Other forms of funeral

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

Water funerals 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.

The cremation is permitted for lamas and those of noble birth. After cremation the ashes are taken to high mountains and scattered into the winds, or thrown into rivers.

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. However, as Buddhism penetrated the whole of Tibet, interment gradually became a lower form of burial for those who have 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 in order to destroy their last vestige. Relatives regard such punishment as a great disgrace.

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. 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.

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.

Generally speaking, no matter what kind of funeral was selected, 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.