8 Bizarre Funeral Rituals From Around the World

Sky burial

• Being decomposed by wild birds
• Where: Tibet, Chinese provinces and autonomous regions of Qinghai, Sichuan, as well as in Mongolia, Bhutan and regions of India, such as Sikkim and Zanskar.

The sky burial is a funeral ritual that involves leaving the body of the dead on a mountain top in order to decompose and eaten by scavenging animals and wild birds. This ritual was practiced by Vajrayana Buddhists who believed in the transmigration of spirits and see the corpses as empty vessels. This Vajrayana Buddhist tradition occurred mainly because in some regions of Tibet and Qinghai, the soil is too hard to dig and access to combustible for incineration was almost non-existent.

 

The physical representation of emotional pain

• Finger amputation as part of the grieving process
• Where: the Dani tribe in Papua New Guinea

Of course, when you lose a loved one, you experience emotional suffering and pain, but for the Dani people of Papua New Guinea, physical pain should be a representation of emotional pain as well.

That being said, they had to cut off the top of their fingers every time a loved one died. This funeral ritual was mostly practiced by women, so they had to amputate their fingertips when their child or other family member died.

They adopted this ritual not only as a physical representation of emotional pain and a part of the grieving process, but also to drive away the spirits. However, this tradition is now banned.