A Niche Market

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Fully air-conditioned. Lavishly decorated and carpeted. Smart access system. These are the features that I would, hitherto, never associate it with a columbarium. I did not know death can be so comfortable and extravagant.

I was introduced to the various suites during the tour led by the sales director who has invited me to this place known as the Nirvana, located at Singapore's old Chua Chu Kang Road. I thought I was in a 5-star hotel.

Each suite requires a card to access. Scan your ID, punch in a few numbers, you will see a little red light appearing on one of the niches. You walk over to it, gently press on the glass panel, it opens up to a space where urn(s) can be snuggled into it.

You can either purchase the niche for your own consumption or some people actually invested in them and later on sell it to their friends or relatives - much like a property transaction.

While it may take many years holding on to the niche space until the day arrives, some decided to leverage on it to change their own luck through the method known as life burial. The person (still alive) would clip his/her nails, cut the hair, draw some blood and together with other intimate items, placed them into the urn. With a very auspicious timing, the urn is then positioned in one of the niches that has the good fengshui which matches with the bazi. How do you know which niche space has been used for life burial? You can either ask the sales person or just look for those with the word "寿" or longevity pasted on it.

One of the key criteria for a niche space to enjoy good fengshui is to have a good Ming Tang or circulating space in front of it. Other factors that I will consider is the direction and how the niche is going to tap into the incoming or exiting water. In this enclosed hi-tech building, there is obviously no gutter surrounding it. What you look out for is the entrance to the suite. You can use San He Water Method or Xuan Kong Da Gua Feng Shui to select. Different means to the same end.

By the way, the more expensive niche space is usually at the eye level, especially if it directly faces the buddha.

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