AncienTrails

Spring                                                            Wedding Moon

Kate and I have been to Nirvana. And even had lunch there. Hameed, our taxi driver, when asked whether it was a popular tourist attraction, shook his head. No, he had never taken anybody there. He seemed a bit bemused.

Nirvana has a website. And site duty agents who gave us an extended tour, explaining the entire concept, taking us through one of the three towers. Each one is five stories high like a pagoda with a circular ramp winding from top to bottom, a Guggenheim for the afterlife. Along the ramp, from top to bottom are rooms filled with niches and decorated according to the beliefs of those who choose to reside there.

When the young Chinese man who gave us our tour referred more than once to “checking in”, the song Hotel California came immediately:

“Relax, ” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! ” The Eagles

When you check in you can also place replicas of, say, your living room, in front of the urn(s) for your cremains.

The folks at Nirvana are pragmatic. We Chinese, the site duty agent said, take three joss sticks (incense) in when we pray with our ancestors. But, he went on, if three or four or eight or ten come in the room, then… So, we invite one person to go in and invite their ancestors outside. Problem solved.

There are, in a similarly pragmatic fashion, rooms for free-thinkers. In these rooms no statuary, no sounds of chanting, just sedate jade decorated niches. In this way the site agent said, if you’re a Buddhist and your child is a Christian, who might say, if you’re in the Buddhist room, I won’t come, the family can still be together.

Both Kate and I found the place oddly appealing. It’s quiet, respectful, out of the weather, air-conditioned. Instead of creepy it has a comforting feel. Not your usual tourist stop, but a fascinating one nonetheless.

Skygreens, the vertical farm, however, was not so welcoming. When we got there, we drove in to see the place no one was around. I had e-mailed them yesterday to see if we could visit, but received no reply. We took some pictures and I called the office. “We’re not open to the general public.” OK, then. Not quite the future of urban farming I’d expected. It looked run down and somewhat sad.