Tibetan Sky Burials

Sky burial site, Yerpa Valley 

In Tibet, the word burial has little to do with going underground.  Commonly known as a “sky burial,” Tibetan culture practices a different kind of funeral service–one that involves releasing the body back in to nature in a very literal way.  According to ancient traditions, those who have passed away in Tibetan culture are often taken to a mountain top and left to the elements.  What started as a practical method turned into a symbolic ritual that has been passed down over the centuries.

It may seem odd or even unsanitary to your typical Westerner, but it’s easy to see how the ceremony celebrates the natural cycle of life.  Because Tibetans believe in rebirth and life after death, this seems the most direct way to give the body back to nature.  Family members are encouraged to attend and watch sky burials due to the intrinsically human nature of the event.  Perhaps more than any other burial rite, it causes the spectator to confront death and ponder his or her own mortality.  From a modern perspective looking back on ancient tradition, this burial right is not only environmentally sound but viscerally human as well.