The Tibetan Book of the Dead — ed. W. Y. Evans-Wentz

When air-burial is adopted in Tibet, even the bones of the corpse, after the birds have stripped them of flesh, are disposed of by being hammered to bits in small cavities in the rocks of the funereal hill, then mixed with flour and formed into a dough and given to the birds to devour! The Tibetan air-burial is thus more thorough than that of the Parsees, who allow the bones of thcir dead to remain in the air and slowly decompose.

In a Tibetan funeral of the ordinary sort, neither a coffin nor any corpse-receptacle is used. The corpse after being laid upon its back on a sheet or piece of cloth spread over a framework, commonly made of a light material like wicker affixed to two poles, is covered with a pure white cloth. Two men, inserting their heads between the projecting ends of the two poles, act as pall-bearers. In Sikkim, however, the corpse is carried thus sitting, in the embryonic posture described above.

Both in Sikkim and in Tibet every funeral is conducted in strict accordance with the directions which have been given by the astrologer who cast the death-horoscope, indicating who shall touch or handle the corpse, who shall carry it, and the form of the burial. The astrologer also declares what kind of evil spirit caused the death, for in popular belief—as also among the Celtic peoples of Europe— no death is natural, but is always owing to interference by one of the innumerable death-demons. The astrologer announces, too, what ceremonies are necessary to exorcize the death-demon

1 The men who perform this part of the burial belong to a special caste, and, being regarded as unclean, are ordinarily shunned by other Tibetans.

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from the house of death, what special rituals need to be read for the benefit of the spirit of the deceased, the precautions necessary to secure for the deceased a good rebirth, and the country and sort of family in which the rebirth will occur.

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from the house of death, what special rituals need to be read for the benefit of the spirit of the deceased, the precautions necessary to secure for the deceased a good rebirth, and the country and sort of family in which the rebirth will occur.

In Sikkim, on the space of ground levelled for the funeralpyre, a mystic diagram, symbolical of the Happy Realm of Sukhavati, or the Red Western Realm of Happiness (see text, p. 113), is outlined with flour and divided into compartments, the central space (upon which the funeral-pyre is built) being dedicated to the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha. At the beginning of the cremation ceremonies the chief dama visualizes the funeral-pyre as being the mandala of Amitabha, and the fire as being Amitabha, who, as in our text (see p. 113), personifies the element Fire. Then the corpse itself, when laid upon the pyre, is visualized as the szandala of Amitabha and its heart as the dwelling-place of Amitabha. As the fire begins to grow in volume, sweet-smelling oils and spices and sandal-wood and incense-sticks are cast into it in sacrifice, as in the Hindu ritual of Homa, or sacrifice to fire. Finally, as the cremation ceremonies end, the priests and the mourners visualize the spirit of the departed as being purged of all karmic obscurations by the fire which is Amitabha, the Incomprehensible Light.

Such, in brief, is the mysticism underlying the beautiful | rites performed for the dead at the place of cremation in Sikkim.

In all other forms of burial, throughout Tibet or territories under Tibetan influence, a parallel or corresponding funeral service, based on the same symbolical rituals, is performed, with variations according to sect and province.

Vil. THE BARDO'! OR AFTER-DEATH STATE

From the moment of death and for three and one-half or sometimes four days afterwards, the Knower, or principle of

* Bar-do literally means ‘between (Bar) two (do)’, i.e. ‘between two [states |’—the state between death and rebirth—and, therefore, ‘ Intermediate’ or ‘Transitional (State}]’. The translator, in certain instances, favoured ‘ Uncertain {State]’ as its English rendering. It might also be rendered as ‘ Twilight [State]’.

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‘between two [states |’—the state between death and rebirth—and, therefore, ‘ Intermediate’ or ‘Transitional (State}]’. The translator, in certain instances, favoured ‘ Uncertain {State]’ as its English rendering. It might also be rendered as ‘ Twilight [State]’.

tHE ARTER-DEATH STATE 29 consciousness, in the case of the ordinary person deceased, is believed to be thus in a sleep or trance-state, unaware, as a rule, that it has been separated from the human-plane body. This period is the First Bardo, called the Chikhai Bardo (Tib. fchi-khahi Bar-do), or ‘ Transitional State of the Moment of Death’, wherein dawns the Clear Light, first in primordial purity, then the percipient, being unable to recognize it, that is to say, to hold on to and remain in the transcendental state of the unmodified mind concomitant with it, perceives it karmically obscured, which is its secondary aspect. When the First Bardo ends, the Knower, awakening to the fact that death has occurred, begins to experience the Second Bardo, called the Chonyid Bardo (Tib. Chés-nyid Bar-do), or ‘ Transitional State of [the Experiencing or Glimpsing of] Reality’ ; and this merges into the Third Bardo, called the Sidpa (or Sidpat) Bardo (Tib. Srid-pahi Bar-do), or ‘ Transitional State of [or while seeking] Rebirth’, which ends when the principle of consciousness has taken rebirth in the human or some other world, or in one of the paradise realms.

As explained in Section III, above, the passing from one Bardo to another is analogous to the process of birth; the Knower wakes up out of one swoon or trance state and then another, until the Third Bardo ends. On his awakening in the Second Bardo, there dawn upon him in symbolic visions, one by one, the hallucinations created by the £armic reflexes of actions done by him in the earth-plane body. What he has thought and what he has done become objective: thoughtforms, having been consciously visualized and allowed to take root and grow and blossom and produce, now pass in a solemn and mighty panorama, as the consciousness-content of his personality.

In the Second Bardo, the deceased is, unless otherwise enlightened, more or less under the delusion that although

1 Some of the more learned /amas—chiefly of the Gelugpa, or Yellow-Hat Sect—believe that the highly symbolic visions of the one hundred and ten principal deities of the Chényid Bardo are seen only by devotees of some spiritual advancement who have studied Tantricism; and that the ordinary person when deceased will have visions more like those described in the Sidpa Bardo.

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