What is water burial?

In places where water burial is popular, the funeral usually takes place before dawn, and is carried to the river by a professional water burial master for water burial. During the water burial, the body was thrown into the torrent with stones. Some also dismembered the corpses piece by piece and threw them into the river. Water burials in these places are relatively fixed, and are mostly carried out in sections of the river where the water is in the shape of a conch spiral. It not only contains the auspicious symbol of the right-handed conch, but also has practical value (the water in this section of the river is deep and fast, and the corpse is quickly swallowed up at the bottom. ). After the water burial, the machete used for dismemberment, the items brought, and the belt used to bind the body, etc., must be thrown into the river at the water burial site. They are not allowed to take them home or give them as gifts to others. Water burial is more common among children. In Yushu, except for infants who are no longer artificially "seated" during water burials and are buried immediately after death, after the death of other children, the corpses must be tied and fixed in a "sitting" posture like adults. The burial time is also determined by the monks' divination. At the same time, family members should use red paint to draw three red dots, circles, sun and moon patterns or "※" shaped patterns on the child's eyebrows, palms and soles. Especially for children under one year old, this ceremony is generally held. The reason why this kind of ritual is used may be due to the Tibetan aesthetic taste. According to ancient sayings, red represents flames, indicating majesty and ferocity. It can play a role in warding off disasters and avoiding evil spirits, and is also conducive to protecting the dead souls from going to the bardo without being disturbed, so that they can be reincarnated as soon as possible. This causes parents to put red dots on the dead children's heads to express this wish. On the day of burial, relatives will carry the body to the river. According to the burial place predicted by the monk, a place is cleared in the shallow water of the river. After the monk chants sutras and prays for salvation, the shroud is removed and the body is put into the water. , then select clean small stones and build the body tightly. After the corpse is built, a monk or an elder among the relatives of the deceased will tie a white stone to each end of a twisted white wool rope, fix one end on the top of the deceased's head, and then pull up the other end. , slowly going upstream. This white wool rope is usually more than ten meters long. The person pulling the rope gradually submerges the rope in the water while pulling upstream. When the end of the rope is submerged, the person abandons the rope and gets out of the water. The water burial ceremony ends here. In order to express their condolences and make a mark, some people also erected a wooden pole on each side of the river where the water burial site was located, and fixed a white wool rope on it, so that it hung high on the river. During the entire process of holding a water burial for a child, the child's family members had to avoid themselves, hide nearby, or simmer mulberry trees and light fires at a distance, chanting scriptures and praying silently. Why are most children who died young carried out water burial? According to folk tradition, children are fragile and timid by nature, afraid of fire and birds of prey and beasts, and like soft and smooth running water. They like to play in water. Passing the waterway allows him to enter the path of reincarnation without fear. The purpose of pulling against the water with a white wool rope is to explore the smooth waterway and prevent children from playing in the water and becoming confused. Therefore, the white wool rope is used to pull the direction of the waterway. For those who are widowed or homeless without relatives, such as beggars, day laborers, entertainers, etc., the water burial ceremony is much simpler and is just a kind of good deeds. For these people, people in the village usually just take off the clothes of the deceased and throw them into the river. Of course, there are also kind-hearted and diligent farmers and herdsmen. If it is done by them, they will fix the deceased in a "sitting" position, hold a memorial ceremony, and then carry it to the Sanchakou area where the rivers meet, and choose a tall and steep place. On the cliff of the river bank, a stone weighing three to forty kilograms was tied to the deceased's body and thrown into the river from the cliff. After observing that no corpses are seen floating on the river, you can leave. Some kind-hearted old women, after the men left the scene, would come to the riverside for the burial, shake the mani prayer wheels, recite salvation scriptures orally, and pray for the deceased for a long time to express their feelings. Tying stones to the dead is not an act of punishment, nor is it demeaning, but rather to prevent the body from floating ashore, being eaten by wild animals, and preventing it from polluting the entire river. The benevolence, mercy and altruism of Tibetans are also vividly displayed in water burials. In other areas, such as the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, water burials are mainly practiced by farmers and herdsmen living along rivers. In other areas, except for children, those buried in water are mainly beggars and people with very low status.

The procedure of water burial in Aba Prefecture is roughly as follows: During the water burial, the body is "sitting" with the knees bent and circled, then put into a "coffin" (or coffin), carried to the place where the two rivers meet the rapids, and the coffin is broken into pieces. The body was thrown into the river. Some dismembered the corpses piece by piece and threw them into the torrent. Others wrapped their bodies in white cloth and threw the whole body into the river. After the water burial, the mourners should place a flag with scriptures printed on the shore to express their condolences to the deceased and pray for the early separation of body and soul and the reincarnation of life. In some areas of Ganzi Prefecture, water burials are common and have their own characteristics. For example, in the Riyi area of ​​Yajiang County, Ganzi Prefecture, when a person dies, he or she will immediately cut a knife on the waist and spine of the deceased, then tie them up head to foot, put them head and feet up into a backpack, and hang a black piece on the mouth. The cloth was carried away and thrown into the river that day. The family members of the deceased hung a Mani flag at the gate, and the funeral ended simply and clearly. In Zhongzan, Bomi, Yarigong, Changbo and other places in Batang County, people are tied into a fetal shape after death, and then wrapped in clothes or white cloth, and then put in a backpack and carried to the By the river, buried in shallow water. Some were buried in shallow water along with their backpacks, weighed down with stones, and surrounded by barbarians to prevent wild beasts from chewing the corpses. Funeral times also vary. In some places, people who die in the morning are buried in the afternoon. Some people bury the body for three days and ask monks to chant sutras and achieve salvation. During the funeral, it will be dark at night or before dawn in the morning. The number of people attending funerals also varies. In some cases, two relatives, friends or relatives of the deceased carry the body in a sharp-bottomed backpack to the river for water burial. In some places, more than a dozen young men take turns carrying the deceased dozens of miles away on a mountain road and burying him in the Jinsha River. The water burial custom along the Jinsha River has its own strong local flavor. One burial method is to tie the body to a long stone, lift it up and throw it into the river. Another method is to dig a big hole under a big stone in the river, then stuff the bundled corpse into the hole, and block the entrance of the hole with a big stone. The difference between the above two burial methods is the age. The former is used for young deceased people, while the latter is mostly used for elderly deceased people. When dismembering a corpse, there is also a custom in some areas: when dismembering a corpse, iron tools should not be touched, and processed wooden knives or stone axes must be used. Some were dismembered into five large pieces, and some were broken into pieces for easy consumption by fish and shrimp in the river. In Tibetan people's opinion, adults who are buried in water can not only wash away bad luck and evil spirits from the body, but also have merits such as giving alms to "fish and otters" and atone for sins. The water burial of fishermen who fished all day by the rivers and lakes expresses the intention of the deceased to repay the fish and repay the kindness with his body. The selection of water burial sites is strict and basically consistent. Tibetans have a strong awareness of environmental protection, reflecting their broad mind of altruism and self-sacrifice and their lifelong compassion. The venue must be determined by divination by living Buddhas and eminent monks. Living Buddhas and eminent monks will make predictions after on-site exploration based on the principles of feng shui in the relevant Buddhist scriptures. The general principle is to stay away from residents' drinking water sources; away from domestic water areas; away from residential villages and within sight. In places where the water flow is fast, two rivers meet, the water is deep and turns, and there are many fish. When throwing a corpse, it is necessary to tie it with stones to fix it in a constant position on the river bottom, firstly to make it easier for fish to eat it, and secondly, to prevent the corpse from floating and polluting the downstream. In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is vast and sparsely populated, and in Tibetan areas where people live in pursuit of water and grass, and where spring water is the source of drinking water, the special living environment has given rise to the special custom of water burial. Water burial embodies the social civilization and moral consciousness of the Tibetan nation at a certain stage of historical development. Objectively, it plays a role in maintaining ecological balance and protecting the ecological environment.