So Modi is launching the Hindu Cremation Society and its Web site, which will list local funeral homes versed in Hindu customs. The society also would help residents conduct funerals in their homes, as their faith dictates.

"There's a great need," said Modi, of Skokie. "We are 100,000 Indians that are needing this service."

As the Asian population continues to expand in the Chicago area - it grew 15 percent in Cook County from 2000 to 2006 - funeral homes have joined hotels, restaurants and other businesses in accommodating their needs.

Ten to 15 specialty funeral companies opened in the Chicago area in recent years, mostly to accommodate Hindu, Muslim, Korean and other Asian cultures, according to Stephanie Kann, program director of Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling.

Instructors at the college - one of only two in the Chicago area - have added material on Asian burial customs to its curriculum.

"I think funeral homes are realizing that Chicago is and always has been a melting pot of different communities and ethnicities," said Greg Lindeman, funeral director at Weinstein Funeral Home in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, where funerals are fairly equally divided between Asian and Jewish.

"People feel comfortable going to a place . . . and not having to explain to the funeral director what my culture is."

When Tom Suh's mother-in-law died while living with him and his wife in Northbrook, they wanted to honor her in the traditional Korean way. But 10 years ago, few funeral homes in the area knew how to accommodate services that lasted up to seven days.

The Suhs settled for a Western-style funeral before sending her body back to Korea for a more customary burial.

In 1998, Suh started Suh Asian American Funeral Service Ltd. Suh helps families plan services in their own languages; incorporate cultural and religious customs; even apply for funeral financing - an unfamiliar concept for some immigrants, who come from countries where funerals are not as costly as in the United States.

Suh oversees three or four funerals each week, mostly Korean but also Chinese, Filipino, Mongolian and Cambodian.

Similarly, when Haroon Firdausi's mother died in 2001, he and his family struggled to get funeral directors to understand Muslim burial traditions. These included not allowing embalming and arranging for a burial as soon as possible, sometimes on the same day as the death.

Firdausi, an engineer, decided to enter mortuary school. In March 2006, he opened Muslim Funeral Services. Families are relieved when Firdausi instinctively knows to take off his shoes when he enters their homes, or when he makes sure bodies are buried facing Mecca.

"They would rather come to someone who is comfortable with their culture and who they know would take care of their family in a proper Islamic manner," Firdausi said.

The growing need for Asian funerals and burials was a challenge for longtime funeral home operators such as Lindeman, who 15 years ago knew little of Buddhism. When his neighborhood started changing, bringing Vietnamese and Cambodian clientele, Lindeman educated himself on their needs.

Today, he is not surprised when patrons look to the lunar calendar to pick the right day and time for burial. He owns several Buddhist statues, which he uses for services. He does not flinch when patrons ask to include extra buttonless shirts in the casket or to burn paper money at the service.

Removing the buttons allows a spirit to travel unrestrained on its next journey. Paper money is an offering for the next life.

"When you don't follow through with those," he said, "you've not just provided a disservice to the deceased, but you've also possibly brought bad luck to the family."