Michael Jackson’s Solid Bronze Gold-Plated Coffin
Filed under: music — Michael d'Estries @ 12:23 pm
July 7th 2009
What’s the opposite of a green burial? You’re looking at it.
While we expected nothing less from a man known for his ridiculously extravagant lifestyle, it’s still too bad that Michael Jackson’s commitment to the planet didn’t extend to his burial. Of course, the late great singer never intended to depart so soon, so we may never know if this is what he intended or not.
This coffin, which was just spotted live on CNN being placed in a hearse for Jackson’s funeral, is called the Promethean. It’s the creation of the Batesville Casket Company in Ripley County, Indiana and is made from solid bronze and plated with 14-carat gold hand-polished to a mirror finish. The interior is lined with luxurious crushed velvet. Retail value: $25,000.
Other celebrities that have departed in this coffin include James Brown and Bob Hope.
Personally, give me a biodegradable cardboard box and plant a tree over me. I’d rather become a part of something than remain sealed up for all eternity in a box of gold.
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Tagged: michael jackson
It’s also the opposite of a totally boring and lame burial.
Come on, a gold coffin is awesome. I know if I had the money, I’d totally have a gold coffin and Lionel Ritchie singing a quick number at the funeral.
I’m torn between cremation (which probably has its eco issues) and green burial (if that’s an option). But I’ll definitely want to donate my body to science after I go.
Somehow I expected more. $25,000, that’s it?. And the same coffin as Bob Hope and James Brown. How unoriginal!
But seriously, I’m with you. A bio-degradeable box and a tree is my preference!
Have you heard about Ecoffins?
Prettier than a pine box & made from All-natural Sustainable material.
Forgive the shameless plug, but everyone needs to know there are other options besides cardboard & gold plated bronze.
Lame attempt at criticism. Why single him out over Ed McMahon or Farrah Fawcett who were also buried in caskets?
No amount of gold can bring a deceased person back from the dead. We enter the world with nothing and go back with nothing. It’s no use in spending mega bucks on a putrefying corpse that turns to dust. Pharaoh was in a gold lined sarcophagus but even he has become decaying bone.
Money no matter how much you have is worthless. That’s what God intended. On earth, money is God, but in the end it’s worthless to the departed. Theres no first class tickets nor is there preferential treatment. We are ALL created equal. We leave under the same rule! Gold is just an earthly metal worshipped by idolatry and profanity.
Drawbacks of a gold coffin:
1. It’s non-biodegradable
2. It’s enormously heavy – all your pallbearers end up with crooked backs
3. Its shiny surface will blind countless earthworms
4. It’s inert, so even in the unlikely off-chance that the coffin does get struck by lightning, Jacko won’t some back to life
5. It’s a waste of gold
Just did a post on how to be eco when you die:) If you’re interested in how to be more environmentally friendly in life and death, check it out…
Considering he hadn’t updated his will since 2002, something tells me he didn’t think ahead to a casket choice, so this was likely his family’s choice, not his own. Besides, can we have a little respect for the departed, here? Picking on a choice of entombment? Give me a flipping break!
I also read that it will be embedded in concrete. To what purpose?
I’ve heard that in Haiti, all coffins are embedded in concrete to prevent voodoo practitioners from harvesting the body parts. Jackson has something worse to fear: fangirls! Some of which are very creepy and deranged…
As a cemetery worker who owns a Green Burialcompany(www.greenburialproducts.com) and has been working hard to educate the Funeral Industry and the public to make this Green choice available I think the Jackson families choice was perfect!
Michael Jackson’s funeral although so gigantic globally highly visible was none the less a very typical African American funeral.
African American funerals are always very large, highly glamourous, extremely spiritual , highly respectful and spare no expense no matter what.(I have seen people bring in paper sacks full of cash to the funeral home collected from an entire neighborhood to pay for the very best casket for someone’s Mother.)
I think Michael Jackson’s funeral and the casket choices made for him were perfectly appropriate for his highly successful international stature and his African American cultural roots.
Just as an observed Hindu cremation is perfect for that culture, a Muslim shroud burial sitting up facing Mecca is perfect and a Green burial in a meadow in a natural shroud is perfect for the person choosing that.
Green Burial is about making this choice available to those who want it – NOT about conversion.
An elderly Catholic Italian matriarch is NEVER going to choose to go straight into the ground wrapped naked in a biodegradable shroud ! ( but her granddaughter might.)
People like myself are working hard day and night to have Green choices available to the public in terms of cemeteries , products and funeral practices to people who want Green Burial- NOT to people who don’t.
written by shroudwoman , July 08, 2009
I agree with what most people posted here. In most cultures we make a big fuss about wha’ts
left of us. For my part it should be something that composts like cardboard or wood with no color or any other kind of foo-foo on the box. I can’t see it anymore anyway. What’s all the foo-foo for, anyway, the soil or the earthworms?
I come from from Germany. In earlier times, people there were traditionally buried in a long, nightgown-like shirt. A saying came out of this tradition which is still used today: “ the last shirt has no pockets”.
You can’t take it with you, folks…
Yeah, I’m with you on that one.