A Comparative Study of Han and Tibetan Views of Death

By Zijiang Ding

Ever since the creation of mankind, there have been different cultures of funerals and burials for the deceased. At the same time, there have been several different perspectives on death. Any individual might be able to avoid some incidents and have exceptions, but no one can avoid death - one's final destination. There are no exceptions when one's death comes. Therefore, here is the most famous deductive syllogism by Aristotle: All men are mortal, Socrates was a man; therefore Socrates was mortal. Sima Qian... (145?-87 BC), the author of Shiji...(the Historical Records) says: "Everyone must die, but some deaths are heavier than Mountain Tai, while others are lighter than a feather."

Death is one of the most central issues for all religions and superstitions to deal with, no matter how refined or how crude they are. In a sense, it is people's ultimate feelings toward death such as fear, mystery, wonder, and naïveté that result in various death-related fantasies, including rebirth, soul, transmigration, karma, doomsday, heaven, hell, eternity, and so on.

Mankind is doomed to encounter endless natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, flood, fire, famine, and virus outbreaks, as well as man-made disasters such as war, murder, crime, traffic accident, terrorism, and economic crises. Yet, the ultimate end of all these scenarios is death. In other words, without death - the end of life's natural process - there is no need for death-related beliefs or interpretations. Among all death and associated burial and funeral cultures, one of the most unusual is thought to be in Tibet, where it relies on a secret religion of Tibetan Buddhism as a major belief, and celestial burial as a practice.

This article will explore the mystery and truths of the Tibetan celestial burial culture, its death perspective, and its actual output by comparing it with other Eastern burial and funeral cultures and death views, especially with the Han...tradition.1 The main purpose of our study is to examine and compare Han-Tibetan... death views philosophically and theoretically.2

I. The General Characteristics of Eastern Views of Death and Funeral Customs

It is difficult to separate Eastern culture from Western with an accurate criterion. This is because there is a vague overlap between these two systems. For example, like Buddhism and Islam, one of the three major religions in the world, Christianity, the most fundamental faith mainstay in Western countries, also originated in Asia. For a convenient study, here we take Chinese and Indian cultures as two representatives of the Eastern culture. Accordingly, the burial and funeral culture and death perspective will also be based on several representative ideological systems within these two cultures such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, as well as some indigenous religions and customs that stem from these systems. It is interesting to note that traditional Tibetan culture and its burial culture are located right at the dividing line between ancient Chinese and Indian cultures.

I-1. The Basic Types of Eastern Burial Rites and Funeral Customs

In general, Eastern burial and funeral customs can be divided into the following seven types:

(1) Burial in the earth. This is believed to be a result of earth worship. The fundamental thought is to find a final peace by interring a body into the earth. This culture still is most prevalent in Chinese Han areas and some Eastern Asia countries such as Japan, Korean, and Viet Nam that were influenced by Han customs and Confucianism.

(2) Burial by fire. This may have come from a type of fire worship. The fundamental thought is to offer sacrifice to fire. This culture mainly prevails in Hinduism-dominated areas like India and Nepal. Hinduism worships fire to an extreme; they hold no rites without fire.

One of the three earliest gods in The Four Vedas was Agni, the god of fire. …

The Comparative Civilizations Review publishes analytical studies and interpretive essays primarily concerned with (1) the comparison of whole civilizations, (2) the development of theories and methods especially useful in comparative civilization studies, (3) accounts of intercivilizational contacts, and (4) significant issues in the humanities or social sciences studied from a comparative civilizational perspective.