Tibetan funerals--Disposal of their dead--By cremation--By
water--Cannibalism--Strange beliefs--Revolting
barbarity--Drinking human blood--The saints of Tibet.
TIBETAN funerals are interesting, but they so closely resemble those of
the Shokas, which I have described at length, that any detailed account
of them would be a mere repetition of what I have already written.
[Illustration: A YOUNG LAMA]
For the disposal of the dead body itself, however, the Tibetans have
curious customs of their own. The most uncommon method, owing to the
great scarcity of fuel, is that of cremation, which is only employed in
the case of wealthy people or Lamas, and is effected in exactly the same
fashion as among the Shokas. Another and more usual plan is to double up
the body, sew it into skins, and let it be carried away by the current of
a stream. But the commonest method of all is the revolting ceremony which
I now proceed to describe.
[Illustration: A RED LAMA]
The body of the deceased is borne to the top of a hill, where the Lamas
pronounce certain incantations and prayers. Then the crowd, after walking
seven times round the body, retire to a certain distance, to allow ravens
and dogs to tear the corpse to pieces. It is considered lucky for the
departed and his family when birds alone devour the greater portion of
the body; dogs and wild animals come, say the Lamas, when the deceased
has sinned during his life. Anyhow, the almost complete destruction of
the corpse is anxiously watched, and, at an opportune moment, the Lamas
and crowd, turning their praying-wheels, and muttering the everlasting
"_Omne mani padme hun_," return to the body, round which seven more
circuits are made, moving from left to right.[25] Then the relatives
squat round. The Lamas sit near the body, and with their daggers cut to
pieces what remains of the flesh. The highest Lama present eats the
first morsel, then, muttering prayers, the other Lamas partake of it,
after which all the relations and friends throw themselves on the now
almost denuded skeleton, scraping off pieces of flesh, which they devour
greedily; and this repast of human flesh continues till the bones are dry
and clean!
[Illustration: CUP MADE OF HUMAN SKULL]
The idea of this ghastly ceremony is that the spirit of the departed, of
whom you have swallowed a piece, will for ever keep on friendly terms
with you. When birds and dogs do not shrink from feeding, it is a sign
that the body is healthy, and fit for themselves.
[Illustration: CHOKDEN, OR TOMB OF A SAINT]
Revolting beyond words is the further fact that, when a man has died of
some pestilential disease, and, owing to the odour, the birds will not
peck at the body, nor will the famished dogs go near it, then a large
number of Lamas, having made the usual exorcisms, sit down by it, and do
not get up again until they have devoured the whole of the rotten human
flesh! The relatives and friends are wiser and less brutal. They rightly
believe that, if voracious animals will not partake of the meal proffered
them, it is because the body is that of a sinner against whom God is
angry. And who better than the Lamas could make peace between God and
him? So let the Lamas eat it all.
In the case of not finding sufficient Lamas to perform these rites, the
body is either disposed of by throwing it into the water, or else, the
relations having first partaken of a morsel of the flesh, it is bound to
a rock to let animals or time do the rest.
The Lamas are said to have a great craving for human blood, which, they
say, gives them strength, genius and vigour. When sucking wounds that are
not poisoned, they drink the blood, and also on certain occasions wounds
are inflicted for the sake of sucking the blood. At other times the cups
cut from human skulls, found in all monasteries, are filled with blood,
and the Lamas in turn satisfy their thirst out of them.
But enough of this. It is sickening to set it down, though my book would
be incomplete if I had made no mention of the cannibalism of the Lamas.
When a saintly Lama dies, or some old man much respected by the
community, either parts of the flesh, or, if cremation has been applied,
some of his ashes, are preserved and placed in a _Chokden_ erected for
the purpose; and, judging by the number of these structures one finds all
over Tibet, one feels inclined to think that half the population of the
country must have been saints, or else that the standard of saintliness
in the sacred land of the Lamas is not prohibitively high.
[25] In the case of a sect called Bombos, the circuits are made in the
reverse fashion, as also are their prayer-wheels turned from right to
left.