Each country and culture has its practices. While in some cultures, dead bodies are burnt, in others, they are buried. From the type of outfits, one should wear, to the eulogies performed, and the food cooked, funeral traditions differ from one place to another. However, one distinct tradition practised primarily in Tibet and some parts of Qinghai and Mongolia is referred to as sky burials where the dead bodies of the deceased are fed to vultures.
According to a report by Orrisa Post, a major part of the Tibetan and Mongolian population believe that once a person dies, their soul departs from within, leaving the body like an empty vessel. This specific Buddhist tradition is known as Vajrayana Buddhism and people who follow the ritual believe in the transmigration of spirits. Since according to them, the soul leaves the body, they dispose of the corpse through a divine sky burial.
The dead body is first chopped into pieces and kept under the open sky for vultures to feast on them in the presence of the dead person’s relatives. The Buddhists believe that since the body is devoid of a soul, there is no need to preserve it. Furthermore, they think that the soul of the dead would be at peace once the body is disposed of.
Once the dead body is consumed by the vultures, the residual bones and skeletons are smashed with mallets. Sometimes, the bones are also mixed with flour, butter, and milk, which is later fed to the falcons and crows.
The Buddhists also deem that sky burials are important because when the vultures feed off the flesh of the dead body, they would be satisfied and the lives of small creatures like lambs, and rabbits would be saved, as the vultures would not attack and hunt them.
Some stories also suggest that the corpses are kept atop the Tower of Silence for almost a year for scavenger birds to feed off them. Bodies of men and women are kept in different compartments.
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