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Panama's Chinese community pays respect to its ancestors
photos by Eric Jackson

On April 5 members of Panama's Chinese community, which is mostly Christian but also embraces Confucian traditions, celebrated Grave Cleaning Day with offerings to departed ancestors and a sprucing up of Panama's oldest Chinese cemetery, on the boundary of the corregimientos of Santa Ana and El Chorrillo.

 Juan Tam, president of the Chinese-Panamanian Association, makes an incense offering

Paper money --- not the legal tender, but symbolic cash --- is burned so that ancestors will have something to spend in the afterlife

It was a day to tidy up graves

Several strains of freemasonry exists in Panama, including the Chinese-speaking lodge that maintains this ossuary

Panama's Chinese community established itself here more than 150 years ago, with the building of the Panama Railroad. The names and dates on this family memorial are a testament to these roots. Since 1976 there has been another wave of Chinese immigration, mainly from the Guangzhou province town of Fa Yen.

Flowers, food and drink for the departed

Stone lions stand guard over the Chinese community's ancestors

In 1941 when the notoriously anti-Chinese Arnulfo Arias was president, half of this graveyard was confiscated from its Chinese-Panamanian owners, who were also stripped of their Panamanian citizenship. The community redeemed the seized land in 2004, and this is the first grave in its expansion into the recovered portion.

Incense, food, firecrackers and prayers for venerated ancestors