Sky Burial

Sky Burial, also known as celestial burial is a ritual commonly practiced in many provinces such as Mongolia and Qinghai, but mainly in Tibet, has been done for a thousand years. It is the way of disposing the body in the most beneficial way, by it being fed to the vultures. They consider the body after death to be empty so there's no harm in disposing it in the most generous way possible.

It starts off with the body being untouched for three days then wrapped with white cloth and finally carried to the mountain where it is cut up and finally given to the vultures for feeding. In their culture, vultures are the equivalent of an angel and is believed to help the person in the process of the after death. Before the actual sky burial process monks are allowed to chant and burn incense. The remains (bones) are later smashed and mixed with tsampa, a wet mixture of barley flour and tea and yak …show more content…
Cremation, a commonly used funerary practice practiced throughout the world as one of the leading ways to deal with human corpses is used for people who are more honoured in death. Sky burials are more commonly done but there are exceptions of of methods of burial for one who is more honoured. It is more common for sky burials with commoners but other funerary practices would be done for one who is of higher level.

Shockingly enough this is a tourist attraction in Tibet where people pay to watch this practice be done. “Vultures of Tibet” is a documentary that explores the topic of the Tibetan tradition of sky burials and the morality of the tourism side of Sky burials While interviewing with maker of this film, Russell O. Bush he talks about how sky burials are “a metaphor of civilization”. While interviewing a local Tibetan the man expressed his opinions of the tourism aspect of the practice, he talks about