Chinese Mount Campaign to Save Cemetery Shrine

Emma Louie stumbled across it nearly two decades ago, tucked in a forgotten corner of a century-old cemetery in Boyle Heights. Silhouetted against the sky, stark and imposing, stood twin 12-foot-high kilns and a stone altar inscribed with Chinese figures.

Louie had no trouble recognizing what it was--a 19th-Century Chinese burial shrine. It was here that the first generation of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles had come to eulogize the dead in ceremonies dating to antiquity.

“You could see the shrine had a certain dignity to it,” recalled Louie, herself the descendant of Chinese immigrants. “It was deteriorated, but it was a splendid relic.”

Now that relic could be in danger. Fearing that it could be uprooted to make room for more burial grounds, Chinese community leaders, preservationists and some city officials are attempting to have the long-neglected shrine protected as a historical landmark.

“It is the only remaining structural evidence of the Chinese presence in 19th-Century Los Angeles,” said Louie, a member of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. “I don’t believe there’s anything else like this. There are artifacts, but nothing of this size, and that is its importance.”

Jack Lazenby, the cemetery’s director, said that Evergreen Cemetery is an “old, old property, so every grave space counts . . . and we’re now creeping up to that area” where the shrine sits. Lazenby cut off the interview, however, directing further questions to one of the cemetery’s owners, F.S. Montgomery. Montgomery did not return telephone calls from The Times.

On Wednesday, the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission toured the shrine to determine if members would recommend preserving it as a historical monument.

What the commissioners saw was a ramshackle relic. Part of a brick-and-mortar tablet that has toppled from the altar sat upside down, cracks riddling its face. The other end was half-buried nearby. Tiles on ceremonial urns flanking the altar were cracked. One of the bulky furnaces was shrouded by trees, another splattered with graffiti.

The condition of the site did not appear to dampen the enthusiasm of commissioners.

“Historically, it is very important,” Amarjit S. Marwah, commission president, said as he picked his way carefully around the shrine. “I would definitely favor preserving this site. Los Angeles is a very young city--and this is a very old piece of history.”

The commission is expected to make its recommendation in two weeks. If the shrine is deemed historically significant, the matter would then move to the City Council. With City Council approval, the shrine could be protected for as long as a year.

During that period, preservationists would draft a battle plan to save the shrine for good. Some have suggested that it be moved to a new site, perhaps another Chinese graveyard located nearby. But most agree that the shrine’s rightful spot is at Evergreen Cemetery. They hope to purchase the 450-square-foot plot or persuade the cemetery owners to abandon any plans to uproot the shrine.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, whose district includes the cemetery, said he has sent a letter to the owners asking that they embrace the notion of preserving the shrine.

“I understand the necessity for more grave space, but I think they need to be culturally sensitive about this,” Alatorre said. “This is a unique and historically valuable site. Without preservation, we would lose a chance to define and detail the rich history of the 19th-Century Chinese in Los Angeles.”

It was construction of the railroads that brought many Chinese to California during the 1800s. During the 1870s there were only about 200 Chinese in Los Angeles, but the number swelled to about 3,000 by the end of the century. By then, Chinese farmers were producing about 90% of the vegetables consumed in the city, historians say.

The Chinese shrine in Boyle Heights was erected in 1888 at the edge of a five-acre parcel owned by the city, which was using it as an indigent graveyard. Chinese would come to the memorial, burn incense in the urns, leave food on the altar and toss silver and gold paper, which represented coins, into the furnaces.

“Their belief was that after they deceased they would go on to another world,” said Suellen Cheng, a consultant to the Museum of Chinese American History in Los Angeles. “The survivors offered their best wishes by burning the clothes so they had plenty to wear, and burning paper money so they had plenty to spend.”

Many Chinese were buried near the memorial. As was the custom, most of the remains were later dug up and sent back to the homeland, Cheng said. One newspaper story from 1902 recounts the shock such practices generated among non-Chinese. As the article tells it, residents complained to city health officials about Chinese pulling bodies from the ground to ship them to the Flower Kingdom.

As generations passed, the tradition of burning money and clothing dissolved, and the shrine largely fell out of use. Evergreen Cemetery acquired the property during the 1960s, but allowed the 19th Century memorial to stand.

A few months ago, Randall Bloch, a history buff and legal assistant for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, came across the structures while researching a free-lance article on ethnic cemeteries. Believing that the shrine might be endangered, Bloch called the Chinese Historical Society and launched the push to have it declared a historical monument.

“This thing has been languishing for years and years,” Bloch said. “It’s of great significance to the Chinese community.”