The Final Journey Home: Chinese Funeral Customs in Early Seattle
A detailed 1877 account reveals the elaborate mourning practices of Seattle's Chinese community, centering on the sacred duty to return the deceased to their ancestral land.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In the death of a Chinese person, the funeral rites are performed with elaborate care. When the spirit is considered to have departed, the body is arrayed in robes of state or in the most costly garments owned by the deceased. The coffin is often prepared in the lifetime of the individual and is usually very thick, coated internally with a composition of pitch or cement; externally, they are painted, lacquered, gilded, or carved.
The catafalque is placed in the principal room, covered with white or violet cloth, before an altar where a wooden tablet with the name of the deceased is surrounded by lighted joss sticks. Behind a curtain, female family members give expression to their grief in a series of wails. The funeral procession is preceded by flags and tablets bearing the names and dignities of the deceased, lanterns, and musicians playing gongs. The coffin is carried by a number of men on bamboo poles. When the procession arrives at the site of sepulture, the body is deposited in the grave.
Because the veneration of ancestors is so central to Chinese life, a son would incur everlasting disgrace if his parents were buried where they died instead of in the tomb of their ancestors. Hence it is that month after month, so many coffins are sent to China from San Francisco and other ports; for in this country, the various guilds or clubs take charge of their people, ensuring they are eventually returned to the land of the Sinim, to rest with those gone before on the sunny slopes of the white-clad mountains.
“A son would incur everlasting disgrace if his parents were buried where they died instead of in the tomb of their ancestors.”
This 1877 report offers a rare, if formal, window into the Chinese community in Seattle during a time of rising anti-Chinese sentiment that would eventually lead to the expulsion of 1886. Today, we recognize these burial traditions as a profound expression of cultural continuity and a testament to the endurance of immigrant communities in the face of systemic exclusion.
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