Burnaby family finds shattered urn, suspected bag of ashes washed ashore near Fraser River

Heather Lamb and her family had an unexpected discovery on their afternoon walk at Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park on Sunday.

A shattered urn, a bag of what appears to be cremated remains and more than 15 clay oil lamps known as diyas lying inside rocky crevices on the shore of the Fraser River. 

Lamb, her husband and two daughters first discovered pieces of the diyas which led them to find pieces of an urn wedged between the rocks. 

"Almost immediately I spotted the bag in another crack two feet away," said Lamb. 

"It was just the mystery of who and then finding this urn with the bag. It just filled me with sadness."

Judging by how the items were dispersed on shore, Lamb thinks the belongings were displaced during the November floods which ravaged parts of southern B.C. Heavy rains washed out roads and homes in communities including Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley and Merritt in the Thompson-Nicola region. 

"They [urn and diyas] were not specifically placed there. You know, some of them were really difficult to get out and quite far down inside the rocks," said Lamb.

When Lamb went back to revisit the site the next morning, she found more diyas and two small statues of Hindu gods. 

"We started coming across and these diya bowls just washed up on the beach, and lots of them, some of them, many of them shattered and crumbled."

Lamb says it's not clear where the items came from or who they belong to. 

CBC News asked B.C. RCMP whether there are cremated human remains in the bag, but has not received a confirmation.

Diyas and small statues of Hindu gods also found

Based on the diyas and the statues, the items likely belong to a Hindu family, says Mahant Purushottam, a volunteer priest at the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey.

He says Hindu families usually cremate a deceased person, offer a prayer ritual known as puja with the diyas and then scatter the ashes in the water. 

"It [ the diya] signifies knowledge, the presence of God … so when somebody has departed away, their family wants their departed soul to move on to a higher place, because Hindus believe in rebirth," he explains.

The prayer rituals and diyas are a way to give safe passage to the deceased, he says. 

Possibly transported by floods 

It is possible the urns and lamps came from somewhere upstream during the floods, says John Richardson, a forestry professor at the University of British Columbia. 

"The mid-November flood came on so fast that the erosion would be tremendous, and cause many things to be washed down the river," he said. 

"There's a lot of potential for eroding areas around the site of the Fraser River and even tributaries," he said.

"Without the river going back up, most of that stuff will stay there for some length of time, or maybe move slowly down as the periodic floods come through."

In the meantime, Lamb has dropped off the items with Burnaby RCMP in the hope that people searching for them will be reunited with their belongings. 

"I cannot imagine losing ... all your belongings and your worldly possessions to the flood, but losing a loved one in such a way is just shock and sadness."

Burnaby RCMP encourages anyone who recognizes the items to contact their non-emergency line at 604-646-9999.