Chinese customs: Tibetan funeral customs three

[Tibetan several kinds of little-known funeral]

Qinghai Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Tongren County, and in the Jianzha, Degui, Methodist and other counties in dozens of villages in the circulation of large-scale folk entertainment in June will be known in Tibetan as the "June Le Rui", meaning June dedicated to the dragon's songs and dances, so far there have been thousands of years of history, it contains religion, history, folk customs and other rich cultural connotations, express *** the virtue of hard work and simplicity wisdom and courage. History, it contains religion, history, folklore and other rich cultural connotations, performance of the *** people hard-working, simple wisdom and courageous virtues.

The Tibetan people are distributed in *** and Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, part of the region, calling themselves "Boba". But in different areas there are different titles, such as Ali people call themselves "Tui Ba", after the *** call themselves "Zangba", the former *** call themselves "Wei", Chamdo to the east of the people call themselves "Kumba". "kangba", and "ando wow", "jiajung wow", "kongbu wow" and so on. Although widely distributed, Tibetans generally believe in Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism sees life and death as a whole, and believes that death is only the beginning of another period of life, another form of expression of life. This concept is shared by the *** people, who generally believe in the concept of "reincarnation" and believe that people will be reincarnated after death. Therefore, they are very respectful to the deceased, and according to different circumstances, different status, different regional customs to be buried. So, the traditional Tibetan burial, funeral, mourning and other ceremonies are how to carry out? What are the different forms?

In Tibet, due to different regions, the way of burial is not the same. But in the way of burial there is a more obvious hierarchy, which is the same: the highest level is the tower burial, followed by cremation, the most popular is the sky burial. Some regions have long preserved very old funeral customs or are influenced by neighboring ethnic groups, and there are often lesser-known special burial practices such as cave burials, coffin burials, building burials, platform burials, indoor burials, tree burials, and red-handed water burials for infants; in addition, some places have a large proportion of earth burials, and water burials for young children who die prematurely are prevalent. Here we are introduced to the Tibetan East and Gannan Tibetan areas mainly special burial customs.

Cave Burial Cave burial is prevalent in Gansu Province, Baima Tibetan area. Here, after the death of people, wash and change clothes, tied into a squatting style, and then placed in a pit, covered with a wooden board, and then buried with the soil. In winter, the body is not easy to decompose, so the practice of cremation. The graveyard has the clan's cemetery and tomb column.

Sending coffin burial Sending coffin burial is ultimately a burial, popular in Gansu Province, Zhouqu Tibetan area. This is the husband and wife who died first coffin, temporarily stored in such as cliffs, head of the ground, the intersection, etc., not digging graves, but the coffin will be placed in the selected place of the high place, in order to prevent being soaked in water, with a large stone on the pressure, in order to prevent wild beasts infestation. When the other party died, held a joint tomb burial, in order to never leave.

Building Burial Building burial, also known as household burial, is popular in the Konan area. This is the body of the deceased will be buried in a corner of the top floor of the building, the funeral does not go out, very grand. But this requires that the deceased must be recognized as a party of high moral standing, a reputable lama or longevity, children and grandchildren or five generations of the same family, or in the tribal villages in the unselfish, justice, and dare to speak for the masses, the masses of disputes when the people can be a fair judgment of the person.

Platform Burial Platform burial is popular in the Kangnan Batang area. This is a special way of burial, because people believe that the deceased should not use other burial method to use this custom. Its form is on the ground with large stones built into a platform 1 meter high and 1 meter wide, and then the body bundled into a fetus-shaped, in a wooden box on the platform. Then in the wooden box around the stone, and the wooden box with a large stone cover, and finally with the mud hook stone seams, from a distance like a pile of Mani stone.

Indoor burial Indoor burial is popular in the Kangbei area, is more than 80 years old, the prestige of the death of a special way of burial. After the death of the people scrubbed bundles of dough, the five senses stuffed with ghee, gold, silver and precious stones, etc., the body into a wooden cabinet or a large jar, surrounded by barley cobs, wheat manes and husks filled, covered with a lid sealed with mud, put indoor a corner. To be a number of years later, moved to the field cremation. Ashes or into the river or buried in the ground. Because of this way of burial after several years, several procedures, it is also known as "re-burial".

Tree Burial Tree burial is popular in *** Linzhi and Kangbei part of the region, this form is mostly used for young children who died young. The body will be washed with salt water, put into a wooden box, barrel or bamboo basket, and then hung to the big mountains in the shaded forest on the half waist of a large tree, but also placed in the branches of a large tree. It is said that this is to prevent another child in the family from being unfortunate. But this custom is not common.

Baby red hand water burial This only applies to babies who died within two months. The dead baby's hands painted red with paint, and then bundled into the fetal shape, into the basket, bundled with two large stones thrown into the river. In some cases, they are buried together with the basket by the river, and the bodies are washed away when the water rises. Family members to throw the body down to the river where the erection of a carved scripture slate, lighted with ghee lamps, burning tsampa, inserted a number of Mani poles, year after year of sacrifice.

Someone at home, no matter which way of burial, but the day of the funeral and the mountain to the calendar monks according to the deceased and the survivors of the birth of the family phase, the deceased resigned in the year, month, day and hour, the stars are in line with the astronomical algorithms such as the five elements of the calculations to decide. It is said that the projected bad and lucky days are for the survivors to eliminate disasters, human and animal peace, but also for the comfort of the deceased. Funeral time is generally passed away within 3 to 7 days, before this, friends and relatives, the same village people are carrying dry food, ghee, silver and other things to the deceased's home to express their condolences, bring the ceremony are used in the offerings, charity. During the period of indoor mourning, domestic cats are forbidden to approach, and during this period, those who keep cats at home either tie them up at home or send them to other people's homes to be tied up. On the day of the funeral, people usually leave very early, but not later than noon; only men are allowed to go to the cemetery; people who share the same genus and birthday with the deceased are not allowed to go to the funeral. Within 49 days after the death of a person, it is forbidden to kill, and only eat the meat of cattle and sheep killed by others; the survivors of women do not wash their hair, men do not repair the face, do not cut hair, do not wear jewelry; do not visit the door; not to participate in festivals or recreational activities; the year's annual festivals do not visit friends and relatives.

With the advance of the times, the development of society, the popularization of science and technology, the concept of renewal, in recent years, many of the funeral taboos, especially among young people has gradually faded.