Vultures

We arrived at Langmusi, a small Tibetan town nestled in the mountains,through the back door on a small bumpy road. The downhill was rough on the bikes... so much so that as I was unloading the panniers, I realized my bike frame had broken. The bit where the rack attaches to the frame had broken off. No problem this is China. Two buildings up the street from the hotel was a car repair shop where two young guys eagerly welded the frame back together in fifteen minutes. Total charge: $1.50 CAD plus a ride around the block on my bike. Langmusi is known for still practicing Buddhist traditional sky burials, a practice that had been banned by the Chinese government up until until 1994, where bodies are carried up to the mountain, cut into little pieces and fed to the vultures. This morning we were joined by a french guy for a stoll up to the sky burial site. The site which looks like a large fire pit is littered with torn clothing, skulls and skeletal remains. Just as we were starting to turn back, a three wheeled truck started inching its way up the mountain. The driver was periodically wailing into the wind sounding a bit like an ambulance. Soon we realized that we were about to witness a sky burrial. We put away our camaras and clambered up to a side peak where we could watch the event but remain at a safe distance. Four men climbed out of the truck and pulled out the body of a young woman that had died the day before. There were no relatives and it looked like this was the mens' job. The wailing cries were not cries of mourning but cries to the vultures who suddenly appeared through the fog like war planes to land directly above us. It turns up we had chosen to sit 'out of the way' directly on the vultures landing pad and were interfering with their descent for diner. The men called us down and we quickly obeyed, embarrased to have interfered with the ceremony. To our surprise though, they told us we could stay with them next to the body and even take pictures if we liked. It took about twenty minutes for the body to completly disappear. I'd like to say we were lucky to witness this type of ceremony. It was gory yet captivating. We had seen burial rituals before in India's Veranasi, but rather than passive burning or burial, this was a very violent act. About 60 vutures descended on the body at once and started fighting for their fill. The body tossed in the air for about 5 minutes before being almost completely consumed. The men then chopped the bones and remaining flesh into bits and dispersed them around to the still hungry vultures. A piece of brain was rescued, and placed in a ceremonial fire. In a place where the earth is frozen solid for a significant part of the year, this seems like a very practical and hygenic way of disposing for the bodies and ensuring the remains are taken up to the heavens by the birds.