Handmade Coffins

Handmade Coffins...for a traditional burial Many items back in the day were made by hand, and coffins were no exception. Filial piety and familial ties are especially important virtues in Chinese culture, and as such it is seen to be appropriate to well-made coffins for funerals. Making coffins requires truly dedicated craftsmen. They can be considered a work of art and some people can identify the coffin's origins based on designs and craftsmanship. However, hand-made coffins, just as with any other traditional craft, are rapidly facing extinction in today's modern, machine-dominated world. Deep within Muar lies a coffin-making workshop—one of the very few left in Malaysia. Making coffins by hand takes skill and patience, requiring careful work over one to two months to produce a single one. The production of the coffin is by demand and each one can go for anywhere between RM7,000-RM10,000—a price tag worthy of the amount of work going into each product. The workshop is manned by two brothers, but they are retiring soon and there are no others who would take over. It seems that very soon Muar, and Malaysia, will lose yet another piece of its tradition and heritage.