Fairy Park – a heavenly memorial park

MIRI: A memorial park offers a departure from the drab traditional cemetery ground and is associated with neat, orderly planned final resting place for loved ones which is professionally managed at a price.

The introduction of Green Hill Memorial Park over a decade ago turned a page from the traditional cemeteries to a memorial park along the Miri-Bintulu Road next to Lambir Shooting Range, chosen with supposedly auspicious Feng Shui elements.

Fairy Park Group, an international group, took over the park last year and has invested tens of millions of ringgit in the new entity now known as Fairy Park (Miri) Bhd.

Offering products and services beyond expectations and sharing the same vision and commitment, the two leading memorial park companies had made an investment of RM50 million in the expansion of Fairy Park (Miri), a 100-acre memorial park, with ‘living life to the full’ as its mantra.

The management is also offering online memorial for the family or loved ones of the deceased to post their stories, feelings or bonds.

Heaven Address is a dedicated site where families and friends remember and pay tribute to the special people in their lives.

Apart from sharing stories, they can post photos and videos and light virtual candles through the many interactive features in the online service.

The group is currently developing Fairy Park Cultural City with a mural wall and gate, depicting Taoist and Buddhist religious beliefs, which could cost RM10 million.

Holding to filial piety and reverence to ancestors, executive director Koh Ko Tong said the management of Fairy Park is committed to establish and develop a horticulture memorial park for the deceased and their loved ones.

“The families are able to show their respect and filial piety to their loved ones who have passed on in an eco-friendly city. This serves as a pledge of support to our local communities in Miri,” he told a press conference to introduce the group and a tour of its latest development.

He assured that Fairy Park Group has the financial resources to carry out its plans for Miri.

The group currently owns four memorial parks in Malaysia, two in Vietnam and one in Indonesia, growing from its humble beginnings as a company with 10 staff and seven hectares of land to over 500 employees and 400 hectares of land.

Ko said while some may call it eye brow-raising, the management believed in turning Fairy Memorial parks into a recreational and memorial combo where families and relatives can visit their ancestors’ tombs while enjoying the facilities and serene atmosphere.

“Some may call it a crazy idea, but in future there would be a lot of people who would want to pay respects to their ancestors not only during Ching Ming but  also other times where they could also enjoy quality family time together as they touch base with their roots,” he said.

He pointed to the recreational-memorial concept in Peninsular Malaysia where coffee houses, sports facilities and other infrastructure would be introduced in the memorial parks.

On the memorial park in Miri, besides the solemn cemetery and sacred temples, he said it would have lush grassland, serene ponds, viewing decks, ample parking space and rows and rows of date palm trees.

Apart from that, there will be a new concept for its overall landscape that will include latest designs and patterns for the cemetery, paved road and improvement of the entrance, construction of a new Tua Pek Kong temple, setting up the columbarium pagoda, crematorium, 24-hour surveillance, high fence and visitor control system.

The new temple would be ready for use this Ching Ming season.

The new owner has also introduced 200 units of tombs with new designs at the highest vantage point of the memorial park at RM108,888 (marble tiles) and RM68,888 (ceramic) for twin lots, which has received encouraging response from Mirians.

The neat rows of beautifully designed black marble tombs on the uppermost portion of the highest hill are preceded by the beautifully designed ceramic tiles at the slightly lower level.

It also offers customers under the previous owner the chance to double the value of their investments if they opt for the new product designs, saying it would be more cost-effective than building them themselves.

“We are offering to double their purchasing price and they only need to pay a little more for the attractive product design as this is a not about profit-making as we are actually incurring a little loss” he said.

The management will arrange for prayers and rituals with priests for Buddhists and Taoist families and other activities.