'Does this too too solid flesh melt, thaw and resolve itself into a chemical stew?'

Is a human being still 'human' after being cremated? It's not a philosophical question but a practical one that niche operators are seriously asking.

'Scientifically, it is possible to argue the answer is no, since you can find virtually no human DNA traces left in the ashes after cremation,' said Gilbert Leung Kam-ho, executive director of Memorial Park Hong Kong, a private columbarium.

The question has attracted attention because of ongoing land-lease disputes between the Lands Department and some private columbarium operators.

Central to the dispute is the definition of human remains - which are specifically barred from being stored on sites governed by older land leases dating back to the 1930s or even earlier.

Lands officials say human remains as defined under the leases do include ashes, but operators argue otherwise, and some have commissioned laboratories to analyse the ashes for them and say the results confirm the ashes are nothing but pure chemicals.

Dr Henry Cheung Kam-yin, a forensic scientist who previously worked at the Government Laboratory agreed that no DNA traces remained after cremation at near 1,000 degrees Celsius. 'You can burn and pour acid on a dead body and leave it rotting for decades. Yet the DNA might still be retrieved successfully. But the high-temperature cremation might just eliminate all the traces left,' he said.