Tibetan BuddhismDiscussion
Question


YinepuJan 15, 4:16am
Anyone out there who has found, or have in their possession, pictures of an 'air-burial'? I remember having seen these pictures of how a Tibetan monk dismembers one of his deceased fellow-monks, and throwing the bits in the air for vultures to eat. But, as usual ;) can't find them anymore.


royandroyJan 15, 7:35am
I seem to remember this as the climax of the film "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" in which an elderly Tibetan dies and after the process of guiding the spirit, the body is placed on a rocky mound where it is devoured by vultures. Perhaps due to the harshness of the terrain and lack of firewood.

joybringer.zaadz.com/blog/2006/11/the_tibetan_book_of_the_dead_movie [joybringer.zaadz.com/blog/2006/11/the_tibetan_book_of_the_dead_movie]

I don't think that they would toss body parts into the air, the weight ratio/vulture flight ability doesn't seem to jell. I've feed seagulls this way but only with small pieces of food.

In South Africa we have raptor feeding stations in the mountains, which are essentially the same thing, for vultures, eagles etc. which lack food due to encroaching human settlement.

I think that a local farmer used this as a form of burial on a feeding station on his land.


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OgminJan 15, 7:48am
Google 'sky burial' images.


YinepuJan 15, 8:13am
That's pretty obvious ... but those are general pictures ... I'm looking for detailed pics of the actual ritual
And I own the dvd. However, I've seen it how they throw the bits and pieces in the air... vultures aren't very good in catching but they do come near the monk performng the ritual to pick up the remnants


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OgminJan 15, 3:20pm
i spoze it is rather obvious except that if you google 'air-burial' for images, you won't get anything relevant.

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YinepuJan 15, 4:07pm
What i meant was that Google was the first place I looked, 'air burial' and 'sky burial' are simply different words for the same: I used them both.


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OgminJan 15, 6:44pm
yah; one delivers, the other doesn't.

good luck


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