About Us

  

 

In 2005 KINKARACO ® Green Funeral Products took the most  ancient funeral object - the shroud - and transformed it into an affordable easy to use modern GREEN funeral product for funeral homes to offer people seeking green  burial  and cremation , replacing  both clothing and caskets . {Before the construction of the first "Kinkara " shroud in 2004 the only shrouds available were religious in nature or just a plain lengths of fabric.}

QUESTION: What does KINKARACO mean?  

ANSWER : KINKARA  Is a Sanskrit word from India for the Tantric Tibetan Buddhist Protector Deities (Father- Mother Lord of the Charnal Grounds) shown as dancing skeletons who live in the Charnal Grounds ( holy cremation grounds  like Varanasi in India ) reminding us of impermanence ( Death) Compassion and Wisdom   CO- Simply the abbreviation of Company . 

                                             OUR MOTTO:  "LOOK BEAUTIFUL IN THE LAST THING YOU'LL EVER WEAR!"™

        ( The Original KINKARACO ® website homepage in 2005 was replaced because it frightened people! )  

The 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 6th grade.

Always a religious fanatic from an early age, I was profoundly aware and terrified of being in a human body and asked "WHY"(and still do) about everything. I carried around a well worn Bible from the age of 7 and prayed for Jesus to walk out on a cloud and wave down to to me. My quest of Spiritual discovery (being bored & aesthetically bored with Lutheran Sunday School, led me to the Catholic Church (the BEST Cathedrals, Lifesized beeding Saints, incense ,men dressed in lace and velvet  who gave you wine & wafers ! ) Jewish Synagogue (beautiful singing by the Cantors) the Church of Religious Science and Mary Baker Eddy (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 : like Guru Bawa, Krishnamurti and Prem Rowat. 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  two children were born at home in my bedroom with my husband,) a great love of Glamour, Fashion from Hollywood technicolr movies in the 50's & a love of  textiles (especially embroidery ) from all over the world . I 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 and then.....

The death of both my parents ,the AIDS Plague  in San Francisco the 1980's  losing hundreds 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 a Buddhist Spiritual Guide and a Buddhist practice . 

"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. So 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 really difficult to wrap , carry and lower. Funeral industry products had not changed since the 1970's and the new melting pot with many people from  Asian & Middle Eastern cultures  who use SHROUDS for cremation and burial .

Working  at Fernwood Cemetery 2004                   At the Julia Morgan designed Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, CA.

"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  and insticntively 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 . Then the nurses timidly tapped on the door and were wide eyed and awestruck at the gravity of the created  sacred space . They thought it was so beautiful 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 "KINKARA SHROUD"was  purchased by the production of Six Feet Under and debuted as  the burial shroud for Nate Fisher! I was greatly honored to also be hired on the set as the Shroud wrangler/ Green Burial expert for the shooting of  SEASON 5/ EPISODE #10-All Alone. Being present  during  the filming of  my favorite TV show that changed my life  filming   the first televised GREEN BURIAL was beyond thrilling!"  
Esmerelda Kent. Founder /CEO of Kinkaraco tm _ Green Funeral Products
( Esmerelda at Jim Morrisons grave in Pere Lachaise Cemetery Paris 1984 (www.pariscemeteries.com/pages/perelachaise.html )

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

2009 KINKARACO introduced  the 1st shroud for cremation - the Varanasi ™ 100% Silk cremation shroud  

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 and was featured IN HER COMPANY by Eilleen Fisher & TAKEPART.

2019 KINKARACO ®  remain the most popular and most trusted company providing shroud products for alternative green funerals with funeral providers and families both online retail and wholesale to professional providers.

Esmerelda Kent is a speaker  at events such as the  ICCFA (International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association ) NHFA (National Home Funeral Association) and other events including podcasts: on Green Burial ,Green Funeral options including home funerals , the Importance of Ceremony for grieving and the history and practice of Shrouds in burial and cremation.

For information on booking Esmerelda to speak at your event contact: kinkaraco@gmail.com   or call (415) 874-9698

KINKARACO ® products are sold retail online and through our wonderful stocking  resellers: (WHERE TO BUY) 

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

All KINKARACO ® shrouds  are EASY TO WRAP, 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 kept us in business  from the very beginning and especially to all the many families who for all these years  have allowed us the great honor of being of service to them and to those they loved by choosing us to make their final garments. Thank you for your ongoing support . We love you all . " E. Kent

                                                              "The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers,

                                                                          The Great Mountain, four lands Sun & Moon,

                                                                              Seen as a Buddha land and offerd thus

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

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