The Unusual Traditions Surrounding the Tibetan Sky Burial

TEMPO.CO, Tibet - Bodies chopped up and fed to the vultures would definitely sound like an awful and terrifying way to let go of your loved ones. However, this is one of the close guarded ancient traditions of Tibetan sky burials. 

Sky burials are a funerary practice in the Chinese provinces of Tibet, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia and in Mongolia, reported the Daily Mail. A majority of Tibet residents and some Mongolians adhere to Vajrayana Buddhism, which teaches that the transmigration of spirits.  They do not see a need to preserve the body, as once dead it is an empty vessel, so they dispose of it through a sky burial.  

The ritual is quite bizarre as the chopped up bodies are thrown and fed to a flock of famished vultures. Before the ritual, monks may chant a mantra around the body and burn juniper incense. Then, on the top of a mountain, the corpses are chopped up by these monks and left for the vultures to feed on. 

Not long after, vultures will feed on the corpses. When only the bones are left, the pieces are broken up with mallets, ground with tsampa (barley flour with tea and yak butter, or milk), and given to the crows and hawks that have waited for the vultures to depart. 

The function of the sky burial is simply to dispose of the remains in as generous a way as possible. This donation of human flesh to the vultures is considered virtuous because it saves the lives of small animals that the vultures might otherwise capture for food. Eyewitness accounts suggest the body-breakers conduct the grim task in high-spirits. According to Buddhist teaching, this makes it easier for the soul of the deceased to move on. 

DAILYMAIL | ANINDYA LEGIA PUTRI