SKY BURIAL...WHAT IS THAT?? Except for the very wealthy who were buried, or the very holy who were cremated and enterred in a chorten, most bodies were, and still are disposed of by sky burial ( also known as celestial burial). Tibet is a land where soil is at a premium and wood for cremation scarcer still. After death the body is kept for 24 hours in a sitting position while a lama recites prayers from the Tibetan Book of the Dead meant to help the soul on its journey through Bardo, the state between death and rebirth. 3 days after death, the body is blessed and early morning prayers and offerings are made to the monastery. The body is folded up and carried by loved ones to the durtro (burial site). Here, special body breakers known as rogyapas cut off the deceased's hair, chop up the body and pound the bones together with tsampa (roasted barley flour) for vultures to eat. There is little overt sadness at a sky burial as the soul is considered to have already departed-the burial itself considered mere disposal. It is , however, very much a time to reflect on the impermanence of life. Death is seen as a powerful agent of transformation and spiritual progress. People are encouraged to witness the disposal of the body and to confront death openly and without fear.
What you are seeing in this photo: the grey circle toward the middle of the shot was a large,low mound of rocks. There were fragments and pieces of human scattered over these rocks, and the whole pile was crawling...teeming with vultures. The sounds coming out of that area were unreal. We were lucky to get a photo of this site... we had a good reason why this was the closest vantage point from which we could observe. As we approached the area from the trail, we realized we were coming up on the sky burial site. Based on what we had been told about this site from other travelers, we assumed we would reach a point beyond which it wasn't possible to proceed, or at least that there would be a sign telling us when we were entering a forbidden/sensitive zone. There was a massive fence around the rock ring itself, which had a sign in several languages telling you not to enter the fence. We remained on the outside, assuming it was OK to be where we were. We passed by an elderly monk, who gave us a wary eye, but motioned to us that it was OK to follow around to the left of the fence, but to stay out of the fenced area. We agreed and thanked him. We had not meant to make it SO close to the burial site, and we wanted to be as respectful as possible. There weren't many people around, and everyone else that was there was inside the fence. A few ladies sitting, spinning wool in a group on the ground. And of course, the ragyapas, who were just finishing their task at hand. As we walked up, they were scattering the last remnants onto the rock heap. There was one adult monk, and 2 younger helpers. As soon as the older monk noticed us he started yelling,"You! No! This! No!", and throwing his hands at us in a "Shoo!Shoo!" type way. We got his point immediately, and turned around to walk away saying "Sorry!" in Tibetan as we did so. About 10 seconds later Fish was struck in the foot by a large chunk of metal, which turned out to be the head of an ax, and we both had to swerve a bit to avoid being hit by rocks. The head monk had thrown an ax at us, and the two kids were trying to pelt us with rocks!! We were shocked at the outburst of anger directed at us, especially since we were doing as we were told, without hesitation and apologetically. We moved on with a quickness, up the ridge behind the ring of rocks, following a kora around the holy site. The view down into the burial site from this ridge is spectacular. There were several groups of pilgrims on the kora. We stayed away from other people, outof respect for their moment, and only took a few quick photos when no one was looking. The men you see walking away from the burial site in the photo, are the people who threw shit at us. Our interaction with these monks was intimidating, humbling, insulting, educational, and a bit of a reality check for us. We walked around with jangled senses for the rest of the afternoon over this...
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