This paper is about cemetaries in a multireligious society. The aim of the work is to compare the physical expressions of different religions burial traditions, in order to plan a multireligious cemetary in Borås.
I´ve studied the five worldreligions, Judaism, Chritstianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. I´ve also written about the Humanism, a nonreligious organization, and funerals without any religious connection.
Litterature studies gave basic knowledge about the religions beliefs, and interviews with a person from each group deepend the knowledge, mainly regarding the burial traditions. Interviews with landscape architects gave information about the most important aspects of the architecture of cemetaries. By visting cemetaries, I compared the information I gained through litterature and interviews with reality. The visits also gave inspiration for my own planning of the cemetary in Borås.
There are many similarities among the burial traditions in Judaism, Christanity and Islam. The burial place has greater importance to them than to the Indian religions. In Buddhism and Hinduism they belive in reincarnation and therefore the grave and burial ground is not very important.
The architecture of the cemetary is not as full of symbols as I expected it to be. The most important is the border to the surroundings and the entrance. When going through the entrance to the cemetary, the visitor should get a feeling of stepping in to another world. On the cemetary the graves are central and it is important to plan with respect for the people visiting a grave.
During the work I´ve come to the conclusion that it is possible for different religions to share the same burial ground, as long as each religion has it´s own small area. One reason for this is that some religions celebrate ceremonies on the cemetary and this is easier if the graves are placed close to each other. Another reason is that recognizing symbols and words on neighbouring graves gives a feeling of security and confidence when visting a grave.
In Borås there is a need for places to bury people who are not christian and there are plans to establish a new cemetary. I havn´t had a formal comission in Borås, but I´ve used the site of their new cemetary as a basis for my work.
My idea for the new cemetary in Borås is a place full of light and flowers. The place is dominated of birchtrees (Betula pubescens). Between the trees are glades where the graves are placed. Each religious or nonreligious group has there...
