Declare Chinese Burial Shrine a Monument, Panel Urges City : City Hall: The Cultural Heritage Commission will recommend a threatened 19th-Century shrine in a Boyle Heights graveyard be protected.

Saying it represents a fitting memorial to early Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission agreed Wednesday to recommend that a threatened 19th-Century Chinese burial shrine be declared a historical monument.

Tucked in a corner of a century-old graveyard in Boyle Heights, the twin kilns and stone altar that make up the shrine are being eyed by the cemetery owners for removal to make way for new grave sites, preservationists said.

“It would really be a testimony to the 19th-Century Chinese pioneers to preserve this shrine,” commission President Amarjit S. Marwah said. “It would be a reminder of the contributions made by the Chinese people in this part of the country.”

The five-member commission voted unanimously to pass on its recommendation to the City Council, which is expected to consider the issue in the next few weeks. If the shrine is deemed historically significant, the city could prohibit its removal for up to a year.

During that period, preservations would draft a battle plan to save the shrine for good. They hope to purchase the 450-square-foot plot or persuade the owners of Evergreen Cemetery to abandon any plans to uproot the shrine.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Suellen Cheng, a consultant to the Museum of Chinese American History in Los Angeles who is working to save the shrine. “I think the cemetery may want to sell the land, and we could apply for grants or try to raise money. But out best hope is that Evergreen will realize the significant value of the shrine and help us.”

It remains unclear just where the sentiments of the cemetery operators rest. Jack Lazenby, the cemetery’s director, acknowledged in a recent interview that there is a need for new grave sites at Evergreen, but would not spell out what the plans are for the shrine. Lazenby could not be reached for comment Wednesday and owners of the cemetery did not return telephone calls from The Times.

But preservationists and city officials, among them Councilman Richard Alatorre, contend that the cemetery owners have made it clear in conversations that they want to remove the shrine to make way for new graves.

Erected in 1888, the shrine was used by past generations of Chinese to ceremonially burn paper clothing and money during rituals dating back to antiquity. They believed that the smoke would swirl to the heavens, providing the dead with all the necessities for the afterlife.

As generations passed, the tradition of burning money and clothing faded, and the shrine largely fell out of use. Evergreen Cemetery acquired the property, which originally had been part of a graveyard run by the city during the 1960s.