INDONESIA: Indonesian cemetery builds recreational facilities to mix fun and funerals for mourners

Record ID: 572565

  • Title: INDONESIA: Indonesian cemetery builds recreational facilities to mix fun and funerals for mourners
  • Date: 4th July 2007
  • Summary: WORKERS CARRYING COFFIN TO GRAVEYARD MORE OF CARRYING COFFIN TO GRAVEYARD VARIOUS FUNERAL SERVICE CEMETERY
  • Embargoed: 19th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4RKEASB2SUTVJ7VVX643STC7
  • Story Text: Visiting a cemetery should be a sombre or painful experience. Not necessarily.
    An Indonesian real estate firm is trying to flip the notion on its head by combining the experience with a lake with rowing boats, a convention hall, a posh restaurant and a swimming pool.
    The San Diego Hills Memorial Park and Funeral Houses, set in green, hilly countryside more than an hour's drive east of the capital Jakarta, and the developer, PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk, decided to add recreation facilities in what it sees as a lucrative new idea.
    "San Diego Hills is providing families with new burial spaces that they have never seen before, these burial spaces are modeled after those found in cemetery in the United States," said Manny Francisco, the Philippines-born marketing and planning director of the the 500 hectare (1,235-acre) San Diego Hills.
    He said that from his 20-year experience working in cemeteries in Canada and the United States, relatives normally stopped visiting loved ones buried in the cemetery after a year.
    San Diego Hills offers an artificial boating lake the size of 12 soccer pitches, a 200-seat Italian restaurant, a 250-seat convention hall, as well as an Olympic-size pool and a cycle track.
    The operation generated nearly 23 billion rupiah in sales as of the end of June, according to company data, even though construction had yet to be fully completed.
    A 300-bed dormitory will be built starting next year for religious retreats and there are also plans for a soccer field.
    Next month the first wedding will be held at the Forest chapel, which is also used for funeral services, Francisco said.
    Francisco said the market potential for cemetery property in Indonesia was "fantastic" since, unlike the United States, buying cemetery space in advance was not an alien idea.
    "The market for our products and our services never stop growing, in fact the market keep increasing. So the prospects for the future for our company are excellent," Manny added.
    A basic package for an individual plot costs between 10 million rupiah ($1,111 U.S. Dollars) and 12 million rupiah, a huge sum for an average Indonesian.
    Francisco said there were no extra charges for security and maintenance, and a buried body would be left undisturbed.
    "My concern is this property was never condemned and I don't want to trouble my children after I die. Also we can prepare what we need and choose the location we like," Suseno, one of the cemetery's customers, told Reuters.
    Most public cemeteries in Indonesia are managed by the government and families have to pay every three years to renew the lease otherwise graves will be recycled.
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