Tibetan Buddhist Sky Burials

869 Words2 Pages

Tibetan Buddhists perform sky burials in the mountains of Tibet signifying the beginning of a new life for the deceased who is being “buried”. The sky burial is a ritual that is practiced only by Tibetan Buddhists and is different from many other rituals from around the world. Throughout history, the Tibetan sky burial has been regarded as a unique practice in regards to its meaning, the process, and the reasons behind the practicing of the ritual.
The process of the Tibetan sky burial begins with a person’s death. According to Buddhists in Tibet, death is not the final stage in a person’s life. Death is merely the beginning of a new stage of that person’s life (Birth, Death and Rebirth: Sky Burial and the Cyclical Cosmos of Tibetan Buddhism n.pag.). “Tibetans believe that, more important than the body, is the spirit of the deceased. Following death, the body should not be touched for three days, except possibly at the crown of the head, through which the consciousness, or namshe, exits. Lamas guide the spirit in a series of prayers that last for seven weeks, as the person makes their way through the bards, intermediate states that precede rebirth” (Logan n.pag.). Tibetan Buddhists believe that after a person has died, the soul exits the body which leaves an empty corpse that needs to be disposed. The person should not be touched so that the soul is able to leave the body and enter their new lives in the afterlife. Reincarnation occurs after the vultures leave their droppings. The soul is in the droppings and the soul will live on as part of the earth. After the “burial”, the soul is now in the birds. The soul then leaves the body after the bird leaves its droppings. The soul is transmitted from the birds to the drop...

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...are also intriguing. The sky burial is an incredible part of the Tibetan culture that is different from countless traditions from other countries around the world.

Works Cited

Birth, Death, and Rebirth: Sky Burial and the Cyclical Cosmos of Tibetan Buddhism. n.d. University of Missouri. Web. 2014 February 2014.
Ciolek, Matthew. Tibetan Studies - Tibetan Religion - Sky Burial. 20 October 1990. Web. 12 February 2014.
Goss, Robert. "Tibetan Buddhism and the Resolution of Grief: The Bardo-Thodol for the Dying and the Grieveing." Death Studies 21.4 (1997): 377-395. Web. 24 February 2014.
Laribee, Rachel. Tibetan Sky Burial Student Witnesses Reincarnation. 2 July 2004. Web. 23 February 2014.
Logan, Pamela. Witness to a Tibetan Sky Burial. 26 September 1997. Web. 11 February 2014.
Secter, Mondo. Tibetan Buddhist "sky burial". 11 October 1999. Web. 23 February 2014.

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