Inge Best

The Death of Xurugwi Death Beads

Inge Best was a Xurugwi religious leader from Oron who is most famous for encouraging her people to end the practice of making Xurugwi Death Beads.

Childhood

Best was born in Strauding, Oron. Though Strauding had a large Xurguwi community, the religious group was in the minority in the country as a whole. Like most Xurugwi children, Best received a string of death beads when she was born, which she wore throughout her life. Best was known for her unerring faith, frequently meditating on her beads, hoping to glean advise from her past lives. She was also heavily involved in her community, claiming that the Xurugwi texts and stories led her to lead a life of helping people around her.

Position Within Xurugwi Faith

By age thirteen, Best was known for her regular attendance at the Xurugwi temple, and my age 19, she had become a Xurugwi leader herself. As a religious leader, she focused on the Xurugwi tradition of giving back to the world. Not only did she encourage her followers to contribute to charities, she also served as an ambassador between the Xurugwi religious minority and the social majority.
One of the most notable struggles for the Xurugwi at this time was that as the religion spread and people became more aware of their funeral rites, many societies were horrified by Xurugwi bone art. Though the Xurugwi only make death beads out of the bones of those who have already died, outsiders still viewed this as a form of mutilation, which often led to Xurugwi followers being treated as second class citizens.
Best responded to this backlash by suggesting that Xurugwi followers did not need to create bone art. Using Xurugwi texts to back up her argument, she claimed that Xurugwi death rites grew out of the practice of returning the body to that which needed it most. In the past, this meant the bones were given to loved ones and future children as a way of helping them connect to the past, but scientific advancement allowed new methods of doing this. Best encouraged followers to donate organs, as this could be the way in which souls touched each other. She also pointed to Sprite Burial Rights, promoting cremation and the use of fertilizer. In this way, the trace of a soul on the bone could feed plants from which many people could learn.

Legacy

Best's ideas were met with controversy. The charities which she funded made her well-loved among many of the people from Strauding. She was appreciated by others, as she gave them theological reasons to break with tradition and lead more socially acceptable lives. This became all the more important as nations in the Minor Continent began to make laws declaring Xurugwi bone art illegal. More conservative leaders, however, including most of her teachers, tried to rid the religion of her legacy, with some going so far as to use her as evidence that women should not be allowed to be Xurugwi leaders. Her stances, however, remain part of Xurugwi culture today, in particular on the Minor Continent. Upon her death, her followers claimed that her soul would travel to the afterlife rather than being reborn, and though she actively spoke against burial (as it was not a good way to return a borrowed body to the world) she was buried in the Torbel Forest. People still visit her grave today.

by Unsplash