Edited by Dr T. Matthew Ciolek

[Est.: 20 Oct 1999. Last updated: 10 Sep 2006. This page is optimised for transmission speed, not for fancy looks.]

The purpose of this document is to provide an ethnographic account of the Tibetan funeral ritual - the sky burial, (Tib.) 'jhator', literally 'giving alms to the birds.'

The document is a part of the Religion section of the Tibetan Studies WWW Virtual Library. Please mail tmciolek@ciolek.com if you know of relevant networked resource not in this page.

A Sky Burial - The Sacred Solemn Funeral Rite of Tibet

Prologue

"Tibetan culture and religion is not something I have studied, or researched, although I do have a graduate degree in Chinese religion and philosophy. What I am sharing is something from my very personal experience. It was the summer of 1986.

After teaching for a year in central China we were looking forward to traveling to Tibet via Luoyang, Xian and Xining with its large Tibetan community. Train tickets from Xining to Germud, the last stop in China before Tibet, were sold out a week or two in advance. I used my best Chinese, which wasn't that good, to persuade the station mistress of the merit of our case. Just before the train pulled out she gave us the last two seats. We had to overnight in Germud to take the two-day bus ride that began at the crack of dawn. It wasn't long before the driver started swaying rhythmically, his mind clearly not in touch with his body. Occasionally his body shot back to an upright position with a sudden as he regained consciousness. He seemed to be cruising on automatic pilot. The bus was constantly weaving and the passengers as a collective body felt we would careen off the mountain road and over the edge at any time. The drop was easily hundreds of feet. Those of us who felt they could steer the bus in an emergency took turns sitting up front prepared to grab the steering wheel if the driver fell asleep. That was how it went for two days until we arrived in Lhasa.

About half the passengers experienced altitude sickness at least once during the trip. Most of us were Westerners working in China; the others were Tibetan. Sometime after lunch of the first day we heard about the 'sky burial.' I felt I was listening to an ancient myth being passed down to another generation. The Tibetan trader sitting behind me told us that the burial had been off limits to foreigners for quite some time, and no one knew when or if the ban would be lifted again. I don't remember if we spoke in Chinese or English. Others talked of Westerners who had managed witness the 'forbidden' ritual dressed in Tibetan garb. Getting caught by Chinese authorities when breaking their laws can be a most unpleasant experience. When we arrived in Lhasa, we met some Westerners who had been there for some time and who confirmed ban. The word was that it would not be lifted in the foreseeable future.

Witness to a Sky Burial - The Sacred Solemn Funeral Rite of Tibet

In the summer 1986 my spouse and I were granted the privilege of witnessing a sky burial on the outskirts of Lhasa. We had been in Tibet for about ten days and were flying back to China a few days later. By this time we had heard quite a bit about the sky burials which we were correctly informed had been banned / closed / off limits to foreigners for some time. Suddenly one afternoon we were told that a limited number of Westerners would be allowed to attend a sky burial the next morning. Did we want to go? Without hesitation we said yes. For reasons that we did not fathom there had been a quiet shift in policy. No payment or transfer of money that we knew of was involved. Although it is possible that one party paid some money for seven or eight people to attend in order to cover their own intentions. Whatever happened, this brief window opened up and we felt quite honored to be able to witness this ritual. We also realized that between 'now and then' anything could change to cancel our plan to bear witness.

We had to rent or borrow bicycles that afternoon as we had to get up at about 4:00AM and bike as a group in the darkness quite a way from the center of town, maybe twenty or thirty minutes, using bike lamps and flashlights as our only source of visibility. Fortunately by then we had become somewhat acclimatized to the altitude. We were following a rough map of the kind associated with a buried treasure, which in retrospect is what it was. We left the bikes and walked quite some distance, perhaps another ten or fifteen minutes across a rocky area of the high desert, and finally climbed to the top of a rocky ledge that overlooked the burial rock about 40-50 feet away. By that time, the sun was thinking about rising and shades of hazy light revealed three bodies wrapped in white. There were also three or four Tibetans milling around the bodies doing nothing particular or so it seemed.

After about ten or fifteen minutes one of them walked over to where we were all sitting and bathed us in incense. It reminded me of the sage smoke smudge that was wafted over everyone and everything at a Native American ceremony I had attended. The Tibetan spoke to us in simple Chinese to make sure we understood the solemnity of the occasion and the manners. He also reminded us that ' pictures were forbidden.' Two of us were conversant in Chinese and translated this to the others, but I think they all got the message without the translation. We all sat huddled in two groups in close proximity for warmth, perched on the ledge in the chill morning air just as the dawn was breaking. I wondered what mystery had made this profound experience possible and what had drawn us together; three or four couples who had only recently connected in Lhasa.

At one point two of the attendants unwrapped one of the bodies and calmly began to cut it up. At first they sliced of pieced of flesh which they tossed to an area about fifteen or twenty feet from where they were working. A couple of huge vultures were flying high overhead, and a couple of others were perched on some rocks at some distance. Then the men began to wave their arms and made some strange haunting sounds that reminded me of wild animal or bird calls. It probably took about 15-20 minutes for the birds to come - a few dozen. In the meantime the two men charged with the job of disposing of the bodies, continued to cut up the bodies, one at-a-time. The bones were hacked or broken into smaller pieces and tossed aside. The vultures swooped down and tore off pieces of flesh or in some cases flew off with a large chunk which they could eat without being challenged. The bigger bones were broken up on the rocks with large heavy stone, and the pieces tossed easily into the feeding area. Although there seemed to be more than enough for all the birds, by nature they kept vying for the spoils. The whole affair was not harried, but rather a methodical solemn process that must have lasted for a little more than an hour.

When it was over I felt a sense of deep connection to rhythm of life and to the universe as a whole. No one talked much about the experience. I remember reflecting on the fact that these bodies had not suffered the indignity of worms and maggots. In some ways it seemed quite civilized. It was a haunting experience that in many ways is still fresh in my mind. In the past thirteen years I don't think Ari and I ever talked about that day. We don't have to. With some reluctance she has helped me recall some of the details, and for that I am grateful. I also am reluctant to talk about it but I have decided to share this experience in the hope that it might be a helpful and useful contribution to the understanding of the Tibetan people and their burial ritual."

Copyright © 1999 by M.Secter. The above text is not to be re-published without the author's written permission

Other eye-witness accounts of the Sky Burial

• Rotem Eldar, April 2005. Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006, From: Rotem Eldar (eldar_rotem@yahoo.com), Subject: tibetan sky burial, To: tmciolek@ciolek.com
  "Hello I have witnessed a burial [in April 2005, in Litang, Eastern Tibet - tmc.] and even got permission to take pictures and join the family. Have a look here: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-7890.html. Will be more than happy if you add this link to your article [see above - tmc] [...]. Will be also happy to share some more photos and movie clips I have which are harder to watch, if needed. Thanks, Rotem."
• Anonymous, Jul 12, 1999. Tibet's 'sky burial' lives on to link death and nature. The New York Times
  www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1999/7/14_1.html
• Sylvia and Lisa [no surnames are stated - tmc]. 1998. Sky-burial Accounts.
  www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~chilton/Tibet.htm
  A collection of inadequately referenced excerpts from:
  "The Myth of Shangri-La", Peter Bishop, 1989.
  "Seven Years in Tibet", Heinrich Harrer, nd.
  "My Journey to Lhasa", Alexandra David-Neel, 1983.
  "Flight of the Wind Horse", Niema Ash, nd.
• Pamela Logan. 1997. Witness to a Tibetan Sky-Burial: A Field Report for the China. Exploration and Research Society Drigung, Tibet; Sep 26, 1997
  www.alumni.caltech.edu/~pamlogan/skybury.htm
• Patrick Mansier, 1983.
  Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 To: tmciolek@ciolek.com From: "Patrick M." (media@transend.com.tw)
  Subject: Tibetan Sky Burial
  "I mention to you that a full account of the tibetan sky burial (text and photographs) was published in the french magazine "Geo" (No 54) in august 1983. The author is M. Patrick Mansier, a tibetologist scholar who gave a detailed explanation of this ritual (history, religious background and fine description). This same author published again a article with photos in the form of an interview in the french magazine "New Look" (April 1991).
  The data of these reportages and ethographical accounts were collected during a mission in Tibet this author undertook in 1982 as the official interpreter of a french geological team under the direction of M. Claude Allegre, a famoust french geologist who is now the french minister of education, research and science. You should mention this first contribution, never surpassed since then, to this burial ritual, unique in the world."

Visual documentation

• The event, which is very seldom - if ever - photographed, is documented on a film "Lhasa 1986: The Forbidden City Opens Its Doors"

  The film includes scenes shot at the Potala, the Jokhang, Gyurme Tantric College, and at a sky burial site near Sera monastery.

  60 min. Wisdom Films.
  Wisdom Publications
  361 Newbury St.
  Boston. MA 02115
  (617) 536-3358

  [Src: Films and Videos on Tibet, Last updated: 5 February 1996
  www.psrg.lcs.mit.edu/~sheldon/tibet/tibet-films.txt
  The catalog has been compiled by Sonam Dargyay (sdhargay--at--ucs.indiana.edu) With additions by A. Tom Grunfeld (tgrunfeld--at--sescva.esc.edu), Brian C. Shaw (bcjshaw--at--hkucc.hku.hk), and David Cherniack (dcherniack--at--myna.com).]

• H-ASIA: RESOURCE: New Asian Documentary Film Series, September 10, 2006
  From: Ellen Bruno (ellen--at--brunofilms.com)
  In following up to my earlier post, I am pleased to report that I have now completed a new film "Sky Burial set in Northern Tibet." Sky Burial follows the ritual of "jha-tor", the giving of alms to birds in a northern Tibetan monastery. The bodies of the dead are offered to the vultures as a final act of kindness to living beings.
  To view a clip: http://brunofilms.com/sky.html

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