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Sky Burial By, Ryan 5C
The Ritual…… Sky Burial is a pass away ritual. In this ritual people will be eaten by vulture. Many people say that this ritual is disgusting but for Tibetans it is a very, very, very important occasion.
The Place…. It is happening in Tibet. Tibet is a very poor country that is very hard to grow and be better because most people are poor and there are no lifestyles there. All people usually live in a house mad of clay and sticks, in that country maybe not until 10 people is reach. But many foreigners also come to Tibet because Mount Everest is in Tibet. The Sky Burial ritual is held in all cities in Tibet especially if they live on the mountains because there are many vultures.
Who Does It??? People that celebrated this ritual is the one who has passed away but not the baby, pregnant woman, under 18 years old or died because of inflectional disease or accident. Vultures will eat the flesh; the vultures are called “Dakinis” in Tibet language. The village members are also an important part of the event because they needed to pray and play a special musical instrument. The family members usually sees the flesh eaten by the vulture and many of them cried. People who do this is usually Buddhist because long ago who did this ritual is Buddha.
When Does It Happened??? People who have pass away. This ritual had been done for over 2 thousand years. This ritual is usually being held for about 5 days by families.
Why Do We Need to do this Ritual? In this ritual people have different, one of them is that the people did not need to bury the corpse so they just needed to give all the body parts to the vulture and it is already gone. And also some people beliefs that vulture are angels so the corpse will go to heaven and have no sins when reaching there. And some people belief that if our beloved ones had died we can really feel the impermanence of life.
What are some equipments/ materials we need to do this ritual? In this ritual we needed, a white cloth to cover the dead body. A knife to cut all the flesh and organs to give to the vulture. A hatchet to make the cut easier because the bones are also given to the vulture. We needed a giant hammer to smash the bones into pieces so it can be eaten. Tsampa is a powder that the Body Breakers mix into the bone, because Tsampa is smells like smoke ham so it can attracts the vulture’s sense of smell.
Steps of doing this ritual First, on the first 3 days monkeys will surround the corpse before the Sky Burial day and walk in circle Tibetans’ belief that the monkeys are praying. Second, just one day before the Sky Burial day the corpse will be cleaned and covered in white cloth (Shroud). Third, on the Sky Burial day the family prays so that their loved ones will go to heaven. fourth, after praying a man called a (“Body Breakers”) cut all the flesh including organs and bones and throw it in to the open space, the first body part to be cut is the back because Tibetans belief that the soul is in the back. Fifth, because vultures have a good sense of smell and looking they can smell the flesh and directly go down and eat the flesh. sixth, while the vulture eat the family members look and cry together.
video Please watch this video on YouTube based on the Sky Burial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hSK8CluxQ(NOTE: SKIP THE PART AND DIRECTLY GO TO 4.41 MINUTES!!! To directly see the ritual)
Pictures Vultures eating the corpse flesh. Body Breakers cutting the corpse flesh. A bunch of Vultures eating flesh.
