Both Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were leaders of non-violent movements for justice and human rights.  They both were felled by assassin's bullets. And today, pilgrims can visit shrines to both men — at the King Memorial in Atlanta, Ga., and the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi, India. 

The difference is that the Atlanta shrine is where King's body is buried, while the New Delhi monument marks the site where Gandhi's body was cremated. 

Gandhi has no place of burial.  Instead, portions of his ashes were immersed in the sacred waters of the Ganges and along rivers and seashores at some 50 different places in India and Pakistan.  Some of the ashes were even shipped to America, where they are preserved at the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

The different treatment of the bodies of two great men of the 20th century points up a major difference between the beliefs and cultures of East and West.  In Asian religions, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, cremation is almost universally practiced, while in countries dominated by the Western religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the primary custom is burial.

The difference derives in part from beliefs about the sacredness of the body and varying concepts of life after death.  Western religions tend to affirm the uniqueness and importance of each person's individual life and physical existence, while Eastern religions teach reincarnation, in which an individual soul is reborn repeatedly in countless different bodies.  

Judaism teaches that the human body is a gift from God and should be treated with respect and reverence, explained Rabbi Stanley Rosenbaum of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.  While the Bible states that "dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return," it also says that human beings are created in God's image.

That means that the body should not be desecrated in any way, Rosenbaum said.  Traditional Jewish practice is to not embalm a body, but to bury it as soon as possible so that the natural process of decay can occur.  Embalming a body or even applying makeup to the corpse are considered forms of desecration, he said.  Cremation, which destroys the body completely, would be the ultimate form of desecration, he added.

Rosenbaum noted that he and other rabbis of Conservative Judaism will only officiate at a funeral when the person's body is present, not the cremains (cremated remains). "We would strongly discourage cremation," he said.

Some Jewish families do choose cremation, he said, but hold a traditional service first, with the body, then have cremation without a religious ceremony. Orthodox Jews strictly oppose cremation, but Reform Judaism, the more liberal branch of Judaism in America, allows cremation as a matter of personal choice.

Christian opposition to cremation stems from belief in the physical resurrection of the body and the concept of the human body as "the temple of the Holy Spirit." In the early days of Christianity, burning bodies on funeral pyres was a practice widely used in the pagan world, so it was rejected by Christians seeking to keep their faith pure. Some believed that the dead would sleep in their graves until the final day of judgment, when the saved would physically rise to populate the New Jerusalem, as foretold in the book of Revelation.

Today, most Protestant churches permit cremation, which is viewed as a less expensive alternative to traditional burial and is considered by many to be more environmentally acceptable because it reduces the amount of land devoted to cemeteries.

The Roman Catholic Church lifted its ban on cremation in 1963, and in 1997 the Vatican granted permission to U.S. bishops to allow funeral Masses in the presence of cremated remains. Local morticians report that a small percentage of Catholic families choose cremation rather than burial. 

The Muslim faith prohibits cremation on the same grounds as does traditional Judaism.  "It is totally rejected in Islam for one to show any sign of disrespect or harm to a dead body," says Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Kutty of the Islamic Institute of Canada, writing on the Web site IslamOnline.  Burial of the dead is prescribed in the Quran, he said.  "We should treat the deceased person with the utmost of compassion, just as we would treat a person who is alive."

In Eastern religions, by contrast, cremation is preferred largely because of the belief in reincarnation and also the concept that the physical world is, in a sense, an illusion.  "Once the body dies, the life energy goes away from the body," said Ram Bishu, a native of India who is a leader at the Hindu Temple in Omaha.

Burning the body is a way of releasing the soul, or nonmaterial substance of the person, so that it can continue into the next life.  Traditionally it was done on a funeral pyre, but India currently has many crematories where cremations are performed, Bishu said.

Hindus in America generally choose cremation, which includes a special ceremony held at the funeral home's crematory.  In the past 20 years, Bishu has participated in at least 10 such ceremonies.  In most cases, he said, the oldest son of the deceased or oldest male relative is present at the ceremony and actually pushes the button to turn on the crematory oven.

Most Hindu families keep the ashes, or cremains, in an urn until they are able to return them to India to be placed in the Ganges or another holy river there, he said.  Scattering the remains in water is a way of reuniting the person's remains with the natural elements.

Most Vietnamese Buddhist families in Lincoln choose cremation for their loved ones who have died.  Thich Phap Tri, resident monk at the Linh Quang Buddhist Temple, described the ceremonies that take place at the funeral home at the time of the cremation.

The observances begin with prayers in the funeral home chapel, followed by a ceremony at the crematory with relatives and friends of the deceased present, Tri said.  As the religious leader of the community, he leads prayers focusing on remembrance of the loved one's life and praying that the person will move on into a peaceful existence in the next life, he said.

The prayers also emphasize that neither the soul of the person who died nor the survivors should feel any fear or worry about the cremation process itself, Tri said.

Buddhists believe that the physical body is merely a combination of basic elements — traditionally identified as earth, air, fire and water.  After death the soul leaves and the body should be returned to nature, Tri said.

"If you understand Buddhism, you know that the body you have is nothing," he said in Vietnamese, speaking through an interpreter.

Four means of disposal of a body are acceptable, he said:  burial in the ground, allowing its elements to return to the earth; burial at sea, providing food for fish and other marine animals; cremation, reducing the body to the elements of air and fire, with a small residue of earth; and placing the body on a remote mountaintop to provide food for wild animals and birds.

All four methods are practiced in Vietnam, but the most common is cremation, Tri said. In America most Vietnamese Buddhists (and Vietnamese Catholics as well) opt for cremation. 

After the body is cremated, local Buddhist families keep the cremains (ashes) in a small urn, which usually is placed at a memorial altar in the temple at 216 W. F St.  Behind the altar are photos of loved ones who have died; on a shelf below it are urns containing the ashes of deceased family members.

In choosing cremation, Buddhists are following the lead of the Buddha himself, who commanded that his own body be cremated.

Dau Nguyen, leader of the Tinh-Tam Council of Buddhist Study in Lincoln, said cremation fits most closely with the Buddhist concept of detachment.  "If we bury, we still see the existence of the one who's already dead; therefore, we are still attached to that person," he said.  "That attachment only creates sorrow.  Cremation ends this attachment."

Cremation is becoming more common among people of many faiths, said Steve Olson, manager of  Metcalf Funeral Home. Many  churches have columbariums with niches for the deposit of cremains, and cemeteries provide special gravestones with containers for people's ashes.

Some people still have the body embalmed so there can be viewing before or at the funeral service.  Funeral homes provide rental caskets with an insert that is removed and burned along with the body so the casket may be used again.

While a small percentage of people choose to dispose of the cremains by scattering them in a river, lake or other natural setting, most people still want to keep them as a memorial to the one who died, Olson said.  "They like to have a place they can go, and say, ‘That is where Mom or Dad is.'"

About 28 percent of the deaths in Nebraska result in cremations rather than burials, a figure that is lower than in some more populous parts of the country, said Mike Hefflebower, a managing funeral director at Wyuka Funeral Home.

Hefflebower advises families to place cremains in a cemetery or other permanent resting place.  Sometimes a family may decided to scatter a portion of the ashes at a place that had special meaning to the deceased, such as Grandpa's favorite fishing hole, but enshrine the remainder in a memorial.

"People need a place to go to grieve and to remember the person who has died," Hefflebower said. "It helps in the healing process."

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.