I saw this done when I was in Tibet. It was done with monks on a hillside on an alter. It is a very fond memory of mine. But, seeing those pictures turned my stomach. Although my experience was much the same with the body (the body I saw was cut into pieces and fed to the vultures), being there in the moment with the monks chanting and singing in the background, made it seem more sacred. Those pictures don’t do the ceremony any justice. It just looks barbaric when really it is quite special.

BIRD BRAINS! ► Hebrews 9:27 Indeed, just as people are appointed to DIE ONCE and after that to be judged…

I stayed with a volunteer friend in Tibet a few years back and was invited to attend a “funeral” then accompany the body to watch this process. At first I thought my host was joking about picking up the village butcher on the way there, but it hindsight, it makes sense that someone with those skills would double as the local mortician. I also recall the birds behaved well while the butcher was doing his work.

The area I went to was more of a walled enclosure, and the process was as tauni relates- dignified, respectful and at the conclusion, leaves a feeling of peace as the body is completely returned to its original base state. Even the bones were ground to a paste, then passed on.

Why is the dead body tied up???

so the body wont be carried away

Sick, disgusting, horrific, and uncivilized! Turns the stomach should be banned.

@MS

How so? It is just cultural differences. The body is just a shell. And to them, it is their form of returning their mortal shell back to the natural world.

How is it different from burial where the worms and bacteria break down the body. Or cremation where the fire consumes the body?

@MS
yes, that’s exactly how I feel about the western (or is it just USA) tradition of pumping a dead body full of poison preservatives then dumping them in a concrete box. The Tibetan practice seems far more natural to me, far less grotesque.

@RedBeard
I believe you are referring to embalming. This was practised in ancient Egypt. It is useful. For example, there are times when corpses need to excavated for a second autopsy. Perhaps if new evidence surfaces suggesting foul-play.

As for concrete box, I think you will find caskets are traditionally made out of pine. A lot now are made out of cheaper timbers for price sake. A person being buried in concrete is an odd and rare occurrence. In fact, I can only think of one case where this was done. That was in the case of a serial killer who mutilated his victims wanting his corpse to be buried in concrete so people can not dig him up and mutilate his corpse.

No Wonder we have BIRDS FLU.They feed them with human flesh!!

i’m gonna throw up…i’m dizzy
they dont have pity for those body
oh god!its terrible.. they torturing the body..
its just my opinion,but still,i dont have the right to condemn their tradision

Does anybody have any idea how long this great process took? The vultures did a good job.

damn! well, its a tradition.. mmmmmmmm
it takes only 45 minutes to 1 hour…
pretty good job for the vultures…

This is barbaric! So much for human dignity, To be stripped of the flesh, then the bones pulverized to be fed to vultures is a rather ignoble end. This is the type of thing I would expect during medieval torture when someone was executed.

much better to rot in a lead sealed tomb in your own bacterial and stomach acids, or face the flames of the crematoria? This is symbolic and returns to nature what is hers, not so sickening as for those on the shores of the Ganges, half burnt fed to the fish of that river, where some still bathe. Only the soul knows for certain the differences, and we are not hearing from the soul yet!

I got to go with Tauni (first comment) here. I witnessed it fall 2007 in Litang (Sichuan), and while witnessing it was no picnic (no pun intended), it was actually less horrific than these pics – still good somebody documents this for posterity though. Pics freeze the moment, while the crisp high-altitude cool morning air, the silence, the birds hovering over, the priests/cutter’s prayer, then silent chants and occasional throwaway remarks as he cuts with speed and dexterity… it’s quite different, and while sickening, not at all offensive. By the way I read that it’s not really about “returning the person to nature”, because according to buddhism the person is at that moment already gone from the body. Instead, the idea is to give a gift to nature/the birds. And true, the vultures were well-fed. In fact, they and we were “lucky”, as that morning saw two consecutive sky burials. We skipped breakfast.

And by the way, they do bury people in concrete in the west, specifically in countries where the soil is often too rocky. In several parts of the mediterranean they build only family mausoleums with niches in which the coffins are put. Bit gruesome to think what’s inside. I mean, it never ever leaves that concrete box.

Mini Me, where and when did you witness it?

Where did you get the pics then? It is far less gruesome in reality, trust me on it. and you gat vast open space around, instead of a computer screen frame.

Tibet is above the timberline and so there is very little wood available for a cremation. Also there is little topsoil as most of the ground is frozen or just rock.

Tibet is predominately a Buddhist society. One Buddhist practice is generosity. The consciousness of the dead person is no longer in the body and has moved on to its next incarnation. The body is seen as an empty shell and the Skyburial as the dead person’s last act of generosity.

me supongo,qué el del cuchillo se hará un caldito con los huesos

HAHA Perraco! Me hicistes llorar con tu comentario

mierda eso es inhumano que hizo esa persona para que le hagan eso Dios.

@wico
morite ignorante chupa sirio

@SomeGuy
Actually, in many parts of the USA, the wooden coffins are lowered into concrete vaults that are placed into the ground prior to the burial.

@wico
Después de morir los budistas tibetanos devuelven su cuerpo a la naturaleza. Me parece mucho más inteligente, generoso y ecológico que quemarlo o dejarlo podrirse.

@MS
“There’s something I don’t understand, happening consensually between people I’ve never met who literally live on the opposite side of the globe from me. I demand that someone should ban it!”

Ohh yea, being buried in a box that spent your family 50k (land, coffin, service, headstone) is way more noble. Nothing better then getting in debt after a loved one dies.

The only noble thing to do with ones body is to give it to science, to train doctors or to use your organs to keep someone alive.

MS :
Sick, disgusting, horrific, and uncivilized! Turns the stomach should be banned.

Kill people with bombs is uncivilized.
Kill the whole planet for money is uncivilized.

Oh my God!! I can’t belive real!! What a horrible thing!! What do they do it?? Somebody knows it? If so, please, tell me!! A human being most have a grave or a place where his/her people can pray for him/her… This so nasty!!

Can’t believe it’s real!! Why do they do it??

Is the picture real o.0
I can’t believe it!!!
Why do the man want to do that?
Is it because of their religion?
Do they still do it today?
*Please do reply me at kendra_siah@yahoo.com.sg
Thanks

Wow that was something else. We were talking about sky burials in my Death and Dying class a few weeks ago and this is not what I pictured at all. I’ll have to send this link to my Prof.