Two Tibetan men known as rogyapas, or body breakers, bring a dead body to the “Sky Burial” site on the Tibetan highlands in Xiahe, now part of China’s Gansu province 12 August 2007. In the very early history of Tibet the dead may have been buried in the ground, but with soil at a premium and firewood equally scarce, Tibetans have spent the last few centuries coming up with alternative ways to get rid of remains, though cremation remained an honor reserved only for lamas and senior monks; in the past, commoners were usually tossed in the river, but since the introduction of Buddhism to the region in the 800s, sky burials have become the most common way to dispose of the dead, and still is a most intriguing social practices to emerge from a culture that still remains full of mystery to most outsiders. CHINA OUT GETTY OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)
barbaric?
To call this barbaric is simply ignorant. It is better than what is done in the West where people fear death and hide it with chemicals and embalming and face paint and put into fancy boxes in the ground. It will be one large graveyard.