Chinese shrine
Chinese death rituals are complex and elaborate. Shrines provide a focus for these ceremonies. Funerals involve offerings of food and temple 'money' to ensure a smooth transition to the life beyond.
Over 300 Chinese were buried in this area between 1873 and 1920. The shrine was built in 1887. Chinese emigrants fear they might die, never to return to the land of their ancestors. Most of those initially buried here were later exhumed and returned to China.

Inscriptions
The three characters on the shrine read Tjin Ju Tsai - Respect the dead as if they are present.
The date the shrine was erected is on the right: alucky spring day in the third month of the thirteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Kuang Hsu (1874-1908), Ching dynasty.
On the left the inscription reads - 'Erected with respect by the Chinese community of Cooktown'.
The two burning towers in front of the central shrine were used to make offerings to the spirits.

Cooktown Cemetery

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