Sky burials

It was back in April 2008 when I was doing my homework and reading tons of books on China that I, almost by chance, read a once famous book by Ma Jian, "Red Dust".
It's a great book, about a road trip by a chinese writer/intellectual, whose work was not completely accepted by the government, as a matter of fact some of it was banned and he was supposed to go to jail but escaped by embarking in a travel adventure throughout the whole country.
It was the early 8o's and he's literally been to all the most remote places in China.
Very interesting is his description of a tourist trap in Xian where he was lead to believe the entrance to the Terracotta Warriors was on one side, only to discover after having paid the ticket that it was a mock up and the real entrance was on the opposite site of where he got in, and had to get out and pay for a different ticket. Needless to say I was very careful when I myself joined the line to the entrance, although the "fake" entry scam is not active anymore.
Anyway it was when I was reading of his travels in Tibet that I came across the term "sky burial" for the first time.
He describes it quite well and more importantly he explains the practical reasons behind it.
Tibet is a very harsh region, its climate is very extreme and ground burial are for most part of the year impossible, since the ground is simply frozen and therefore very hard to dig.
Cremation would also be difficult since wood is one of the most important resources and sometimes very scarce to find therefore cannot be used for that purpose.
Consigning the body of the deceased to a river was known to be not safe if the deceased died of an illness.
These seem to be the main practical reasons why sky burial is the traditional way to dispose of a body in Tibet.
But let's come to the spiritual reasons.
I didn't read about them in Ma Jian's book (although I cannot really say if he did mention them or not, I can't recall), but in a book about Tibetan Buddhism.
It's all got to do with the core concepts of this particular development of the Buddhist religion.
Since it is believed that a true awakening can only be reached through a life of complete abnegation and focused on the enlightenment of all sentient beings, not just oneself, but everyone, the act of "giving" to others is very important.
This is the spiritual meaning of a sky burial.
A sky burial ceremony starts in the morning when the body of the deceased is wrapped in cloth and transported to the sky burial site.
Usually close members of the family are not attending the burial, and here again we have 2 main reasons, one very practical and one religious.
The practical one is based on the fact that witnessing the body of your beloved one going through the rite must be heart breaking (well, it would be for me anyway).
The religious one is based on the fact that the sadness and mourning of someone's family could interfere with the re-incarnation process.
Once the body reaches the burial site it is dismembered and fed to the vultures (hence the "giving" part).
I won't delve into details, I have read them but I also respect the sensibility of a ceremony that I have no rights to judge and that I don't want to spoil with my remarks.
Sky burials are still performed in Tibet and I don't know whether we'll get to see one.
I don't even know if I would want to witness one, I'll think about it if and when we'll be confronted with this possibility.
All I know is that the first time I witnessed a cremation ceremony in one of the ghats in Varanasi I was in high distress, and the second time in Pashupatinath I was still very upset, but I was at least able to observe in silence.
We'll see.