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Sky Burial of Tibet (Celestial funeral)

Sky burial is simply the disposal of a corpse to be devoured by vultures. In Tibetan Buddhism, sky burial is believed to represent their wishes to go to heaven. It is the most widespread way for commoners to deal with the dead in Tibet.
Video about Tibetan Sky Burial
Procedures of Sky Funeral Tibet

a.Preparation And Mantra Chanting
If a Tibetan dies, the corpse is wrapped in white Tibetan cloth and placed in a corner of the house for three or five days, during which monks or lamas are asked to read the scripture aloud so that the souls can be released from purgatory. The Family members stop other activities in order to create a peaceful environment to allow convenient passage for ascension of souls into heaven.

Scene of Sky Burial in Larung Gar Buddhist Academy
Vultures hovering high above the sky
b.Body Dissection for Vultures to Eat
Later, the Family members will choose a lucky day and ask the body carrier to carry the body away to the celestial burial platform. On the day before the burial, the family members take off the clothes of the dead and fix the corpse in a fetal position. Specifically, the body is bent into a sitting position, with the head against the knees. At dawn on the lucky day, the corpse is sent to the burial site among mountains which is always far from the residential area. Then "Su" smoke is burned to attract condors, Lamas chant sutras to redeem the sins of the soul, and a professional celestial burial master deals with the body.

Sky Burial and Tibetan Buddhism

Practice of sky burial is closely related to philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetans believe that if the vultures come and eat the body, it means that the dead has no sin and that his or her soul has gone peacefully to the Paradise. And the condors on the mountains around the celestial burial platform are "holy birds" and only eat the human body without attacking any small animals nearby. Any remains left by the holy birds must be collected up and burnt while the Lamas chant sutras to redeem the sins of the dead, because the remains would tie the spirits to this life.

Taboos of Vulture Sky Burial Tibet
Documentary about sky burial in Tibet
Besides, there are a lot of taboos in the process of the celestial funeral in Tibet. Strangers are not allowed to attend the ceremony for Tibetans believe it will bring negative efforts to the ascending of the souls. So visitors should respect this custom and keep away from such occasions. The family members are also not allowed to be present at the burial site.

Sky Burial Tibet Video

In addition to fierce and menacing vultures, the most intriguing part of sky funeral ritual is the body carrier (also known rogyapas or body breaker). They drag the dead body to the mountaintop and dissect it with blade. The whole process, as opposed to most people's expectation, is done not with solemn expression or deep sorrow on their face. Instead, body breakers chopped the body with laughter and smell as if they are doing other ordinary farm work, because Tibetan Buddhists believe that keeping a light-hearted atmosphere can help guide the dead to transcend from darkness to the next life. When the flesh is eaten up by vultures, the body breaker will smash the bone into pieces and mix it with tsampa (a staple food for Tibetans, made of barley flour) to feed the vultures.

The following sky burial video may give you a glimpse of the sky funeral in Tibet:

Well-known Places of Sky Burials in Tibet

In fact, there are two well-known destinations for sky burial in Tibet. One is the Drigung Til Monastery, located in Maizhokunggar County around 150km east to Lhasa city. The monastery is embedded on the steep rock face of the cliff, overlooking the picturesque Mum Pa Valley.

Another prestigious one is Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, the world's biggest Buddhist academy. Situated Over 20 kilometers southeast to Sertar County, Garze Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Larung Gar Buddhist Academy is known for its massive Buddhist settlement and strong Buddhism study ambience, a must-visit destination for portrait and landscape photographers.

Other Tibet Funeral Customs

At the mention of Tibetan funeral customs, sky burial (celestial burial) would pop into our mind immediately. However, sky burial is not the only funeral ritual in Tibet. Greatly influenced by the Tibetan Buddhism and Bon Religion, funeral rituals practiced in Tibet are stupa burial, sky burial, fire burial (cremation), water burial, and internment. Cliff burial and tree burial are also practiced occasionally. The funeral services must follow the rigid hierarchy of ranks, sharp demarcation, and also mainly depends on the divination from Lama.

Stupa Burial

Stupa burial is the most noble and sacred funeral ritual in Tibet. Stupa is a Tibetan Buddhist religious monument and a sacred burial site. It is reserved for Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama or the Living Buddha. After the nirvana of a high Lama, the embalmed corpse is dehydrated and wrapped with rare medicinal herbs and spices. Gold flakes and saffron are scattered on the body in some cases.

Finally, the corpse is moved to the stupa and preserved for worshiping. Stupas can be elaborate or simple. It can be constructed of gold, silver, bronze, wood, or earth. The type of stupa selected is based on the ranking of the Lama.

Fire Burial (Cremation)

Cremation is considered less noble than stupa burial and is reserved for high monks and aristocrats. The corpse is seated on a stack of wood and straw poured with butter and burned. The ashes of the sainted monks will be put in a wood box or an earthen jar and thus and buried in the earth at home or on the top of a hill or in a piece of pure land. Or the ashes will be taken to the top of a tall mountain and scattered with the wind or into the river.

But the sainted Living Buddha or Lama's ashes usually is put into a small gold or silver tower some together with classical books, joss, musical instrument (used in Buddhist or Taoist mass), and treasures. The tower for worship is usually called mourning tower or mourning bone tower.

Water Burial

In water burial, the corpse is wrapped with white cloth and disposed into a river. There are two different views towards water burial. In areas where sky burial is the dominant practice, water burial is considered an inferior way to dispose of beggars and those with low social status. In places where vultures are not available for sky burial, water burial is widely adopted by commoners and the ritual follows a strict set of rules, sacredly and solemnly.

Earth Burial (Inhumation)

To the Tibetans, earth burial is the inferior form. Earth burial was prevalent in ancient times and was widely practiced by many ethnical clans. However, with the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism, sky burial became the dominant burial rite. Earth burial is now rarely practiced. Only those who suffer from infectious diseases or those killed by robbers or murderers will be buried in this way.
According to Tibetans, these bodies are not clean enough to be presented to the vultures. Earth burial indicates two meanings: One is to eradicate the spread of murrain. The other is to act as a way of penalizing the dead by putting it into the hell.

Tree Burial

This is a burial for children. It is commonly practiced in Nyingchi, southeast of Tibet. To avoid being seen by other children, the corpse of the child is placed in a wooden case and hung on a tree in a remote forest.

Cliff Burial
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Cliff burial is practiced in southern Tibet. The embalmed corpse is placed in a wooden box. The box is then placed in the cave off a cliff. The caves are usually 50-300 meters (164-984 feet) above ground.

About the Author - Kham Sang

Kham Sang is responsible and honest with more than six years of guide experience in Tibet.She has strong interpersonal skills and can communicate effectively with tourists.

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Sky Burial in Tibet ,Tibetan Funeral Customs

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Sky burial is simply the disposal of a corpse to be devoured by vultures. In Tibetan Buddhism, sky burial is believed to represent their wishes to go to heaven. It is the most widespread way for commoners to deal with the dead in Tibet.

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how are you doing here ? finished soon?

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Adèle et Marie-Soraya 
https://theculturetrip.com/africa/madagascar/articles/famadihana-madagascars-day-of-the-dead/
1) in two sentences what is Famadihana in Madagascar
2) what is the opportunity for the family on this ritual ?
3) what is the name of the first and second day of Famadihana
4) True or false : "some media outlets have also linked the spread of flu."

Famadihana Malgache à Madagascar - extrait
Famadihana Malgache à Madagascar - extrait
by Voyage à Madagascar
YouTube

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Toraja Utara, Sulawesi du Sud, Indonesia

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Toraja Utara, Sulawesi du Sud, Indonesia

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Toraja Utara, Sulawesi du Sud, Indonesia

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Liouba & Zoé
Margaux et Charlotte (answers)
1) What do they do with the dead corpses in the house?  They keep the dead person at home. They mummify the bodies and tell the person as an immaculate. Their soul are still in the house, families don't want to leave the deceased one alone until their funeral.

2) What are the important elements of the funeral ceremony?
the important points for them is that there is no concrete difference between life and death because he does not consider it as an end. They leave the dead in a room of the house and mummify him. Once each person in the family has come, the body is transferred to a coffin.
Sometimes they take the bodies out of the coffins to change the clothes of the dead.

3) What is different from other cultures? Compared to others cultures, they don't immediately bury them. They feed the dead. There are several funerals. Also they sacrify buffaloes as offerings.

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Emma et Thomas
Sky Burial in Tibet ,Tibetan Funeral Customs tibettravel.org
When the body breakers chopped the body in little pieces what is his attitude?

After the body breaker smash the bones of the dead what did they do of the bones powder?

If a condor eats your dead body are you a sinner or not?

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Adèle et Marie-Soraya
https://theculturetrip.com/africa/madagascar/articles/famadihana-madagascars-day-of-the-dead/
1) in two sentences what is Famadihana in Madagascar
2) what is the opportunity for the family on this ritual ?
3) what is the name of the first and second day of Famadihana
4) True or false : "some media outlets have also linked the spread of flu."

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Famadihana Malgache à Madagascar - extrait

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Tamara & Manon
- What is this experience characterized by ?
- Are these experiences always positive ?
- When did the first near death experiences occur ?
- How were they considered ?

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Your access to the NCBI website at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov has been temporarily blocked due to a possible misuse/abuse situation involving your site. This is not an indication of a security issue such as a virus or attack.

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1)what happen when sombody dies in Ghana ?
2)when did the first coffin shop opened in ghana ?
3)how do the people choose their coffin ? Give exemples

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Fantasy coffins in Ghana | African Art | Showcase

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PAULINE
LEA

1)Is this practice still legal and allowed?

2) what was the specific diet they had to follow to be mummified?

3)What was the aim of the mummification according to them?

4) How did the disciples know that their master was dead

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The Japanese climate is not exactly conducive to mummification. There are no peat bogs, no arid deserts, and no alpine peaks perennially encased in ice. The summers are hot and humid. Yet somehow a group of Buddhist monks from the Shingon sect discovered a way to mummify themselves through rigorous ascetic training in the shadow of a particularly sacred peak in the mountainous northern prefecture of Yamagata.

Between 1081 and 1903, at least 17 monks managed to mummify themselves. The number may well be higher, however, as it is likely some mummies were never recovered from the alpine tombs.

These monks undertook such a practice in emulation of a ninth-century monk named Kūkai, known posthumously as Kōbō Daishi, who founded the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism in 806. In the 11th century a hagiography of Kūkai appeared claiming that, upon his death in 835, the monk did not die at all, but crawled into his tomb and entered nyūjō, a state of meditation so profound that it induces suspended animation. According to this hagiography, Kūkai plans to emerge in approximately 5.67 million years to usher a predetermined number of souls into nirvana.

The first recorded attempt at becoming a sokushinbutsu, or "a Buddha in this very body," through the act of self-mummification took place in the late 11th century. In 1081, a man named Shōjin attempted to follow Kūkai into nyūjō by burying himself alive. He, too, was hoping to come back in a far distant future for the good of mankind, but when Shōjin's disciples went to retrieve his body, rot had set in. It would take nearly two more centuries of trial and error before someone figured out how to mummify himself and, they believed, cheat death to enter a state of eternal meditation.

The process of self-mummification is long and arduous, taking at minimum three years of preparation before death. Central to this preparation is a diet called mokujikigyō, literally "tree-eating training." This diet can be traced through Shugendō to the Taoist practice of abstention from cultivated grains.

For a thousand days, the mokujikigyō diet limits practitioners to only what can be foraged on the mountain, namely nuts, buds, and roots from trees. Some sources also report that berries may have entered the diet, as well as tree bark and pine needles. Time not spent foraging for food was passed in meditation on the mountain.

From a spiritual perspective, this regimen was intended to toughen the spirit and distance oneself from the common human world. From a biological point of view, the severe diet rid the body of fat, muscle, and moisture while also withholding nutrients from the body's natural biosphere of bacteria and parasites. The cumulative effect was to arrest decomposition after death.

At the completion of a thousand-day cycle on this diet, practitioners were considered spiritually ready to enter nyūjō. However, most monks completed two or even three cycles to fully prepare themselves. After the final cycle, the devout would cut out all food, drink a limited amount of salinized water for a hundred days, and otherwise meditate upon the salvation of mankind while waiting to die.

Many believe that some adherents at this stage drank tea made from Toxicodendron verniculum tree bark. A kind of sumac, the Japanese lacquer tree is called such because it is used to make traditional Japanese lacquer, urushi. Its bark contains the same toxic compound that makes poison ivy so poisonous. If ingested by these monks, urushi tea would have both hastened death and made the body even less hospitable to the bacteria and parasites that aid in decomposition.

When the devout felt death approaching, his disciples would lower him into a pine box at the bottom of pit three meters deep in a predetermined spot. They would then pack charcoal around the box, insert a bamboo airway through the lid, and bury their master alive. Sitting in total darkness, the monk would meditate and regularly ring a bell to signal that he was still alive. When the ringing ceased, the disciples would open the tomb to confirm their master's death, remove the bamboo airway, and seal the tomb.

A thousand days later, the monk would be disinterred and inspected for signs of decay. If any such signs were found, the body would be exorcised and reinterred with little fanfare. If not, the body was determined to be a true sokushinbutsu and enshrined.

The last person to become a sokushinbutsu did so illegally. A monk named Bukkai died in 1903, more than three decades after the ritual act was criminalized during the Meiji Restoration because the new government deemed it barbaric and backwards.

By then Japan had entered the modern age, and most people considered Bukkai more madman than sage. His remains were not disinterred until 1961 by a team of researchers from Tohoku University, who were amazed by Bukkai's pristine condition. Though he entered nyūjō in Yamagata, his remains now rest in Kanzeonji in neighboring Niigata Prefecture. There are 16 extant sokushibutsu in Japan, 13 of which are preserved in the Tohoku region. Seven of the eight found in Yamagata remain in the vicinity of Mt. Yudono, making it the ideal place for a pilgrimage.

The oldest and best preserved of these mummified monks can be found at Dainichibō, mentioned above. His name is Shinnyokai, and he entered nyūjō in 1783 at the age of 96. Like all the others, he sits in the lotus position behind glass in a box on small shrine within the temple that looks after him. His skin is an ashen grey, pulled taught over the bones of his hands, wrists, and face. His mouth is stretched into an eternal jackal's grin, his face turned towards his lap.

Shinnyokai's elaborate robes are ritually changed every six years, twice as often as all the other sokushinbutsu. The old robes are cut into small squares and placed inside padded silk pouches that can be purchased for ¥1,000 as protective amulets. Testimonials sent in by people swearing by these talismans' miraculous effects are plastered around the base of Shinnyokai's shrine.

Another sokushinbutsu, Tetsumonkai, resides at nearby Churenji, also mentioned above. Tetsumonkai entered nyūjō in 1829 at the age of 71, and of all the sokushinbutsu, his life is perhaps the best documented. Tetsumonkai was a commoner who killed a samurai and ran away to join the priesthood, an act that allowed him full legal protection. Later, Tetsumonkai visited the capital city Edo, present-day Tokyo. There he heard about an ophthalmic disease afflicting the city and gouged out his own left eye as an act of merit that might counteract the malady. Incredibly, Tetsumonkai is one of several sokushinbutsu to auto-enucleate-remove one's own eye-as a charitable act.

Tetsumonkai once served as head priest at Honmyōji, a short drive from where his remains are now kept. Here he was charged with looking after another sokushinbutsu, Honmyōkai, the oldest self-mummified monk in Yamagata. The samurai-turned-priest Honmyōkai spent a mindboggling 20 years in ascetic training until May 8, 1681, when his disciples lowered him, delirious with hunger, into a pit behind the temple and buried him alive. A massive, moss-covered stone epitaph marks the site where Honmyōkai entered nyūjō amid a grove of pine trees only a few dozen meters beyond the hall where his remains are now displayed.

These three sokushinbutsu are by far the closest to Mt. Yudono and the sites of their respective training. Dainichibō and Churenji are accustomed to tourists, and on weekends visitors are likely to encounter gaggles of retirees being ushered on and off the air-conditioned coaches that stop by these temples on their way to or from Mt. Yudono. The ¥500 admission Dainichibō and Churenji each charge, along with sales from protective amulets and other trinkets, keep the temple doors open and their history alive. Honmyōji charges no admission and receives fewer guests, but they're still happy to show off their wish-granting mummy. The temples are happy with the attention and even went so far as to issue a sokushinbutsu stamp card in 2015, along with Nangakuji in the nearby city of Tsuruoka, to encourage visitors to stop by all four temples.

Nangakuji houses Tetsuryūkai, who was mummified in 1878, a decade after the practice was made illegal. Tetsuryūkai died of illness before he could complete his training and so is not technically a sokushinbutsu. His body is artificially treated in order to better preserve it, and the relatively simple shrine surrounding his remains offer the closest look one can get of a mummified monk in Yamagata. Tetsuryūkai's failure to properly enter nyūjō is written all over his face, the skin of which is peeling away from his nasal cavity.

Kaikōji houses two sokushinbutsu. Chūkai, who died in 1755, and his former disciple, Enmyōkai, who died in 1822, now sit side by side in eternal meditation. Despite their difference in age you'd think they were brothers. They have the same taut, glossy and blackened skin, as well as the same bony hands, sunken eyes, and gaping toothy mouths.

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The Monks Who Spent Years Turning Themselves into Mummies-While Alive

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The Japanese climate is not exactly conducive to mummification. There are no peat bogs, no arid deserts, and no alpine peaks perennially encased in ice. The summers are hot and humid. Yet somehow a group of Buddhist monks from the Shingon sect discovered a way to mummify themselves through rigorous ascetic training in the shadow of a particularly sacred peak in the mountainous northern prefecture of Yamagata.

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Valentine & Victoire

https://theculturetrip.com/africa/madagascar/articles/famadihana-madagascars-day-of-the-dead/

1. What means Famadihana and what is it ?
2. What do people do to prepare, and during the celebration ?
3. Why does the Malagasy celebrate Famadihana ?

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Margaux Ribeiro
Charlotte Dulong
The Jazz funeral - News Orleans
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/13/us/new-orleans-funerals.html

Where does this tradition of celebrating someone's death in New Orleans come from ?

How does the funeral march take place, How do you bring the body to the cemetery ?

What is the difference between when the marching band goes to the cemetery and when it leaves ?