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)
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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A statue of Songtsen Gampo in his traditional meditation cave at #Yerpa
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
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.
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.
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.
The marriages with the Nepalese and Chinese princesses have been given prominence in the religious story of Tibet because of their
contributions to #Buddhism
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.
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
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.