About Us

QUESTION: What does KINKARACO { kin-KAR-a-co} mean?

ANSWER : KINKARA Is the Tibetan name for the Tantric Tibetan Buddhist Protector Deities (Father- Mother Lord of the Charnal Grounds) .They are shown as blissful skeletons dancing in the Charnal Grounds ( holy cremation grounds -Varanasi in India ) reminding us of Impermanence, Compassion and Wisdom.( (The Original KINKARACO ® website homepage in 2005 was replaced because it frightened people. )

Certified by the Green Burial Council in 2005

by the founder Joe Sehee ,a friend & colleague at Fernwood Cemetery .

Certified by Green America with the highest Gold status 2008

Member of SFMade ( local San Francisco manufacturers.

KINKARACO ® is a woman owned certified GREEN company.

In 2005 KINKARACO ® Green Funeral Products reimagined the way modern funerals look by reimagining the ancient funeral shroud and transforming it into the 21st Century as the affordable easy to use ,modern GREEN funeral product you see today - for the benefit of the public and for the American Funeral funeral industry to offer anyone seeking green funerals.

{NOTE:Before the invention of the PURELIGHT™ shroud in 2004 there were no shrouds on the market for "Green" natural burial. The only shrouds available were religious in nature or just a plain lengths of fabric.} FOUNDERS STORY:

"As a child growing up outside Hollywood ,CA. I conducted elaborate funeral processions in my suburban backyard with my Barbies as pallbearers -Dead birds, my rabbit Rodney (who died of heatstroke) and my pet parakeet Elvis that my Mother accidently slammed in the back door!

"All were lovingly wrapped in my grandma's floral hankies and laid in flower strewn shoe box coffins and buried in the backyard (or cremated in our outdoor incinerator.) When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say" mortician's cosmetologist" which I discovered was a profession at a special vocation assembly in the 6th grade.

"Unlike my parents i was a religious fanatic from an early age, profoundly aware of being in a human body and asked "WHY"ad nauseum (and still do) about everything. My quest of Spiritual discovery began in Lutheran Sunday school,to Jewish Cantors to Catholic granduer to Mary Baker Eddy, Hinduism ,Jewish Synagogue ,Church of Religious Science (my first taste of Metaphysics) .

"As a teenager I discovered "Autobiography of a Yogi", Buddhism, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which led to attending teachings of many great Indian masters passing through my new town of San Francisco . A deep anthropological thirst for culture particularly in the Native American Medicine Circles began a life of learning how to grow organic food , natural childbirth ( both my children were home born .)

"With a natural adoration for of glamour, costume & fashion from Hollywood technicolor pictures in the 50's i learned to sew at age 10 and enjoyed a carreer in show business both as a singer and later as a costume designer for films, commercials and music videos most of my life until .....

"The death of both my parents ,the AIDS Plague in San Francisco the 1980's losing so many artistic friends of friends and colleagues left me with a longing to do something more meaningful with my life that could be of greater benefit to people who were suffering .I found my Buddhist Spiritual Guide and a Buddhist practice in 1997.

"In 2003 I fell in love with a TV show called Six Feet Under and decided to devote the rest of my life to funeral service and in 2004 I changed careers and became a Green Burial Pioneer working in California's 1st green cemetery FOREVER FERNWOOD .

"At the time the only shrouds were religious and did not work in a busy American funeral home for secular green burial.

People wanted shroud burial and brought in quilts and shawls but they were very difficult to wrap , carry and lower. While working in the cemetery /funeral home i designed the first constructed shroud product for green natural burial and cremation."

Fernwood Cemetery 2004 Julia Morgan Chapel of the Chimes Oakland, CA. Pere Lachaise Cemetery ,Paris 1984

"The first body I ever shrouded was my own 86 yr old Mother. It was election night 2000 in a convalescent hospital in Hemet, CA. I had brought 7 yards of silk, a candle and some Japanese incense. After she passed away peacefully in my arms, I asked the nurses to please leave the room, threw away all the pills , instinctively washed her body and wrapped her in the silk. I took some flowers out a vase and laid them on her shrouded body, lit the candle and incense and meditated with her body for 2 hours . When the nurses they were wide eyed and awestruck with the holiness of this created sacred space . They thought it was so beautiful that they brought me a polaroid camera to take a picture.This is that polaroid:

Forever Fernwood Cemetery was owned by Tyler Cassity (also owner of Hollywood Forever cemetery) who was partners with Dr. Billy Campbell of Memorial Eco-Systems ( www.memorialecosystems.com ) and Ramsey Creek Conservation Memorial Ground (1st green cemetery in the USA ) and publicist Joe Sehee (who went on to become founder of the Green Burial Council . I was honored to invent some of the very first US "green burials" in the USA.
Having designed costumes for bodies in action for many years - I saw what was needed in a shroud to lower it into a grave . So I designed a strong constructed single unit with a board inside the spine that was easy to wrap, included all the essential features needed for a family to be able to lower their loved one safely. "
"The first prototype "PURELIGHT ™"was purchased by the production of Six Feet Under and debuted as the burial shroud for Nate Fisher! SEASON 5/ EPISODE #10-All Alone. Being present during the filming of the TV show that changed my life and honored to also be hired on the set as the Shroud wrangler/ Green Burial expert for the filming of the first televised GREEN BURIAL on TV! was beyond thrilling!"
Esmerelda Kent/ Founder /CEO of Kinkaraco tm Green Funeral Products

2008 Esmerelda Kent named one of the "Entrepreneurs Re-Inventing the Funeral Industry " in BusinessWeek magazine , photograph by Eric Millette July 2008

2009 KINKARACO introduced the 1st shroud for cremation - the Varanasi ™ 100% Silk cremation shroud and the Pacific Sea Shroud", for full body at sea burial.

2010 Esmerelda Kent awarded the Eileen Fisher Business Grant for Women Entrepreneurs with Sustainable Businesses.

2011, 2012, 2014 Esmerelda is a panelist on the Green Burial Council and a main speaker on Shrouds at the ICCFA convention in Las Vegas

2014 KINKARACO presents the KINKARA-KART tm Processional , reproduction of a 19th century funeral caisson at the 2014 ICCFA convention.

KINKARACO ® remains the most popular and most trusted company providing shroud products for alternative green funerals with green cemeteries,funeral providers and families both online retail and wholesale to professional providers.

All KINKARACO ® products are American Made -100% BIODEGRADABLE and work perfectly in every type of funeral service for every pocketbook.

All KINKARACO ® shrouds include LEAKAGE PROTECTION ,are strong , balanced and stable for carrying & lowering .

All KINKARACO ® shrouds are HIGH QUALITY and cost LESS than ANY casket !

ALL KINKARACO® packaging is 100% RECYCLABLE and made from recycled paper

"We dedicate this website for the purpose of helping all living and dying beings , to our most precious Spiritual guide and teacher Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rimpoche, who through his immeasurable kindness, compassion and great Wisdom has given us a meaningful life of purpose to fullfil this vision and to joyfully continue this funeral work. To all the kind funeral professionals and green cemeteries who believed in these products and who have kept us in business from the very beginning for the past 21 years and especially to all the individuals and families who have allowed us the great honor of being of service to them and their loved ones .

Thank you for your ongoing support . With much Love & Compassion . " E. Kent

The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers,

The Great Mountain, four lands Sun & Moon,

Seen as a Buddha land and offered thus

May All Beings enjoy such Pure Lands........