People flock to give their last greetings to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s body is to be thawed using water, a process described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.
The process is done by placing the body in a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide with the use of pressure and heat to dissolve the body in what is known as the alkaline hydrolysis process.
That was “what he (Toto) was looking forward to as an environmental campaigner,” Michael Weider said.
Thousands of South Africans gathered to pay farewells and pay homage to the body of Archbishop Toto in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.
Thousands were affected by the news of his death a week ago at the age of 90.
One of them, Wally Mdloli, traveled more than 1,000 km from Bloemfontein to Cape Town – enlisting family and friends for help to pay for some of the journey and had to sleep at a gas station on the way to see Toto’s body.
“I feel good after seeing the coffin. It’s as if his soul is in me,” he told the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.
The Wali of Meloli traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to see the body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Madlouli added, “It’s a memory [سأحتفظ بها] for the rest of my life,” he said, saying he hoped he and all South Africans would live up to Tutu’s values.
The burial of the “ashes” of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is expected this weekend. It is not yet known whether his family will choose to hold a private party with limited attendance or make it public.
Tutu had recommended that his memorial service should not be “shown or overspent” and placed in the “cheapest coffin available”, with the only flowers in the cathedral being “a bouquet of carnations from his family”, according to Legacy Desmond and Leah Tutu.
Tutu’s “ashes” will be buried behind the pulpit at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town – the Anglican diocese where he served as Archbishop for 35 years.
How to dissolve a dead body using water؟
Aquamation, which uses water, is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation that uses fire. Practitioners of this method say that the amount of carbon dioxide harmful to the environment produced in it is up to 90% less than that produced by cremation.
The technical name for the process is alkaline hydrolysis – it involves heating the corpse to 150°C in a mixture of potassium hydroxide and water for up to 90 minutes.
This dissolves the body’s tissues, leaving only the bones – which are then washed at 120°C, dried and then crushed to a coarse powder using a machine called a cremation machine.
Once all of these steps are completed, the remains can be buried or scattered according to the deceased’s recommended wish – just as would happen in a normal cremation.