As I walked further inside, I saw rubbles. They looked like they belonged to a house before. I also saw people selling stuffs like snacks, candies, cigarettes and also food. I heard music from somebody’s room or house. I caught a glimpse of TV program being watched by someone in their living room. I saw women washing clothes. I saw children studying and playing. I heard children’s laughter. I saw people having their meals together. I saw people bathing. All the streets there have name even though the "houses" have no number.
That place was like any usual small densely populated village except that it has both the living and the dead sharing the space together. It’s a cemetery. It’s the Manila North Cemetery, at Laloma, Quezon City, Philippines.
It was a total shock for me when I first stepped inside the Manila North Cemetery. When I was a young boy, during the annual Chinese Qing-ming festival when we visited our ancestors’ grave to pay respects, my parents always told me to watch my step, so I would not step on somebody’s tomb. It’s a big taboo. But what I saw was beyond just stepping on somebody’s tomb. It's a place for them to play, to bathe, to eat, to grow, to fall in love with, to sleep and .. I will just stop here. They built houses on top of the tombs or enclosing them, or just live in the huge mausoleums.
I am not going to talk about whether or not it’s right or wrong of them doing that. I will leave that discussion for the relevant parties. But, I just would like to share the art of survival those people have. A lot of them came from somewhere in the provinces outside of Metro Manila. They came to Manila where they can earn more money compared to in their hometown. And as they do not have place to stay or cannot afford to rent or buy a house, they live in a cemetery which in their mind means free accommodation, living with the dead. Many of them have lived there for 10, 15, 20 years or more. Many of them were born there. A lot of them were also employed to look after the tombs and clean them regularly by the families of the deceased. Some of them live in the family mausoleums or the mausoleums that belong to their employers’ families.
They may be living in the cemetery, but their spirits remain high. They remain friendly. They smile a lot despite the hardship they have to go through. What an art of survival they have in their heart.
The photos that come with this story were taken during my several visits to the cemetery between November 2006 and October 2007. As I can only upload 10 photos here, please see the blog entry on my website if you would like to see more photos from the cemetery : http://www.hendralauw.com/blog/sharing-space-with-the-dead/ .