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Platform bird feeder ideas2/12/2024 ![]() ![]() Other banners subsequently converted under the Manchu Qing dynasty. Mongolians traditionally buried their dead (sometimes with human or animal sacrifice for the wealthier chieftains), but the Tümed adopted sky burial following their conversion to Tibetan Buddhism under Altan Khan during the Ming dynasty. Vultures feeding on cut pieces of body at a 1985 sky burial in Lhasa, Tibet ![]() The body is cut up according to instructions given by a lama or adept. Tibetan tantricism appears to have influenced the procedure. The customs are first recorded in an indigenous 12th-century Buddhist treatise, which is colloquially known as the Book of the Dead ( Bardo Thodol). Additionally, subsurface interment is difficult since the active layer is not more than a few centimeters deep, with solid rock or permafrost underlying the surface. Most of Tibet is above the tree line, and the scarcity of timber makes cremation economically unfeasible. These practices most likely came out of practical considerations, but they could also be related to more ceremonial practices similar to the suspected sky burial evidence found at Göbekli Tepe (11,500 years before present) and Stonehenge (4,500 years BP). The Tibetan sky-burials appear to have evolved from ancient practices of defleshing corpses as discovered in archeological finds in the region. "Sky burial" is a Western term it is not used by Tibetans, who call it "giving alms to the birds" or "to carry to the mountain." The latter term describes the vultures defecating on the mountains after eating. Other nations which performed air burial were the Caucasus nations of Georgians, Abkhazians, and Adyghe people, in which they put the corpse in a hollow tree trunk. In the past, cremation was limited to high lamas and some other dignitaries, but modern technology and difficulties with sky burial have led to an increased use of cremation by commoners. In much of Tibet and Qinghai, the ground is too hard and rocky to dig a grave, and due to the scarcity of fuel and timber, sky burials were typically more practical than the traditional Buddhist practice of cremation. The function of the sky burial is simply to dispose of the remains in as generous a way as possible (the origin of the practice's Tibetan name). Birds may eat it or nature may cause it to decompose. There is no need to preserve the body, as it is now an empty vessel. The majority of Tibetan people and many Mongols adhere to Vajrayana Buddhism, which teaches the transmigration of spirits. Few such places remain operational today due to religious marginalisation, urbanisation and the decimation of vulture populations. Comparable practices are part of Zoroastrian burial rites where deceased are exposed to the elements and scavenger birds on stone structures called Dakhma. The locations of preparation and sky burial are understood in the Vajrayana Buddhist traditions as charnel grounds. It is practiced in the Chinese provinces and autonomous regions of Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Inner Mongolia, as well as in Mongolia, Bhutan, and parts of India such as Sikkim and Zanskar. It is a specific type of the general practice of excarnation. "bird-scattered" ) is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds like vultures and corvids. Sky burial ( Tibetan: བྱ་གཏོར་, Wylie: bya gtor, lit. A sky burial site in Yerpa Valley, Tibet Drigung Monastery, Tibetan monastery famous for performing sky burials For other uses, see Sky burial (disambiguation). This article is about the funeral practice.
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