In Tibet, when you die, they don’t bury or cremate you. Instead they feed your lifeless body to the vultures, yes the vultures. This burial is called the sky burial or Celestial bruial. Celestial bruial or Sky burial is worshipped in Tibet as the highest pursuit of life. Of three elements indispensable for celestial burial, celestial rock(also known as altar), cinereous vultures, and masters of celestial burial, elestial burial masters are the most mysteriously important.

Celestial burial, which is unknown to people, sounds mysteriously horrific. Celestial burial is a very common way for the Tibetans. In a word, it is that the dead body is sent to a certain place and all expose to birds as prey after being disposed.

A life can be a full one if the person gives all his body to the eagles after his death. To us Hans People, more or less , it is cruel. But the Tibetan think that our way of burial bodies under the ground is more cruel. The bodies will rot little by little.

There are many stories about the origin of celestial burial. It is said that in Tibet the earth is frozen most of a year, it is hard to dig, and there are few trees, therefore, people adopt celestial burial. Another story which says that celestial burial accords with the doxy of the Buddhism sounds more believable. It is said that alms giving is one of the marks of a Buddhist . The highest level of alms is sacrificing his own body. In sutra , there is a story about man feedinghis own body to a hungry tiger to save the tiger. As the sutra says, after people’s death, the soul will part the body to a new turn.. The body is left of no use. So feeding the eagles with the body is the last generosity in one’s life.

The Process of Completing a Tibetan Sky Burial The process used to complete a Tibetan sky burial varies from family to family and, in part, depends on the amount of money a family has to spend. Those with little income to dispose of usually leave the body of their deceased loved ones on a high rock while those who are able participate in a more elaborate ritual.

There are only a few locations in Tibet where the Tibetan sky burial is allowed to occur. Amongst the most important is the Drigung Monastery, at which there is a long flat rock raised above the ground and preserved specifically for the ritual. More elaborate ceremonies include temples and other adornments.

In formal ceremonies there is an entire day before the burial during which monks at the specified monasteries chant, pray, and burn juniper incense around the body. The next morning the body would be given to the rogyapas (body breakers) to disassemble. Some people claim to have seen the body cut, pulverized, and mixed with flour and other ingredients in preparation for the vultures. Others claim to have seen rituals in which the flesh was merely removed from the bones and given to the vultures separately. The bones were later broken, mixed with the same type of tsampa mixture, and fed to the vultures.

During some rituals there is no order to the way the body parts are fed to the vultures. In others the monks feed the birds the pulverized bones first while saving the most tantalizing pieces of flesh for last. They fear that feeding the flesh to the vultures first will cause the vultures to leave without touching the bones after having their fill of meat. The vultures leaving any part of the body behind is considered a bad omen.