Vulture-related culture

When did the custom of celestial burial begin? There is no specific and exact record. After Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, it had a great influence on Tibetan funeral customs. In Buddhism, "giving" is the principle that believers follow. There are many kinds of giving, and giving life is also a kind of giving. According to the "Sacrifice Sutra" discovered in Dunhuang, it is suggested that people should separate their flesh and blood after death and give them to Tuolin (cemetery). This custom existed before the Han Dynasty and Sui Dynasty. This custom may lead Tibetans who believe in Buddhism to have the same purpose. Among Buddhist stories, there are also Buddhist stories such as "The corpse king gave pigeons with his body" and "Mahasa gave his life to feed tigers", which preached "Bodhisattva gave her life to give alms".

Celestial burial is a common funeral custom of Tibetans, also known as "bird burial". Used for ordinary farmers and herdsmen and ordinary people. Tibetan Buddhists believe that celestial burial is a wish to ascend to heaven. There are celestial burial sites in every region, that is, celestial burial sites, and there are specialized personnel (celestial burial masters) engaged in this industry. After death, people curl up, bow their heads and kneel down to form a sitting posture, wrap it in a white quilt, put it on the earthen platform on the right side behind the door, and ask the Lama to recite the sutra of crossing over. On an auspicious day, the undertaker carried the body to the celestial burial platform, first lit the "mulberry" smoke to the vultures, and after the Lama finished chanting, the celestial burial master disposed of the body.

Tibetans believe that vultures on the mountains around the celestial burial platform do not harm any small animals except eating corpses, so they are "god birds". People have never seen the carcasses of vultures, which makes vultures have magical charm, mysterious colors and worship.

Why do Tibetans choose vultures? After the interpretation of Buddhist teachings, Tibetans with simple materialistic consciousness pay more attention to the soul and despise the body. Feed your body to the eagle and die completely, as a merit and as a foreshadowing for the reincarnation of your soul. Some people even think that the vultures around the celestial burial platform are the embodiment of monks and have the magic power to connect the gods. But fundamentally speaking, the concept of soul reincarnation in the theory of separation of soul and flesh has penetrated into every Tibetan's view of life and death. If a person dies and the body does not disappear, the dead soul may attach to the original body and thus cannot be reincarnated. This runs counter to the desire of the deceased and their relatives to be reincarnated as soon as possible, and it does not conform to the six divisions in the Buddhist theory of karma. Unlike other eagles, vultures never eat living things, but only dead things, which is why Tibetans admire it and choose it. Another reason people pay attention to is to let the body return to the "wind" among the four elements in the world. Burying vultures in the sky also symbolizes the intention of returning to nature.