For anyone confused: refused by the gas station
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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Back when he became a temple undertaker in 2005, the crematorium still used charcoal, and over the years, it upgraded to an electric crematorium powered by diesel.
TIL there's electric crematorium
An electric crematorium powered by diesel
What?
It is immensely more efficient to run a generator and collect/use that power precisely than to combust it and use that power directly.
I've heard of something like that, but at this point couldn,'t they just plug it into a socket?
It depends on the amount of power available at mains vs what is needed. If they need more amperage than mains can handle, a genny is about the only option unless they’re willing to pay for more electrical infrastructure assuming it’s available.
Guess that kinda makes sense, thanks
If there's a fuel shortage, maybe using it on cremations isn't the best use...
Cremation is big here in Japan for a few reasons, but one is very pragmatic: there's not enough space to bury everyone on the land we have, particularly anywhere near their family. I'm not sure if this is an issue in Thailand as well or how big of one if so, but they also have a lot of jungle.
Personally, I think we (as a species) give far more reverence to the dead than they warrant, but I completely accept that this is a sensitive topic for some people and that I'm an extreme outlier here. I see no problem with grave re-use, mass cremations or burials, or really any other disposal method; as far as I'm concerned the only factor that really needs to be taken into account is sanitation. If someone was important enough to warrant a permanent monument, build one, but the insistence that that monument exist over the physical place where their remains once existed feels pointless to me.
Cremation is certainly preferable to graveyards, though. That's always just felt like an immense waste of space, to me.
We have grave re-use here, but it's kinda hard to explain (especially for me coming from the outside). Graves are family graves and bones (or maybe just some small portion) get moved to an inner temple after so much time.
There are, of course, grave costs, upkeep costs, etc. which are, frankly, insane in many cases, but that's just my opinion.
okay so im baf at geography, but is thailand either floody or swampy?
Coffins (and the big cement boxes theyre put in) have a lot of air in them. They're actually pretty empty. There's a phenomenon where, after sever flooding, coffins pop oit of the ground from bouyancy. Very creepy
The same thing happens with underground propane tanks, which seem to be better regulated.
I think what happens to the dead is kinda important. If you Bury the dead you also need to fuel the excavator somehow. No one's digging a grave by hand.
Maybe driving a car when riding a bicycle could do the trick isn't the best use. Last week Thursday I took the bike to work. 10 km. No big deal, it's an E-Bike and it takes me 25 minutes. I've never seen so many cars on the road and I thought these people couldn't afford fuel? This is in a small city of 90k people by the way. Anyone who lives in this city can take a bicycle and would have to travel less than I do, no matter where they are. I literally come from outside the city.
Buddhists cremate, they don't bury people in coffins.
They don't have to use diesel, but anything other than cremation isn't really an option in this situation
You can dig a grave by hand lmao, unless you live in America or another similar country where people are physically unable to. Judging by your use of km I'm assuming it's not the US in particular though
Sure bruv, you go dig a grave by hand. We'll see how long it takes. It's possible, sure. But sensible? Not so much.
That's literally what gravediggers do though?
Not that they have much work these days, everyone's going for cremation and then bury a small urn, so the grave doesn't take much time to dig. But till now, yes, graves have been dug by humans. Letting noisy and polluting excavators into a graveyard, which is supposed to be a place of quiet contemplation and respect for the dead, would be preposterous. Why even dig a grave if not out of respect for the dead, and what kind of respect are you showing by having a machine do it all in 5 minutes?
Here's a 14 year old article about the gravedigging profession and how they have less work nowadays
Here's an 8 year old article about an 83 year old gravedigger. If he could still do it, so could anyone (except for people with actual disabilities of course).
Both in Estonian, but you can translate it.
Sure bruv, you go dig a grave by hand.
I've dug one myself, for most we've used a professional gravedigger's service though.
We’ll see how long it takes
Usually it's not really done for efficiency. It's not particularly efficient to have a bunch of people sit around for a wake either, if they could all be at work instead. It's all a ritual essentially.
Anyway, you can have it done in a day if you're not a professional. You can also take turns with another family member so one could rest while the other is working. Hell, do it in a group of 3-4 and you can share stories about the deceased. Like I said, it's a ritual. Doing it alone would be quite miserable of course.
If you don't cremate bodies, they decompose quickly. If you don't use gas for cars, people get to work slightly later and have to learn to use public transit.