Vultures eat dead people. "heavenly burial" in Tibet

From turning bones in Madagascar to burials in the sky on the Tibetan plateau ... Learn the most unique and bizarre funeral rites.

Zoroastrian funeral

A key tenet of Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion, is to maintain both physical and spiritual purity. Death is seen as evil, and corruption is considered the work of a demon called Drui-I-Nasush. This demonic act is harmful to the spirit and is very contagious, therefore, during the funeral, they do everything possible not to touch the body of the deceased.

After death, a person is washed in bovine urine and then dressed in old clothes. A special dog visits the corpse twice to ward off evil spirits from it. Only after that it will be possible for all people to look at it. Then the corpse is placed in a dakhma (or "tower of silence"), where the body is freely accessible for vultures.

Santhara

What would happen if there was a way to bring death closer, so to speak, to hasten its onset? For many adherents of Jainism (a kind of religion that believes that self-control and the absence of violence are the means of spiritual liberation) such a ritual is the norm. This is called santhara or sallehana. This ancient practice is only permissible for people with terminal illnesses or disabilities.

Gradually, a person gives up small pleasures in life. It starts with books and entertainment, then sweets, tea and medicine. Finally, a person refuses all food and water. The day of death is a holiday, family members of the deceased dress in colorful outfits and dine in honor of the departed person. Such a joyful day of mourning testifies to the fact that life has gone well.

Heavenly burial

There are coffins, there are urns and, of course, the famous mummies of Egypt. But high on a plateau in Central Asia, another type of funeral rite is practiced - burial in the sky. Known in Tibetan as bya gtor, or "alms to birds," the funeral rite involves placing a corpse on a mountain top where birds of prey will gradually eat it.

Widely practiced by adherents of Buddhism in Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia, burials in the sky are directly related to the concept of rebirth. In addition, at any stage of life, a person must be useful. Here it is considered the most real charity to give the body back to the earth, sky and other beings.

Famadikhana

In some cultures, the dead rise again, turn over. The Malagasy people of Madagascar practice famadihana, which means "turning the bones". People periodically exhume the dead from family crypts and wrap their bodies in fresh shrouds. Music plays as all family members unite to raise the corpse and dance near the grave. According to the ritual, the soul enters the kingdom of the ancestors only after complete decomposition and numerous similar ceremonies.

Aboriginal funeral rites

While the cultures of Australia's indigenous peoples vary across the continent, spiritual beliefs are often grouped under Dreamtime (time of creation). During the funeral, relatives and acquaintances of the deceased paint their bodies with white paint, cut themselves (an act of mourning) and sing songs to promote the revival of the deceased.

Funeral rites are clearly designed for the people of Northern Australia. The burial takes place in two stages. First, the body is lifted onto wooden boards and covered with leaves, and in this position it remains for a month, until the moment it begins to rot. The second stage begins after the bones are collected and coated with ocher. Family members sometimes take the bone and carry it with them as a keepsake. In other cases, the remains are dumped in a cave.

Sati

Although this rite is no longer practiced, sati deserves a mention because of its connection to marriage. In Hinduism, bodies are cremated in a funeral pyre. In some sects of Hinduism, the widow was voluntarily burned at the stake with her already dead husband. The ritual was banned in 1829, but reports of such acts still remain. There was one case in 2008 in the Indian state of Chhattasgarh when an elderly woman performed a sati ritual.

The topic of death has always worried the minds of mankind, and this is natural, because in fact all that we have is life and death. In all religions, death is treated differently, some believed that burial in the ground would be the best way to honor the memory of the deceased, others decided that the bodies of the deceased should be cremated, but still others went further and simply began to feed the lifeless bodies of their relatives to vultures. Read about these and other interesting burial methods below.

China. Soaring coffins

The Bo people, who inhabited the modern provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, disappeared from the map of China centuries ago, unable to resist the struggle with the Ming dynasty. Almost nothing remained of the brilliant bo culture, only amazing coffins, as if floating along the steep walls. The oldest burial is 2500 years old, and the most recent ones were made 400 years ago. The coffins were made from a single piece of wood and lifted onto rocks, installed in caves and crevices, or on supports driven into the rock. Scientists give several explanations for this unusual burial ritual. According to some, this was done so that neither animals nor people could get to them. According to another version, in this way the Bo people tried to provide the deceased with an easy transition to another world, since the rocks were considered stairs to the sky.

South Korea. Beads for memory

Several South Korean firms offer an unusual service to the relatives of deceased people: the ashes after cremation are treated with very high temperatures, it crystallizes and turns into beads, which are then painted blue-green, pink, purple or black - at the request of the customer. They are usually kept at home in a beautiful bottle.

I must say that the service, despite all the exoticism, is popular. And all the fault is the laws and traditions, between which the Koreans were caught as between Scylla and Charybdis. The fact is that Confucianism, which for centuries was the dominant ideology in Korea, requires zealous reverence for ancestors and obligatory burial in the ground. At the same time, in the twentieth century, in densely populated, but small Korea, a shortage of area has matured. And the government began to promote cremation as a more "compact" method of burial. The final point in this was a law passed in 2000, according to which the graves received a "validity period" equal to 60 years, after which the relatives must remove it. So now only three out of ten Koreans are buried in the ground according to the old customs, while others are destined to turn to ashes, or, if they are lucky, into colored beads.

Tibet. Feeding the remains to vultures

Tibetans believe in the transmigration of souls, the body for them is just a perishable shell that loses its value after death. Cremation or burial in the ground in Tibet is not feasible - there are rocks under your feet and there are almost no trees. It is not surprising that such an unusual ritual as the "heavenly burial" - feeding the remains to the vultures, arose here. The ritual, which is shocking for a Western person, is performed on special sites by specially trained people - rogyaps. The gravedigger makes cuts on the body with a sharp knife and leaves it to the birds.

Vultures, according to the Tibetans, perform two tasks: they eat the remains and lift the soul to heaven. When only bones are left of the body, rogyapa crushes them, mixes them with tsampa (barley flour with yak butter) and offers them to the birds again. "Heavenly funerals" are still practiced, although environmentalists and doctors are already expressing their dissatisfaction. After all, vultures are offered as food not only the remains of people who died of old age or as a result of an accident, but also from diseases, including AIDS and flu.

Bali. Cremation fit for kings

Hinduism in Bali is very different from the Indian mainstream. One of these Balinese features is the Ngaben cremation ceremony. If funds permit, ngaben is performed three days after death. Otherwise, the body is buried in the ground. It can stay there for months or even years until the required amount is collected.

When someone dies, relatives continue to treat the deceased as a living, but sleeping person. On the appointed day, the body is placed in a coffin, and that, in turn, is placed in a stretcher in the form of a temple (wada). The vad is carried to the cremation site, and the procession goes as long as possible, winding through the streets. Balinese people believe that this helps to mislead evil spirits. Already at the funeral pyre, the body is transferred from the vada to the sarcophagus in the form of a black bull, which is burned. After 12 days (or as soon as relatives are able to pay for the ceremony), the ashes are solemnly scattered over the sea or river.

Amazon. Circle of life

The Yanomamo tribe lives in the jungle on the border of Venezuela and Brazil. The inaccessibility of the habitat helped them to preserve their rituals and customs, which sometimes seem shocking to representatives of Western civilization. So, Yanamomo to this day practice the so-called endocannibalism - eating dead fellow tribesmen. In fact, the funeral feast is the last stage of the funeral rite. First, the body is cremated, then the bones are crushed and put into a pot together with the ashes. Then, usually on the occasion of some holiday, pasta is made from the remains and bananas, which is eaten by the whole village. The Indians believe that if this ritual is not performed, the soul will be forever stuck between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

Ghana. When form matters

In Ghana, representatives of the Ha people can order a coffin of any shape for a deceased, just like we order a cake for a birthday. Mercedez-Benz is for a successful businessman, a bus is for the one who drove him during his lifetime, a giant fish is for a fisherman, a brood hen is for the most loving and beloved mother in the world. This tradition appeared in the 1950s thanks to a curiosity. The ruler of the country ordered a palanquin (a stretcher in the form of a bed and an armchair) in the shape of an eagle, but just on the day of delivery he suddenly died. Relatives without thinking twice put the body on a spectacular stretcher and buried in them.

Today, undertaker artists' workshops have become a popular tourist attraction, and their (reduced size) products are welcome guests in private collections, museums and art galleries.

Australia. Complex simplicity

In northern Australia, where the traditional Aboriginal way of life is best preserved, the funeral takes place in two stages. First, the body of the deceased is laid on a special wooden platform, covered with leaves and branches and left for several months. Then the remaining bones are stained with red ocher. Their further fate depends on the beliefs of a particular group of aborigines. Somewhere they are buried, somewhere they are placed in a cave, and the natives of the Arnhemland Peninsula solemnly fold the bones into a "tube" made of a hollow tree trunk, which is installed in a specially designated place. For the manufacture of these peculiar coffins, trees eaten away by termites are used, so that the craftsmen can only process and paint the surface with totem signs. Aboriginal people believe that this ritual helps the soul to overcome the dangerous path to another world.

Heading to Tibet, I realized that I would not become the first person to conquer the sacred Mount Kailash. I didn’t hope to become the discoverer of the mythical Shambhala, sung in ancient Tibetan texts. My main goal was to see the beautiful landscapes and the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, which is picturesquely spread out with red houses in the middle of the mountains. But I had no idea that the path I had traveled would allow me to see traditions and rituals that were not etched away by the Cultural Revolution, something that did not fit into the framework of Western consciousness - a Tibetan funeral, which is a ritual accessible to tourists.

The Celestial Burial (天葬) ceremony, the most common method of burial in Tibet and the Tibetan Autonomous Regions of Sichuan and Qinghai, is one of those things that tears the minds of inexperienced foreigners to shreds. This is because during the ceremony the bodies of the dead are fed to birds. Tibetans believe that after death, the body is an empty vessel, which will either be spoiled by nature, or will serve a good purpose and will be given to birds as food. Therefore, “heavenly funeral” is a kind of act of generosity, since the deceased and his living relatives support the life of living beings. Generosity in Lamaism is one of the most important virtues.

First of all, the ceremony is held in an open manner and anyone, be it a close relative or a stranger seeking new sensations, can attend. The ritual is held every day, around noon, but often the beginning of the ritual is delayed, and by the time everything begins, there are already quite a lot of "spectators", both among people and among birds, waiting in the wings. No more than 20 bodies are allowed to be buried in one day, and when we were present at the ceremony, the burial of 11 bodies was announced.

After death, all these bodies remained intact in the corner of the house where the deceased had previously lived for three days, while the lama read over the deceased texts from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This is how the deceased are shown the path on this segment between the death of the physical body and the next rebirth, because the cessation of breathing is only the first stage of death. And death itself is not an end, but a transformation. After a three-day period, and only after there was confidence that the process of separating the spirit from the body was finally completed, the deceased were transferred to the place of burial.

A burial scene unique for the whole world appears before us: death in Tibet, in the highlands of which life barely glimmers - this is the crown of existence and the axis of the picture of the world. It is hard to imagine that anywhere else in the world the scary funeral scene will be available to anyone other than close relatives, but not in Tibet, where it turns into a rare and vivid ritual of a barren mountain desert, available to everyone. It was not for nothing that Tibetan society, Lamaism and death cults attracted researchers-mystics from Hitler's Germany and special expeditions of the NKVD, looking for the underground king of Shambhala.

We are in place. The bodies lie a little further away, behind a thin, translucent screen, right in front of us, but from the side only a monk is visible, working with the dexterity of a butcher. The spectators gaze as the monk begins his preparations: he lights a juniper to attract vultures and makes a prayer round around the ceremonial site. And only then the monk leans towards the body, which is lying face down. Hair cut off first. The back is then sliced \u200b\u200binto pieces, allowing rags of skin to hang down, exposing the flesh. The cadaverous smell is mixed with the smell of smoldering juniper. The monk works without a mask. Already at the very beginning of the ritual, Chinese tourists break down and hastily leave the place, holding their nose and mouth ...

At first it seemed that nothing was happening, but then we heard sounds: the blows of instruments during the dismemberment of bodies. Despite the fact that everything is fenced off with a cloth, it was at that moment that a chill ran through my body. The more our imaginations were played, the closer the birds descended the hill to the scene. At some point, dozens of birds began to circle over their heads, which gave an acuity to the already overwhelming surrealism of what was happening.

By the time the ritual comes to an end, the birds are everywhere: circling in the air, sitting on the walls, guarding the curtain and waiting for it to rise. And now, at the signal, the fabric is torn off and at the same time the birds lose all the "rules of decency", instantly filling the entire area, where people, living and dead, were just visible. Spectators in a daze watch the birds, some with disgust, some with fear, and some with indifference, managing to photograph the ceremony, despite the prohibitions.

The birds do not pay any attention to the living, although there are so many of them that sometimes it seems that they are about to dive at the audience. In reality, the heads of some vultures are already covered in red. Somewhere between the birds, a bloody skull rolls over. Gradually, the flock is thinning, but more and more birds arrive to profit from the remains of what was a human body 10 minutes ago. Although the ceremony has already ended, the last spectators still cannot take their eyes off what is happening ...

Funerals in Tibet often terrify foreigners. Tourists who have come from other countries find some methods of burying the dead to be barbaric and unacceptable. To begin to treat with understanding the customs of the mountaineers, it is necessary to learn to look at the world through their eyes.

Tibetan philosophy

Christians, Jews and Muslims are used to the fact that after the death of a loved one, some part of him remains on earth. Believers visit the graves, look after them, believing that the dead will certainly appreciate love and care. Tibetans do not carry flowers to the departed. They practically do not make burials.

Do not think that people in Tibet are indifferent to each other. It's just that the followers of Buddhism have a different attitude to death. They see the body as a temporary container of an immortal soul, which sooner or later decides to change its shell.

When the mortal part dies, the soul is liberated and begins to search for a new refuge.

Burial Buddhist rituals are aimed at completely destroying the mortal shell. In this case, the spirit will lose touch with the life that it left. For a Buddhist, a dead body is nothing more than an empty vessel. A loved one has left him forever and will never return to him. This means that there is no point in trying to preserve the mortal remains.

Tibetans disagree with Buddhists in other countries in performing some of the rituals. Many followers of Gautama Siddhartha prefer to burn the dead. But for cremation you need firewood. And in Tibet there are too few trees to set the dead on fire.

Burial in the ground

In some areas, only the corpses of criminals and unrighteous people are buried in the ground. Since the body will smolder slowly, the soul will not leave this world immediately. Thus, the offender will receive a reward for what he did during his lifetime. The grave becomes a kind of imprisonment place.

According to one of the Tibetan traditions, the bodies of children under the age of fourteen are also supposed to be buried. The custom can be found in some regions of India. In this case, the soul is not released into a new life, not in order to punish. Tibetans believe that the spirit of a small child is not yet strong. Once free, he can get scared. As a result, the deceased will wander between the two worlds, not finding shelter and not being able to be reborn.

Wood burial

An unusual container mounted high on a tree could be a burial ground. This method of burying the deceased is used only for stillborn children. Parents soak the body with saline so that decay does not touch it. The child is then placed in a barrel-like coffin and firmly attached to a tree. It is believed that with the help of this ceremony, the re-birth of a dead child can be taken away from the family. In some provinces, wood burials are imitated.

Instead of a coffin with a body, toys or children's things are hung on a tree.

Burial in water

This is a very time consuming way to bury a relative. Water burial is rarely practiced. The human dead body is crushed and mixed with roasted barley flour. The resulting dish is fed to the fish in the nearest body of water. To representatives of Western culture, this method seems inhuman and is perceived as a mockery of a dead body. However, the Tibetans see this ritual differently. An empty vessel is not useful to the soul. Live fish need food. A person who feeds a living creature with his flesh will be forgiven many sins. Tibetans don't eat fish. Marine inhabitants carry a particle of a deceased loved one.

Heavenly burial in Tibet

This type of burial is considered the main one. One of its titles is "Distribution of alms to birds." This method can be compared with burial in water, only the corpse will be fed not to fish, but to birds. Tibetans believe that a person should be beneficial both during life and after death. Feeding the birds with your body will help improve karma. The next life will be much better than the one that ended. The bodies of the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama are not betrayed for heavenly burial. They are supposed to be embalmed and covered with gold.

After death, the person is seated. Then the lama reads special prayers from the Book of the Dead. Reading should continue throughout the day. Prayers help the soul to go from a life just ended to a new rebirth. After 3 days, the deceased is handed over to the gravedigger (rogyape). The body is transferred to the burial ground, where the rogyapa removes the shroud and makes cuts on the deceased with a special knife. After that, the corpse is left on the site, where it is immediately eaten by hungry vultures. The incisions made in the body help predators rip the flesh apart. During the ceremony, the relatives of the deceased should be nearby and pray. The gravedigger grinds the remaining bones on a stone, mixes them with flour and oil and feeds them to the birds.

At present, more than a thousand ritual sites have been equipped in Tibet.

In the late 1950s, Chinese authorities banned celestial burial in Tibet. However, at the urgent requests of believers, the rite had to be allowed in the mid-1970s. The ban on the ritual was due to the fact that the birds were poisoned with stale human meat. Vultures became infected with dangerous diseases and became disease carriers themselves. Despite the fact that heavenly funerals are now allowed, the Chinese authorities have taken personal control of them. It is strictly forbidden to bury people who died from contagious diseases.

The funeral traditions of Tibetans can be sickening. However, similar customs exist among many peoples around the world. Celestial funerals were also practiced by the ancient Slavs. They gave the deceased to be eaten by birds. A year later, the bones were buried. It was necessary to do so in order not to defile the earth with rotting flesh. With the advent of Christianity to Russia, the mentality of the Slavs changed, and the once natural tradition began to be considered barbaric.

"Heavenly burial" (jhator or bya gtor) is the main type of burial in Tibet and in a number of areas adjacent to Tibet. It is also called "giving alms to birds." According to Tibetan beliefs, the soul leaves the body at the time of death, and a person at all stages of life should try to be useful. Therefore, the dead body is fed to the birds as the last manifestation of charity.

Many Tibetans still consider this method of burial to be the only possible one. An exception is made only for the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. After death, their bodies are embalmed and covered with gold.

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1. "City of Prayer Flags" - a site created for burial in the vicinity of Chalang Monastery. Dari County, Qinghai Province, Golog-Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, November 5, 2007. Photo: China Photos / Getty Images

"Celestial burial" is practiced throughout the Tibetan area, including some Indian areas such as Ladakh or the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

2. Relatives of the deceased pray during the burial ceremony in the "City of Prayer Flags", on the site created for burial in the vicinity of Chalang Monastery.

In 1959, when the Chinese authorities finally established themselves in Tibet, the ceremony was completely banned. Since 1974, following numerous requests from monks and Tibetans, the Chinese government has allowed the Heavenly Burial to resume.

3. The vultures gathered in the "City of Prayer Flags", at the site created for burial in the vicinity of Chalang Monastery.

There are now about 1,100 heavenly burial sites. The ritual is performed by special people - rogyaps.

4. Rogyapa (“gravedigger”) sharpens a knife before the burial ceremony in the “City of Prayer Flags”.

When a Tibetan dies, his body is placed in a sitting position. So he "sits" for 24 hours while the lama reads prayers from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

These prayers are intended to help the soul move through the 49 levels of the bardo - the state between death and rebirth.

Three days after death, a close friend of the deceased carries him on his back to the burial place.

Rogyapa first makes many cuts on the body and gives way to the birds - the vultures do most of the work, eating all the flesh.

The body is destroyed without a trace, in Tibetan Buddhism it is believed that in this way it is easier for the soul to leave the body in order to find a new one.

5. Tibetans believe that everyone, at least once in his life, should see the rite of heavenly burial in order to realize and feel all the transience and ephemerality of life.

6. Rogyapa (“gravedigger”) prays before the burial ceremony in the “City of Prayer Flags”. Chalang monastery environs. For the burial, the rogyapa receives up to 100 yuan (about $ 13.5). Dari County, Qinghai Province, Golog-Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, November 5, 2007. Photo: China Photos / Getty Images