Funding boost for Tibetan sky burial sites
Print Edition
SOUTHWEST China’s Tibet will spend 490 million yuan (US$75 million) over the next five years on the repair and protection of sites for the traditional Tibetan funeral practice of sky burial, local authorities said yesterday.
Sky burial is a Tibetan and Mongolian ceremony in which the dead are fed to predatory birds, so that their souls may ascend to heaven.
Funding will be allocated for a total of 156 sky burial sites, and the regional government will spend 165 million yuan this year on 47 sky burial sites close to lamaseries. Each site will be allocated up to 5 million yuan, which will finance preservation work, according to the regional civil affairs department.
Wild dogs, burial waste, bumpy roads and a lack of facilities for mourners are undermining efforts to sustain the practice, said Xu Jiali, deputy head of the regional civil affairs department, who visited 60 sky burial sites during a preliminary investigation.
The funding will cover the construction of roads, fences, reception rooms, mortuaries and furnaces to burn waste, said Xu, adding that the authorities are also mulling legislation on sky burials.
“The government is committed to protecting this tradition,” said Dachung, an academic at the Tibet Autonomous Regional Academy of Social Sciences.
Pawo Samtenling Nunnery, built some 400 years ago in Qonggyai County, is one of the first recipients of the new funding and will serve as a model for the project, said Champa Drolkar, a senior nun at the nunnery.
The nunnery has a 1.4 kilometer fence going around the enclosure for some 100 vultures, two dedicated rooms for mourners to rest and for the bodies to await sky burial. In addition, a storage tank has been installed for burial waste.
“A fence alone is not enough to prevent wild dogs from entering the site,” said Sonam Rigzin, head of the civil affairs bureau of Shannan City, which administers Qonggyai County.
At least one body is interred every day, sometimes three or four, according to Champa Drolkar.
A dozen nuns help with the ceremony on rotation, with two to a team. They chant sutras for the deceased, summon the vultures and clear the burial waste, said Champa Drolkar.
Namgyal, 68, said he will definitely opt for sky burial.
“The protection of sky burial sites is very important,” he said.
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