S1E12 - China's Heaven & Hell: Mystic Tibet - Part 5/5

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Death rituals reveal profound truths about a culture's deepest beliefs. My journey to witness a Tibetan sky burial transformed my understanding of mortality, compassion, and spiritual connection.

The day began innocently with breakfast at a Buddhist academy before my guide (a Tibetan spiritual teacher I call LB) drove me to a remote mountain burial site. What awaited shocked me to my core – an ancient funeral practice where human remains become offerings to vultures. The site itself foreshadowed the experience, with fierce deities and skull-adorned structures creating an atmosphere of sacred intensity rather than peaceful repose.

Few outsiders get to witness what followed. A master ritualist began with haunting chants that vibrated through my entire body. Then, methodically and with practiced precision, he dismembered a young woman's body into exactly 108 pieces. I fought waves of nausea as blood splattered against my protective raincoat. Most astonishing were the vultures – hundreds circling overhead, yet waiting with uncanny discipline until the priest signaled them to descend. Within minutes, they devoured everything but teeth and nails, completing what Tibetans view as the deceased's final act of compassion – giving one's body to feed other creatures.

Beyond the visceral impact, this experience opened profound spiritual discussions with my guide. He explained how Tibetan Buddhists use meditation on corpses to overcome attachment and physical desire. More personally, LB revealed we had known each other in past lives, though our ages differed then. We apparently died around the same time, returning in this life as contemporaries – a mysterious connection that continues to unfold. If you've ever questioned conventional funeral practices or wondered about deeper spiritual truths, this journey offers a perspective that will challenge everything you thought you knew about life's final transition.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Early next morning we had our breakfast in their food
hall.
It was pretty cool, allvegetarian, of course.
Afterwards I made like 20circles around that structure
and the LB said let's jump inthe car and go somewhere.
And, like I said before, wewent to a burial site.

(00:22):
It was a 20-minute drive and itwas around the backside of the
mountain that we were on.
It was a deserted mountainrange on the backside of a
mountain and if you GoogleLangrongar Buddhist Academy or
Sky Burial, you'd findhorrifying pictures of

(00:43):
skull-built structures andstatues of deities all around
that burial site.
It was under construction whenI went, but I did go a couple of
times.
I actually have some photos,maybe I'll upload one and these
deities all had angry faces on.
It didn't look like a pleasantplace.
That place literally lookedlike it was there to scare you.

(01:08):
It looked like a haunted placeyou would see at an amusement
park.
That was the entrance to theburial site and the burial site
was a little further away, maybe500 meters or half a mile or so
down a path.
I was very lucky.
Like I said before, nowadaysthey clear off the path with red

(01:28):
cloth.
You're not allowed to walkfurther, so you would have to
view the burial from very faraway, so you wouldn't see
anything that was actually worthseeing other than the chanting
and the ceremony.
That's because a bunch ofstupid-ass tourists decided it
would be nice to take picturesof deceased bodies being buried

(01:51):
and post them up on social media, and what you're about to hear
next you'll know why thesethings you should not be posting
.
Right, there would be what wecall a master ritualist, and in
slang we kind of call him themaster, the master butcher.
He will start by sitting crosslegged, reciting scriptures with

(02:14):
the deepest voice you canimagine.
It was skull penetrating andvibrated your very organs.
They must have practiced this alot.
There's that tone.
It was just so relaxing andsoothing.
The chanting lasted a lotlonger than I expected, maybe 30
minutes to 45 minutes.

(02:34):
My wife and I were kind ofgetting a little restless.
We woke up early.
The sun was blazing in the backof my head, and I asked LB at
the time if I could walk upfurther into the platform and
see the actual body, and henodded, and so, without much
hesitation, I started walking upto see the body.

(02:57):
My wife handed me a face maskand I told her I didn't need one
, a face mask and I told her Ididn't need one.
I really regretted it becausemy male ego thing kicked in, and
immediately when I made my,when my head peeped through that
little ledge, a wave of warmwind brought with it the smell

(03:18):
of rotting flesh.
It was disgusting.
It broke me down.
I turned around and I justvomited.
I puked my brains out.
It was awful.
Everybody stood there laughing,including LB.
Once I recovered, maybe 30seconds later, brought myself
together, I started walking upand there in front of me I saw a

(03:42):
body, the body of a young woman.
It was cold, it was rotted,completely dead, laying on the
grassland Naked.
I could see hundreds ofvultures Circling on the hilltop
, but none came down Yet.

(04:05):
Then the ritual began the highmonk, the butcher, needed to
dice up the body into 108 piecesbefore the vultures were
allowed to start their feasts.
I was given a disposableraincoat, and this time I gladly
accepted it.
I was so stupid, not taking theface mask and I was literally
trying to hold in my secondround of pu it.
I was so stupid not taking theface mask and I was literally

(04:26):
trying to hold in my secondround of puke.
I have a very weak stomach,especially for this stuff.
The purpose of the raincoat wasnot because it was raining.
Like I mentioned before, thesun was beaming down on my head.
It was to prevent the bloodfrom being splashed on you Once

(04:49):
the high priest started hackingaway with his sharpened knife.
It wasn't a knife, sorry, it waslike a machete.
It was a huge knife.
When he was hacking down thebody, a part of the body the
face, I presume flew onto myraincoat.

(05:14):
It stuck on there and I pukedagain.
So there it is.
The high priest knew exactlywhat he was doing.
Oh my god, he was just like anexperienced butcher.
He was Seattle, like a Chinesemarket.
He knew exactly where to sliceand how to butcher.
You see out like a Chinesemarket.
He knew exactly where to sliceand how to cut it the most
efficient way.
It's fucking amazing, I tellyou.
Well, not really, but it wasjust so unseen before, unheard

(05:35):
of, and I was there right infront witnessing this.
It maybe took him less than 10minutes to cut up the body.
You could not recognize itanymore.
You could see parts of the hair, the foot, the hand, and that's
about it.
That's pretty much all youcould recognize.
And after we were signaled, itwasn't many of us obviously to

(05:58):
take a couple of steps back, andwe did.
By then the vultures hadalready landed on the hilltop
not too far from us and if Ihadn't known any better, I think
the vultures were home-trained.
They understood everyinstruction, every word said by
the priest.
I shit you not.
They didn't dare to move orstep over a certain line until

(06:22):
the priest was finished with hischanting.
And the chanting continued foranother 10-15 minutes and the
vultures were still patientlywaiting, like more patient than
us spectators, especially me.
Hundreds of vultures Again.
Never seen anything like thisin my entire life.
And once the chanting stopped,the high priest stood up, waved

(06:47):
at the vultures and almostinstantly the vultures pounced
on the corpse and devouredeverything within a minute,
eating the bone with it, everylast piece.
You couldn't even see much ofit because they were fighting.
Dust and foul odor just filledthe entire air.

(07:07):
Everything was gone withinminutes.
Nothing left, Just some teeth,nails, the circle of life.
You know LB would tell me laterthat it's the last passage.
Give your body to feed otheranimals, your final deed of

(07:30):
compassion.
I can respect that, and theTibetans also believe that the
vultures are symbols or avatarsof enlightened deities.
Eating your body was a symbolof being blessed.
They made a connection with youand a probable reason as to why
the vultures behaved so well.
In a matter of minutes, thesevultures mysteriously ended back

(07:56):
on the hilltop and disappeared.
There was only a few flyingaround the sky.
They were gone.
I had so many questions in mymind that night it was hard for
me to sleep, so I did make morecircles around that structure.
I found myself talking LB.

(08:19):
It was still hard for me toabsorb what I just saw.
And it was still hard for me toabsorb what I just saw a young
lady's body just being hacked upand eaten by vultures.
And of course, lb was alwayspatient and willing to answer
all of my stupid questions.
But what was interesting wasthat night he mentioned to me

(08:41):
about how to train yourself togive up lust and to not be a
pervert.
It's to meditate while you'restaring at the corpse of a young
woman, for instance, witnessher dead body being cut into
pieces and devoured by animals.
That lust that you cling on tois nothing but a pile of dirty

(09:06):
flesh.
I learned so much from travelingthere, from talking to live
Buddha, even though sometimes itdidn't make sense yet.
Nonetheless I felt there wereanswers.
I should have been searchingfor them a long time ago.
I felt a special bond with thatplace, as if I've been there

(09:29):
before.
The structures look familiar,some of the chanting, some
people look familiar and, oddlyenough, lb and I, I felt we were
close.
But he never say too much or gointo a lot in depth about the
supernatural or when I talkabout past lives or things of

(09:52):
that nature.
Perhaps I wasn't ready to knowyet.
Of course, later on he wouldtell me.
But one time it was veryinteresting because it was right
after this trip that I invitedLB back to China, back mainland,
to relax, because we couldn'talways be there.

(10:13):
And this time we were in Yunnan, under a pristine lake.
It was beautiful.
The moon just reflected off thelake.
It was just lovely Standingthere with LB.
I asked him the stupidestquestion.
I said did we know each other,our past lives?

(10:36):
He nodded to me.
He said of course.
Why do you think we met again?
I said you're right, that's astupid question.
I asked him again what were wefriends?
You're right, that's a stupidquestion.
I asked him again what were wefriends?
He said again, of course, buthe said I was a lot younger than
you.
So I couldn't help but keepasking him was I a lot different

(11:00):
in my past life?
Lb took a step back.
He had some jokes too.
He wasn't always serious,actually, he was not much
serious than I am and he lookedat me, sized me up and said you
are taller, and it just made theatmosphere feel more relaxed.
And he said that last life hewas a lot older than me, maybe

(11:25):
by 30, 40 years, but apparentlywe died roughly around the same
time.
So this life we're around thesame age.
But that's a topic for adifferent time, because I
couldn't help myself but beattracted to the science behind
what LB would preach to me lateron.