Drigung Monastery, #Tibetan monastery famous for performing sky burials

Photographed by 📸Mark Evans in November 2005
Sky burial (Tibetan: བྱ་གཏོར་,"bird-scattered") is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds.
It is a specific type of the general practice of excarnation. It is practiced in the Chinese provinces and autonomous regions of #Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Inner Mongolia, as well as in Mongolia, Bhutan, and parts of India such as Sikkim and Zanskar.
Corpse being carried from #Lhasa for sky burial, the corpse a yak hair cloth and two white silk Khata as offerings. (1920)

Photographed by 📸Charles Bell
1938 photo of sky burial from the #Bundesarchiv

(German Federal Archive)
Vulture feeding on body detail, sky burial art with vultures at Litang Monastery, #Tibet in 2009. (cropped)
A body being prepared for sky burial in #Sichuan
Skeletal remains as vultures feed.

The locations, preparation and sky burial are understood in the Vajrayana #Buddhist traditions. Burial rites where the deceased are exposed to the elements and scavenger birds on stone structures called #Dakhma.

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More from @HistoryTibetan

Mar 22
A statue of Songtsen Gampo in his traditional meditation cave at #Yerpa A statue of Songtsen Gampo in his traditional meditation cav
Yerpa (also known as , Drak Yerpa, Druk Yerpa, Dagyeba, Dayerpa and Trayerpa) is a monastery and a number of ancient #meditation caves that used to house many monks, located a short drive to the east of Lhasa, #Tibet Monestary ruins 1993
There were some 200 monks living at #Yerpa from at least the beginning of the 19th century until 1959. It also acted as a summer residence for the Gyuto Lhasa Tantric College.
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Mar 21
King Songtsen Gampo and his Chinese and Nepali queens Wen-cheng Kung-chu and Bhrikuti Devi.

Songtsen Gampo (617 – 649 A.D.) Songtsen Gampo ascended to the throne at the age of thirteen. Image
During the reign of King Songtsen Gampo, #Tibet emerged as a unified state and became a great
military power, with its armies marching across Central Asia. Thus, the King of #Nepal and the Emperor of #China offered their daughters in marriage to the Tibetan king. Statue of Emperor Songtsen ...
The marriages with the Nepalese and Chinese princesses have been given prominence in the religious story of Tibet because of their
contributions to #Buddhism Image
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Mar 20
The Three Provinces of Tibet
Tibet as one nation: the traditional costumes U-Tsang, left, Kham, center, and Amdo, right The Three Provinces of Tibe...
Tibet is comprised of the three provinces of Amdo (now split by China into the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu & Sichuan),
Kham (largely incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai),
Read 5 tweets
Mar 4
Potala Palace and the City of Lhasa.
At the top, left corner is Drepung Monastery. Below that is the Stupa Gate on the west side of the Potala. In the center of the composition is the Potala Palace.
At the lower right is the large square Lhasa Cathedral (tsuglakang) housing the famous Jowo Shakyamuni Buddha sculpture in the Jokhang temple. At the far lower right is the three storied Ramoche Temple.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 3
Tritsuk Detsen (ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བཙན) according to traditional sources, was the 41st king of the Yarlung Dynasty of #Tibet . Ralpachen is one of Tibet’s three Dharma Kings. Ralpachen is considered a very important king in the history of Tibet Stone lion on burial mound ...
and Tibetan #Buddhism , as one of the three Dharma Kings (chosgyal) of the Yarlung Dynasty, which includes Songtsen Gampo the 33rd king, Trisong Detsen the 38th king and Ralpachen.
All three kings respectively contributed to bringing Mahayana Buddhism to #Tibet, in revealing the Vajrayana through Guru Padmasambhava, and in supporting the growth of Buddhism, the building of monasteries, and the flourishing of Buddhism with imperial patronage. Image
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