Poems and Tears

Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal writes movingly of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, the Chinese-speaking world's largest nongovernmental charity. In particular, the story is about Tzu Chi University's medical school and the respect shown to silent teachers -- those who have donated their bodies for use in a surgery-simulation class.

Before classes begin, the students visit families of the deceased to learn about the people the donors had been. The evening before the first class, students give powerpoint presentations about the donors' lives and honor them with poems. The class begins with a Buddhist memorial service and prayers.

These practices not only awaken compassion in the students; they also have encouraged body donation. Chinese cultural traditions discouraged body donation, and medical schools in Taiwan were usually short of cadavers. But now Tzu Chi's practices of respect have spread to other medical schools in Taiwan as well as to mainland China, and more people are bequeathing their bodies for medical education.

The bodies are completely re-sutured before they are cremated, and part of the ashes of each donor are kept in glass urns at the medical school, where they are remembered and honored as teachers.