The body of late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be aquamated.
The process is an alternative to cremation using water and chemicals, instead of fire. It’s considered to be more environmentally friendly.
He will be interred behind the pulpit at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, where he served as an Anglican Archbishop for 35 years.
The ‘environmentally friendly’ process involves heating the body in a mixture of potassium hydroxide and water for up to 90 minutes leaving only the bones. These are then rinsed in the solution at 120C (248F), dried, and pulverized into ashes.
The Dean of St George’s Cathedral, the Very Reverend Michael Weeder, confirmed that it was what Archbishop Tutu ‘aspired to as an eco-warrior’.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa died on Sunday, December 26. He was 90. Before his death, the anti-apartheid campaigner had insisted there should be ‘no ostentatiousness or lavish spending’ on the ceremony.
