Pity I missed the You Tube...
In Carl Bock's 1884 book (Chapter 6) "Temples and Elephants: The narrative
of a journey of exploration through upper Siam and Lao" he describes a
similar practice at a Temple in Bangkok where a person committed of a crime
was executed and left, describing quite well how vultures were allowed
access to the body (plus quite a bit more detail about what happens after).
Flat out trying to see any vulture in Thailand now...
Cheers
Marc
Jabiru NT
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Scot Mcphee
Sent: Wednesday, 16 September 2009 8:17 AM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Vultures and humans
WARNING. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH.
This is a slide show of a Tibetan "Sky Funeral". There is a horde of
hungry vultures that make short work of the body.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyUqI0cS8s
Another warning. IT IS VERY GRAPHIC and shows an ancient Tibetan
funerary practice. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF THE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC
HANDLING OF HUMAN REMAINS CONCERNS YOU. Also the music is terrible;
better to watch it in silence. But fascinating if you can stomach it.
>From wikipedia: "The Tibetan sky-burial practices appear to have
evolved out of practical considerations: a) most of Tibet is above the
tree line, and the scarcity of timber makes cremation economically
unfeasible; b) subsurface interment is equally difficult since the
active layer is not more than a few centimeters deep, with solid rock
or permafrost beneath it. The customs are first recorded in an
indigenous 12th century Buddhist treatise known colloquially as the
Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol). Tibetan tantricism appears to have
influenced the procedure."
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