3. After smoothly chanting for certain amount of time, the chanter will sing in a high voice along with the clapping of hands. This change will be repeated regularly (to frighten a spirit which is hesitant to the body).

Sky Burial

Sky burial is the principal burial custom of the Tibetan nationality, which shows the Tibetan Buddhism’s view of the universal, life and the spirit of sacrifice clearly.

Sky burial is the last alms of the dying. The ceremonies of sky burial are permeated with music. For example, the lamas chant the doctrines of emancipating Hpho for the dying；expound the primary and secondary causes of life as well as the cycle of existence. Therefore, the fear towards death can be alleviated. If the departed can realize the clear light at the initial stage of bardo---intermediate state, his Hpho can be emancipated.

The vultures are waiting around the burial site when the corpse cutter is cutting the body into pieces. At first, the biggest one flies unsteadily down to peck the dismembered corpses, then the rest swarm down. In a short time, all the flesh is gone, leaving behind only bones. The corpse cutter hammers these bones, including the skull, into pieces, and mixes them glutinous rice cakes before throwing them to feed the vultures. Eventually nothing of the body is left.

Songs for the Bardo of Rebirth

In the bardo of becoming, the mental body of the dead possesses all its senses and craves for a material body so as to return to the material world. To cooperate with the dead, the persons left behind to mourn should pray and off sacrifices in various ways.

(1) Kow-tow, circumambulation and chanting mantra

Kow-tow, circumambulation and chanting mantra are the best offerings, and should be practiced all one’s life. In the bardo of becoming, these practices are especially necessary and critical for the dead, and no other help or offering is comparable to them in this state. Meanwhile, singing the long melodies of the mantra of compassion is also very important. At that time, the manra just like cry and confess.

(2) Invoking Buddha and the images

After the master performs a divination based on the karma of the deceased and his moment of birth and death, particular Buddha images are invoked for the deceased to rely on. Furthermore, the people left behind to mourn invited skilled artists to draw Thang-gas (painted scrolls)

Musical Dances in the Monastic Rituals for Securing Souls

Every year all sects and all monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism hold grand religious ceremonies, in which the performances of musical dances are conducted to pray for happiness, purify altars, call upon the power of the Buddha, vanquish demons (including all enemies and difficulties impeding Dharma), therefore these songs and dances are one ways of educating about death and securing the soul of the dead. The following is an introduction to the musical dances staged in bSam-yasMonastery.

1. Dur-Khord-bdag-po. Dur-Khord-bdag-po was originally an evil god in Tibetan bonism. Later was taken by Guru Rin-po-che and became a low ranking guardian deity of Buddhism and a spirit which guides the souls of the dead into burial. The dance involves four dancers wearing skull masks and clothing designed to resemble a skeleton. They dance violently to the music of drams and cymbals, which symbolizes the severe punishment of these evil demons which harm Dharma. This dance also represents the transformation of those ‘sinful minds’, which hope to conceal themselves in the darkness of ignorance, into the luminous minds of Buddha, totally free from obscuration.