ABSTRACT
Cremation has made the transportation of human remains easier than is the case with corpses. Here this chapter presents two different accounts of such movement, first for England and Wales and, second, for the People's Republic of China. In 1945 the business committee of the Society for Cremation approved the purchase of two electrically fired incinerators from If Iföverken AB in Sweden, but their main goal was not achieved until 1948 when a complete crematorium was built at Fossvogur Church, just outside Reykjavik. Two progressive leaders, governmental minister Jónas Jónsson and Reykjavik's mayor Knud Zimsen, were responsible for this idea of a 'funeral church'. In Iceland, cremation services are in no way different from other funerals, except of course that the coffin is not carried to the grave. Other details, such as the distinctive practice and ritual accompanying the placing of the dead person into the coffin and the ceremonies at church, take place in the traditional manner.
