corpse in the water of the Ganges in order to purify it and having the eldest son light the funeral pyre after sprinkling it with clarified butter. Eck (1995) reported that the Hindu cremation rite known as antyeshti follows the general pattern of a fire sacrifice in which the body of the deceased is given as an offering to the fire. After the cremation, daily offerings of rice balls are given for 11 days while the dead person is journeying to the realm of the ancestors.
Among Hindus, cremation is understood as providing the opportunity for the spirit of the deceased to enter into a sacred place from which reincarnation occurs. Death is not viewed as the opposite of life, but as the opposite of birth. During death, the body is transformed, refined, and even perfected in the fire (Gesler & Pierce, 2000).
In Judaism, cremation is rejected. Saunders (1998) has stated that after the Babylonian exile rabbis taught that the obligation to care for the dead extended not only to friends and relatives, but also to any deceased Jew. Respect for the body of the deceased is so strong in Judaism that this religion holds that cremation should be expressly forbidden. Dimond (2004) underscored this aspect of Judaism and emphasized that Judaism calls for burial in the earth. The use of a casket is permissible, but all caskets must have holes drilled in them so that the body of the individual can come into contact with the earth.
Indeed, Judaism is so focused on maintaining the integrity of the corpse that Orthodox Jews reject organ donations and also call for amputees to retain possession of the amputated limb so that it can be buried with the remainder of the body (Fisher, 1999). While many Reform and Conservative Jews may tacitly accept less demanding interpretations of the Torah, Jewish tradition as a whole expressly forbids any form of cremation.
Within Christianity, there are several different normative views on cremati...