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The 27 photos from Tibet shown on this page are just a few of the many taken by Ole Frode Jakobsen on his many travels around the Globe.
There are a few photos of a sky burial and you can see the big square in front of the Potala Palace, where you can buy plastic souveniers from China!
Sky burial is a Tibetan funeral ceremony in which the physical body after death is offered to birds in order for it to be carried up to the heavens.
The ritual reflects the deeply rooted influence of Buddhism in Tibetan life where selfless generosity is an integral part of existence.
In the funeral ceremony, the corpse of the deceased is laid out in burial grounds where a burial master slices it up with a knife while vultures surround and wait. Soon the vultures are allowed to gulp down the corpse in a hellish frenzy, leaving only a bare rib cage, a bent limb or a misshapen head. The burial master then smashes the bones with a large hammer and mixes them with the remaining flesh to make it easier for the vultures to consume everything.
There will be more photos from Ole Frode Jakobsen on this page in the near future.
February 2004
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