Funeral Rites and Rituals of the Bhutia Tribals of the Eastern Hima...

Some months back I had to travel to the interiors of our state to attend the funeral of a close friend, who was a member of the Bhutia tribe of Sikkim. Of Tibetan stock, the Bhutia's are Buddhist mainly, and inhabit the middle hills of the mountain ranges, and I traveled to a small village called Borong, overlooked by Mt. Narsing, a mountain peak of immense height.

The funeral ceremony itself is an elaborate affair, in which the mourning period is 49 days in total! And as all Buddhist's do, cremation is performed by burning the body, with a puja and family rituals at the pyre itself, before it is set on fire. And the pyre is made up of fire-wood stacked up in layers.

I took some pictures that day and put them below, and have described each picture by explaining what each is about by putting a narrative below them.

All photos have been touched-up, scaled in size and taken with my mobile camera,
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

A Buddhist monk leads the coffin in a ritualistic circumambulation of the funeral pyre

The coffin which is carried by the male members of the family till the cremation mound

The cremation mound, with the fire-wood pyre stacked high and all ready, before the start of puja's and other rituals

The women-folk of the family lead the circumambulation behind the family Thangka

The coffin finally placed on the pyre, prior to being lit up

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Funeral Rites and Rituals of the Bhutia Tribals of the Eastern Himalayas: A Photo Essay