Chapter 15 13. Legends about sky burial

Everyone has to face death. This is a common and eternal proposition for all human beings. No matter the emperors, dignitaries, living Buddhas, eminent monks, ordinary people, or all living beings, it is impossible for anyone to escape the natural law from life to death.It is also an attitude towards life to use fantasy to eliminate the fear of death, get rid of the troubles of reality, and place hope on the future. Life and death are always a heavy topic; however, during my travels in Tibet, whether I was wandering in palaces and temples or running around in the wilderness and mountains, I saw traces of its existence all the time.For a nation that believes in Buddhism, the belief in the cycle of life and death has been rooted in the depths of their souls and is reflected in all their living customs. "Dharma does not arise alone, it must arise from conditions." Buddhism clarifies that the entire universe follows the natural law of the combination of all causes and conditions, and the natural law that conditions arise and conditions cease.As Sogyal Rinpoche stated in his book, as one of the most important religions in the world, Buddhism not only endows life with the most sacred dignity, but also gives ultimate care to death.The characteristics of Buddhism are manifested in the wisdom of comprehending the unity of life and death and getting rid of the suffering of samsara, and even more manifested in the compassion of "only for all sentient beings to be free from suffering, and not to seek happiness for oneself".Before coming to Tibet, I had heard the legend about sky burial many times, and I was full of curiosity and puzzlement about this peculiar custom of the Tibetan people.After experiencing the life and death journey of Ali on the westward journey, especially after having a long talk with a knowledgeable tour guide on the night of Gyantse, I suddenly had a deep understanding of sky burial, a funeral form that once terrified me.This can be regarded as a harvest of my personal experience in Tibet!

Buddhist Tibetans Since arriving in Gyantse, the rain has not stopped, and it is disturbing, as if you are in the Huangmeitian in the south of the Yangtze River.Stay in the hotel room at night, bored.Suddenly, a tall, thin, middle-aged man came in. He introduced himself straight to the point as Wang Zhongji, a Han nationality, a tour guide and driver, who brought a German tour group and stayed overnight in Gyantse.During the chat, I learned that his parents were both cadres of the Eighteenth Army who entered Tibet when Tibet was peacefully liberated in 1950; he was born in Lhasa and lived in Tibetan areas for more than 40 years. Authentic Tibet pass.The main topic we talked about was the Tibetan custom that I have been curious about for a long time-sky burial.The knowledge I have acquired about sky burials is often processed through the imagination and rumors of hearsayers.Therefore, facing such a Tibetan expert, I first raised this question that I dare not mention in front of Tibetans.Wang Zhongji said that he had attended countless celestial burial ceremonies of his Tibetan friends, and at first he also felt extremely horrified; over time, he understood this peculiar burial custom of the Tibetan people.

Wang Zhongji described to me in detail the sky burials he had seen.The sky burial of the Tibetans has very complicated rituals. First, the dead should be saved for three days, mainly by lighting the ever-burning lanterns and chanting sutras by the lamas.The day before the burial, the body of the deceased needs to be washed, and then the body is wrapped in white pulu, tied with a rope according to the sitting position, and adobe is placed under it.The celestial burial must be held in the morning, and the funeral begins when it is dark.In the past, the dead were carried to the celestial burial platform manually, but now the corpse is usually transported by a special truck, and after arriving under the celestial burial platform, the celestial burial master's assistant carries the body to the celestial burial platform.Relatives and friends of the deceased usually attend the celestial burial, but immediate family members cannot attend.Tibetans are very taboo against strangers watching sky burials, and they must not take pictures, they think this will affect the ascension of the soul of the deceased.Before the sky burial begins, the lamas of the Kagyu sect usually perform a "throwing" ceremony on the deceased. "Throwing" means guiding and transferring the soul of the deceased.The lamas presiding over the "throwing wow" ceremony are all eminent monks who are familiar with Tibetan secret exercises. They first sit around the deceased and chant sutras;Immediately, a hole was opened in the spiritual cover of the deceased by the power of the eminent monk, and it is said that the soul of the deceased was extradited from this hole to the pure land of the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss.According to Wang Zhongji, after the "throwing wow" was completed, he saw with his own eyes that there was a small hole on the top of the deceased's head where a matchstick could be inserted.If this is true, this eminent monk must be a powerful Qigong master.Now not all the dead can accept "throwing wow", it is said that a "throwing wah" ceremony is expensive, and only those rich people can hold this kind of ceremony.It can be seen that with the development of the commodity economy, only the rich can ascend to heaven in their souls.However, "Throwing Wow" is indeed a ritual for soul transcendence in Buddhist Tantric practice.

After the "throwing wow" ceremony, the celestial burial master first burned "mulberry" incense to worship the gods. As the clear smoke rose, the surrounding vultures were attracted to gather above the celestial burial platform.So the celestial burial master began to operate. He unwrapped the white pulu that wrapped the deceased and turned his back upwards.Use a sharp knife to cut the back in a cross shape, take out the internal organs of the deceased, and put them into the pit on the celestial burial platform; then dismember the muscles of the deceased, cut and chop them, and put them together with tsampa, and put them in the pit of the celestial burial platform ; and the internal organs of the deceased are also chopped up together, and are mixed with tsampa; finally, the whole body of the deceased is smashed with an iron ax and mixed with tsampa.At this time, a large group of vultures can't wait to circle around the celestial burial platform.The celestial burial master first threw the broken bones mixed with tsampa to feed the vultures, then the internal organs, and finally the muscles.The reason for this order is that these carrion-eating animals are already very cunning, and if they are fed viscera and muscles first, they will not eat broken bones last.After the vultures finished eating, they gradually dispersed. The celestial burial master wrapped the deceased with a white pulu, wiped off the stains on his hands, mixed a bowl of tsampa and ate it, which was regarded as a thank you to the relatives of the deceased.

According to Tibetan customs, there are strict regulations on the deceased who receive sky burials. Generally, people under the age of 18, women who have not been pregnant, and those who died abnormally, especially those who died of illness, are not allowed to receive sky burials.According to legend, the vultures around the celestial burial platform are the incarnations of dakinis, the condor sent by the Buddha to extradite the soul and body of the dead. The virus on the dead will poison these gods.Today, the long-term hospitalization of the sick will leave the smell of disinfectant on the body, and the intravenous injection will also make the muscles smell bad; even if the dead are buried in the sky, vultures will not eat their corpses.In Tibet, the cost of a sky burial is about 1,000 yuan, so the poor cannot enjoy this splendid ceremony.Although today’s celestial burial masters are still discriminated against by traditional concepts, they have become a high-income group in Tibet; it is said that many Han people in Sichuan have also taken a fancy to this profession and began to apply for a sky burial master’s license. That's another matter.

For the magical burial custom of sky burial, its origin has always been a mystery.A large number of studies have shown that as early as 7,000 years ago, various ethnic groups in Central Asia (such as ancient India, Iran, etc.) had burial customs similar to sky burials. a funeral system.Other studies have shown that celestial burial itself originated in Tibet, and its later development is closely related to Bon, the primitive religion in Tibet.At present, there are two most famous celestial burial platforms in the world, one is the celestial burial platform of Zhigong Temple in Mezhugongka County, Tibet.The other is the Swatsey sky burial platform in India.There is a celestial burial platform on the front and back hills of Sera Monastery in Lhasa. Later, when I returned to Lhasa, I was encouraged by my playmates several times to go there to watch the celestial burial.Once I even approached the foot of the mountain where the celestial burial platform is located. Because of the deep insights I gained from the long talk with Wang Zhongji in Gyantse, I really didn’t want to disturb the Tibetans at the end of their lives because of my curiosity. Most sacred ritual.

For the deceased who can accept the sky burial, it can be said to be the most glorious end in life.The glory of the deceased's life is carried away on the goshawk, and the soul and body will ascend to the kingdom of heaven.What awaits them is to reincarnate as soon as possible, to devote themselves to a happy family, and to realize their long-cherished wishes from previous lives.It is just like this that the Tibetan people's outlook on life and death has reached a detached state, and they are the ones who can truly face death and put it calmly.I don’t know which eminent Tibetan monk said: “The life and death of a person are always in transition. From the moment you are born, you are going to die, and death means you are going to be reborn again. So life is indifferent. Life and death." Now that I think about it, there is still a bit of dialectical materialism.Perhaps the Tibetan people choose sky burial as their final destination, that is because they chose a shortcut from death to rebirth.

Tibetan families living in the harsh natural environment of Ngari The long night is long, and the thoughts are vague.Each of us has to face death, which is a common and eternal proposition for all human beings; no matter whether emperors, dignitaries, living Buddhas, eminent monks, ordinary people, or all living beings, it is impossible for anyone to escape the natural law from life to death.It is also an attitude towards life to use fantasy to eliminate the fear of death, get rid of the troubles of reality and place hope on the future.