Sky Burial and Open Cremation By Vultures

Sky burial is a Tibetan Buddhists ritual that has great religious meaning. Tibetans are encouraged to witness this ritual, to confront death openly and to feel the impermanence of life. Sky burial and cremation are templates of instructional teaching on the impermanence of life. Generosity and compassion for all beings are important virtues or paramita in Buddhism.


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Although some observers have suggested that jhator is also meant to unite the deceased person with the sky or sacred realm, this does not seem consistent with most of the knowledgeable commentary and eyewitness reports, which indicate that Tibetans believe that at this point life has completely left the body and the body contains nothing more than simple flesh. Tibetans believe that the corpse is nothing more than an empty vessel. The spirit, or the soul, of the deceased has exited the body to be reincarnated into another circle of life. Sky burial is not considered suitable for children who are less than 18, pregnant women, or those who have died of infectious disease or accident.