In the forbidden land : $b an account of a journey into Tibet, capture by the Tibetan lamas and soldiers, imprisonment, torture and ultimate releaseLandor, Arnold Henry Savage
History
In the forbidden land : $b an account of a journey into Tibet, capture by the Tibetan lamas and soldiers, imprisonment, torture and ultimate release
Landor, Arnold Henry Savage
Tibet Autonomous Region (China) -- Description and travel
A man had died a painful death, the result of an accident. His friends
were immediately sent for, and the corpse, having been smeared with
butter (_ghi_), was dressed in his best clothes. They bent his body
double before the rigor set in, and placed him on a hurriedly constructed
wooden hearse. He was covered with a blue-and-gold embroidered cloth, and
a white one over it. At sunrise, the funeral procession left the house
for the place of cremation. First came a row of ten women, their heads
covered with a long strip of white cotton cloth, one end of which was
tied to the hearse. Among these were the near relations of the deceased,
including his wife and daughters, crying and wailing the words, "_Oh
bajo! Oh bajo!_" (Oh father! oh father!), the rest of them sobbing and
making great show of grief. The deceased having been somewhat of a
favourite in Garbyang, the villagers turned out in force to render him
this last tribute, and they took their place in the procession as it
slowly wound down the cliff towards the river. The hearse was carried by
two men, and each male Shoka following bore a log or bundle of firewood.
We reached the Kali. The body was temporarily laid on the bank of the
stream, while all the men, with heads uncovered, collected large stones
and pieces of wood. With the stones a circular crematory oven, five feet
high, six feet in diameter, with an opening on the side facing the wind,
was erected by the water-side. The wife and daughters of the departed,
with their hoods turned inside out and with covered faces, squatted down
meanwhile by the hearse, moaning and keeping a small fire alight. When
all preparations were made, the oven being heaped up with logs of wood,
the body was untied from the stretcher and lifted by two intimates of the
departed on to the funeral pile.
[Illustration: WEEPING WOMEN UNDER WHITE CLOTH]
All valuables were removed, his gold earrings, his silver locket and
bracelets; and a large knife was used for some purpose or other which I
could not quite see, except in slitting the lobes of the corpse's ears to
remove his earrings more quickly. Branches of pine-tree were deposited on
the body, and a large pot of butter was set by its side. A brass bowl of
_choekti_ (wine) was poured on the head, and then, in profound silence,
fire was set to the pile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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