About the author

Adrian Sever was born in Australia in 1943. He is a graduate in History from Murdoch University in Perth and holds a post-graduate degree in Asian Studies from the Australian National University in Canberra as well as an MBA from Reading University in the UK. During a career of twenty-eight years in the Australian diplomatic service he served in France, Cambodia and at UNESCO, and established the Australian embassies in China, North Korea and Nepal. He is the author of five books and numerous articles on Asian history and culture.

His interest is great burial places was aroused when he first visited such pre-eminent European tomb precincts as Westminster Abbey, St. Peter’s Basilica and Père Lachaise Cemetery and came to the realisation that sites such as these were to be found throughout the world and that, although they were geographically and historically dispersed and were the expression of different faiths and cultures, they all bore witness to a universal truth: man’s quest to be remembered in this world and gain immortality in the next.