Coffin Capital Thrives
Created: 2007-10-24 10:23 EST
Category: World > Asia Pacific
Embed:
CHAN:
Casket businesses thrive in a small town in the Philippines, providing a variety of coffins at different prices.
STORY:
It could be any other village in the Philippines' countryside, until you see the coffins laying outside many of the homes, many unfinished and in rough wood, but some polished, painted and shining with silver or brass-colored handles. Later, they are stacked up on the roadside before being taken away for sale.
Santo Tomas, 50 km north of Manila, is the coffin-making capital of the country with about 200 small workshops and backyard family-owned factories churning out tens of thousands of caskets each month.
[Tita Canlas, Successful Casket Maker]:
"Now there's a wider range of coffins to choose from. There are cheap and expensive ones, unlike before. People are afraid to buy funeral plans, but we need them. The fact is, we all end up in a coffin, unless you
just want to be thrown in the dump wrapped in blanket."
No one is quite sure why the town took to coffin-making, but the area around Santo Tomas is a center for small-scale manufacturing. Ceramics and pottery are made here and so are jeepneys.
Cremation would be less expensive, but most families want their loved ones buried in a cemetery.
[Mely Nuque, a village councilor]:
"I wish we all visit our departed loved ones on All Souls Day. It's a way for us to honor them."
Casket businesses thrive in a small town in the Philippines, providing a variety of coffins at different prices.
STORY:
It could be any other village in the Philippines' countryside, until you see the coffins laying outside many of the homes, many unfinished and in rough wood, but some polished, painted and shining with silver or brass-colored handles. Later, they are stacked up on the roadside before being taken away for sale.
Santo Tomas, 50 km north of Manila, is the coffin-making capital of the country with about 200 small workshops and backyard family-owned factories churning out tens of thousands of caskets each month.
[Tita Canlas, Successful Casket Maker]:
"Now there's a wider range of coffins to choose from. There are cheap and expensive ones, unlike before. People are afraid to buy funeral plans, but we need them. The fact is, we all end up in a coffin, unless you
just want to be thrown in the dump wrapped in blanket."
No one is quite sure why the town took to coffin-making, but the area around Santo Tomas is a center for small-scale manufacturing. Ceramics and pottery are made here and so are jeepneys.
Cremation would be less expensive, but most families want their loved ones buried in a cemetery.
[Mely Nuque, a village councilor]:
"I wish we all visit our departed loved ones on All Souls Day. It's a way for us to honor them."
