Sky Burials

The Discovery Channel created a beautiful six part series named "Human Planet".  The series follows people from all over the world in extremely diverse environments.  One episode titled "Mountains" follows a group of Tibetans who have just lost their father and shows what happens when there is no firewood for cremations. 

 A majority of Tibetans are Buddhist.  This religion teaches rebirth and there is no need to preserve the body.  Buddhist in lower elevations often burn the bodies of the dead, but since there is no firewood high up in the Tibetan mountains, these people practice something known as sky burials to dispose of the dead.  In the episode I watched, the body of the dead man was wrapped up in a colorful cloth.  His body was carried up the mountain and his family was allowed time to say their goodbyes then leaves.   The man who preforms the sky burial is not a Buddhist and mentions before he does the "burial" that he has done many in his life but he still needs some whiskey to preform it.  The sky burial begins by unwrapping the body. Then the man proceeds to cut the body into many parts.  The remains are left on the mountaintop and left to the elements.  In the episode, vultures are on the scene immediately and eat the remains of the man.  Seeing this was slightly horrifying, but this funerary practices makes sense for these people.  It allows them to get rid of the body so that it does not spread disease.  And following Buddhist tradition, the body is an empty vessel after death, and this practice allows the remains to be given back to nature.