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#61
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02-05-2015, 01:12 PM
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 My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:435 man Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 2,622 Mentioned: 8 Post(s) Quoted: 777 Post(s)
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Re: Traditional Tibetan Sky Burial
what cynical nonsense. but I accept that as a westerner I have a different set of belief from these monks. for one, there is no god, our earthly life is the only one. There is no soul, either. I'm a lot more down-to-earth in my approach to life and death. The commenters here that so willingly latch on to some unknown custom because it looks so novel and so awesome forget that their relatives, family members, etc usually would want a grave to go back to once you die, so that they can visit you and remember you. sure, a few years after your death you will be skull and bones and dead, rotting maggots but people above don't see all that. they see a tombstone with your name on it, they know you're underneath and that's enough. that's part of life, I think. I just don't see how being shat out by a vulture is worthy of being anyone's last "resting" place, unless you're born in those communities in which case you just don't know better and that's the best way you'll think of wanting your body disposed of.
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#62
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02-06-2015, 08:54 AM
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 My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:633 Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 1,408 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 20 Post(s)
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Re: Traditional Tibetan Sky Burial
Top post  The reason it's done is because they live in mountainous regions so it's hard to bury the dead. The land gets fertislised by the birds also for grazing cattle. Also, I think the people were traditionally nomadic.
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#67
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03-31-2022, 12:50 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:119 Secret Agent Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 13,206 Mentioned: 6 Post(s) Quoted: 2787 Post(s)
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Re: Traditional Tibetan Sky Burial
The ground in Tibet is too hard to dig deep graves like they do here in the states. It’s mostly stone with top soil. Once your spirit leaves the body it’s just flesh and bone, nothing more. For them it brings you back to the earth where we all started from.. |
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#69
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04-01-2022, 01:03 AM
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| My Rank: LANCE CORPORAL Poster Rank:3387 Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 105 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 43 Post(s)
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Re: Traditional Tibetan Sky Burial
There's a good deal of ceremony about the whole affair, but a key point is that at the end of the process, there is nothing left of the deceased. This aligns with the Buddhist beliefs relating to impermanence, while also representing a very utilitarian option in a region where Western style graves are not practical. Normally, when the soft tissue is picked clean, the bones are pulverized, and mixed with flour, tea, and something like butter before being fed to smaller birds. Depending on the traditions involved, the body can be offered whole to the birds, or broken down prior to this. In some groups, the body is just cut into pieces, in others, the organs may be removed and prepared separately, and in a few regions, it's cut up, pounded into a paste, mixed in a similar way to how the bones are handled, before being fed to the birds. Regardless of the methods used, there's nothing significant left of the deceased. |
