Burial Customs

Tibetans believe in Tibetan Buddhism and reincarnation. Therefore, a funeral is imbued with Buddhist concepts. It is a ceremony to expiate the sins of the dead and, moreover, a guarantee for the future life of the dead. Accordingly, it is a key event for everyone. Tibetans conduct various burials.

 Sky burial

Most Tibetans adopt sky burial (also known as celestial burial). The dead person, shrouded in white cloth, is first placed in a corner of a room on sun-dried mud brick instead of a bed. Tibetan Buddhism expounds that the soul of the dead sometimes refuses to leave the house, although the body is removed. So if its body is placed on the mud brick, the soul will leave, since the brick will be taken out of the house to a road intersection. A man is often consulted to divine the specific date for the funeral.

Usually, the body will be kept in the room for three to five days before the burial. Once relatives, friends, and neighbors of the dead receive the sad news, each family will send one person with a jar of wine, a hada, and some ghee (pure, liquid butter) to express condolences. In the days before the burial, the family of the deceased sends for lamas to chant sutras or perform Buddhist rituals to expiate the sins of the dead. If the family is rich, they will light 100 lamps for the dead.

A red pottery vat, whose mouth is covered with wool or a white hada, usually hangs at the gate of the deceased house. Inside are blood, meat, fat, milk, cheese, and butter. With each passing day, more of these items are added, which are meant for the enjoyment of the dead.

If a family loses a member, the other members will not comb their hair, clean their faces, wear ornaments, or sing and dance for 49 days. During the funeral arrangements, the family members and their neighbors are not allowed to hold a wedding, sing, or dance. Everyone mourns the loss of the dead.

On the day before the burial, people offer their condolences and say farewell to the dead, bringing with them garmai zumda, which includes a hada, Tibetan joss sticks (similar to incense sticks), a sacrificial lamp, and money. Besides the above-mentioned articles, relatives, friends and neighbors also bring zanba (roasted barley flower), milk dregs, tea, and ox lard to boil toba (a type of congee).

The burial takes place early in the morning. Led by a lama, the descendants of the deceased carry the dead to the door, and relatives, friends, and neighbors, holding Tibetan joss sticks, see the dead off to a fork in the road a distance from the house. Finally, one or two friends accompany the dead to the graveyard and supervise the whole process of the sky burial presided over by a sky burial master. Family members usually are not present at the scene.

 Other forms of funeral

As mentioned above, there are some other forms of funeral practiced in Tibet besides sky burial.

1. Water burials

Water burials are usually given to the lowest class of people such as beggars, widows, widowers, orphans, and the childless. The body is taken to the river, torn limb from limb, and thrown into the torrent. In some places, a simpler practice prevails where the whole body, wrapped in a white cloth, is thrown into the river. This method of burial is popular in the deep valleys of southern Tibet where there are no vultures.

2. Cremation

Cremation is permitted for the Living Buddha, high lamas, and those of noble birth. Before cremation, people wrap up the body into the sitting position and tie it to the firewood pile. At the same time, the lama chant scripture for the spirit of the dead when people spill oil on the firewood and light the fire. After cremation the ashes are taken to high mountains to sprinkle in the wind or into rivers.

3. Interment

Interment first appeared in about the 2nd century BC when Pude Gongyal held funeral for his father, Drigum Tsanpo, the eighth king of the Tubo Dynasty (629-846). However, as Buddhism penetrated the whole of Tibet, interment gradually became a lower form of burial for those who died of infectious diseases such as leprosy, anthrax and smallpox, and for robbers, murderers, and those who have been killed by a dagger. Religious law does not permit such people to receive a sky or water burial, but decrees that as punishment they must be buried under the earth to destroy their last vestige. Relatives regard such punishment as a great disgrace.

4. Stupa burial

Stupa burial is a very distinguished form of burial reserved for famous lamas only. The body is painted with salt water and dried, and again smeared with precious ointments and perfumes, and then embalmed in a stupa (domed Buddhist shrine). Such funerals are given to honor only great lamas like the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. After cremation, ashes may also be placed within a stupa.

Kept in monastery halls, stupas vary greatly depending on the rank of the occupant of each. Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas are given gold stupas, covered in sheets of solid gold, while the successor to Tsongkapa's religious throne in the Ganden Monastery is eligible only for a silver stupa. Other materials include bronze, wood, and clay.

5. Infant burial

Another form of burial is that used when infants die, and consists of placing the body inside a clay pot, sealing the mouth and casting it into a river. Alternatively, the pot may be preserved inside a storehouse.

After a family member dies, lamas are sent for to chant sutras for the dead seven times "seven days," totaling 49 days. Generally speaking, no matter what kind of funeral, in the past, monks had to be invited to perform religious rites to release the soul from the body before the corpse could be disposed of.

A rich family will hold a sacrificial ceremony for the dead on the 30th day, when one lama is sent for to chant sutras. On the first anniversary, commemorative sacrificial activities are performed in the family home, and relatives, friends, and neighbors gather there, bringing hadas, tea, wine, meat, butter, and money. The host prepares food to thank the guests for their help during the past year.