Sky Burial

Vultures consume the remains of a recently deceased elderly man at this traditional sky burial (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_buri… ceremony in a Tibetan region of northwestern Sichuan Provence, China.

Tibetans believe the body, after death and the soul has left, is an empty vessel. This part of the Tibetan plateau has very tough soil and it's permafrost for most of the year anyway, so it's impractical to bury. There's a scarcity of trees for wood to burn also, for the same reason; the altitude, climate, etc. Sky burials are practical and fit well with their beliefs.

July 31, 2013