I am writing this draft on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Large in the news is another earthquake that has left many more Chinese dead, and pretty much leveled all structures in the affected region.

However, most of these Chinese are Buddhist of Tibetan origin. Due to copyright restrictions, I cannot republish one of the news articles, but I’m going to at least offer this link to a photo.

The traditional ‘burial’ method used by these people when there are reasonable numbers of dead is what is called a ‘sky burial.’ It involves carving up a corpse out in the open somewhere and leaving it for carrion birds — mostly vultures — to come and devour. Apparently the carving facilitates the selection of hearty chunks these ravenous fowl crave.

The photo previously linked to shows the monks cremating the earthquake dead — there are just far too many to treat in the traditional fashion.

Coincidentally, I recently came upon a selection of very detailed photos richly depicting a Tibetan ‘sky burial.’ I am posting them below — if you are easily disturbed by viewing slaughtered human remains, then please go no further.

I wish to stress very strongly that nothing like this takes place in Buddhist Thailand — thank Buddha for that! I think I’d seriously reconsider ever wanting to spend my Retirement years there if there was even a remote possibility my remains would be dealt with in this fashion.

And in fact, when I showed these photos to my Buddhist Thai wife, Jack, she was sickened by them. She said they were so upsetting, she was near to vomiting.

Interestingly enough, the photos first arrived to me via a PowerPoint attachment, with the assertion that they were images depicting the murder of some unfortunate who had crossed members of a Colombian drug cartel.

When I had believed these were what I was actually viewing, I was chilled and very much disturbed.

It is odd how the impact of the photos changes when it is known that there is no vicarious view of a murder; and that rather, the event recorded is instead a Tibetan Buddhist burial rite.

Again, this is NOT a form of Buddhist ‘burial’ that is observed in Thailand.

Related Blogs

• Tibetan vulture sky burials abandoned as bodies pile up « Indigenous People’s Literature Weblog
• Chinese president Hu flies to Tibetan quake zone | Antiwar Newswire
• LeMonde on Earthquake|Tibetan Association of Northern California
• How to aid victims of the Tibetan Earthquake ~ Updates Video « Sweep the dust, Push the dirt
• Shambhala Times Community News Magazine » Tibetan Quake – Resources
• Earthquake in Tibet, A Tibetan Blogger Asks… | Tibet Will Be Free
• Anne Dilenschneider: Natural Burial is a Gentler Way to Leave | Gabbur
• Top 10 Unusual Death Rituals | Top 10 Lists | TopTenz.net
• The Sky Burial | ZME Science
• Sky Burial: Tibetan Burial Ritual

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• China earthquake: Tibetan vulture sky burials abandoned as bodies pile up (telegraph.co.uk)
• Chinese President flies to devastated earthquake zone (ctv.ca)
• China’s president flies to scene of quake (msnbc.msn.com)
• Tibetans cremate hundreds of China quake victims (ctv.ca)
• Monks, Chinese officials rush to aid quake victims; Heavy rescue equipment delayed two days by rain, crowded highway (bendbulletin.com)
• Quake toll tops 1,100 in China (calgaryherald.com)
• Earthquake survivors in Tibet mourn loss of treasured heritage (guardian.co.uk)

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Documentaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.