID-19 casualties in the country should be cremated, irrespective of religious faith and mortuary practice. This decision was not founded in any comprehensive scientific evidence, violated the religious rights grounded in the Sri Lankan constitution and discriminated the religious rights of the Muslim and Christian community in Sri Lanka. However, a year later ‘Thereafter, due to international pressure, the Sri Lankan Government decided to allow burials in a very restrictive manner’ (Marsoof, 2022, p. 669).

Concluding remarks

The COVID-19 virus changed the nature of corpse management in Nepal dramatically. The severe cremation ritual practice restrictions implemented during the pandemic were warranted due to the available scientific evidence and international recommendations at the time. As I have underscored above, these restrictions created a deep dilemma for the mourners. Nevertheless, mourners’ inadequate compliance with cremation ritual propriety may seem less significant than controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus and save lives. However, it is important to understand why these cremation ritual practice details were crucial for relatives as they had to handle the inauspicious consequences of untimely and inauspicious death. The cremation practices cannot be isolated from the wider ontological, eschatological, and soteriological context of Hindu, Buddhist, and other faith cosmologies in Nepal. Generally, death causes considerable contagion and is fraught with potential danger. The main purpose of cremation practice is to purify and free the soul from the body to secure the soul’s transition to another realm, first as a spirit (preta ‘departed one’) and subsequently as an ancestor. It is the family’s obligation to facilitate a safe journey and to turn the deceased into a benign ancestor instead of a haunting ghost. The active performance of these rituals and mourners´ participation in the cremation practice is also important to facilitate mourners´ grief process (Walter, 1999; Worden, 1991). Nugteren emphasises that ‘Failure to perform these [rituals] may negatively affect not only one’s own status, but also that of the dead relative’ (Nugteren, 2016, p. 121). Mourners’ insistence to perpetuate traditional ways of disposal is linked to strong social ties and binding social obligations to perform cremation practices. Victims of sudden death due to disasters and calamities are particularly prone to become haunting ghosts instead of benign ancestors. To clear up such inauspiciousness and the weight it exerts on the closest relatives, Nepali ritual traditions offers a variety of compensations, performed by ritual specialists. There is ample evidence that mourners performed such compensatory rituals in the wake of the 2015 earthquake disaster in Nepal (Nugteren et al., 2021). Such compensatory rituals were also performed during the COVID pandemic after the cremations and may have given the mourners some consolation.

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the editors and reviewers of Mortality, and Jenash Acharya who have read and commented drafts of this article. Many thanks to my Nepali research assistants Prabineshwor Prasad Lekhak, Smriti Basnet and Rojisha Poudel for their generous support and to all participants who took part in my study. The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture and Department of Public Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Technology and Science provided funding for this study

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Hans Hadders

Hans Hadders, PhD in social anthropology, RN, is an associate professor at Department of Public Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway. Hadders main research focus is on mortuary rituals and standardisation of death in South Asia and within the Norwegian health care.

Notes

1. Except Muslim corpses, Christians and some other minorities who insisted on earth burial.

2. See news video; Families in Nepal forced to say goodbye through crematorium gates – BBC News.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srJXGwuhF1s.

3. The soul is an imprecise term, inadequate to cover the many nuances concerning mind, vital essence, animation, or life principles dealt with in connection with the topic discussed here. However, for the sake of convenience I still use this term as a denomination for a larger eschatological field.

4. For a detailed discussion of ‘the category of the person’, see Carrithers et al. (1985).

5. However, there is a carving of the Hindu god Agni on the wooden front door of the electric crematorium.

6. The obligatory use of a handmade bamboo bier for the deceased has a pragmatic mechanical purpose in the electric crematorium, as well as a traditional auspicious ritual purpose during the cremation practice in general (Dangol, 2010).

7. See news video; ‘Nepal volunteers step up in virus pandemic’.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuIZ5Ij8Ec4.

8. See news video; ‘Nepal’s First Death – COVID-19.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tkxy30uTAM.

9. See news video; https://youtu.be/4in8y7VPFHQ.

10. See news video; Families in Nepal forced to say goodbye through crematorium gates – BBC News.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srJXGwuhF1s.

11. See for instance video of cremation practice of former political leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s wife; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9jErLEr4So.