Skeleton wall

Located in naquru County, it is a wall made of human heads and skulls, which is a good example for the study of human funeral culture. The heavenly burial platform is built on the hillside near the temple, facing south from the north, and the door opens to the west, facing the darmu temple. There are three North rooms with one Nepalese style pagoda on each side. In front of the door and the window, there are five colors of prayer flags and some sutras representing heaven, earth, water, fire and wind. In front of the house is a small courtyard composed of three walls about two meters high, with an area of more than 20 square meters. On the west side of the wall to the south, the skulls were built like bricks, one by one, and there were about two hundred skulls. The eye socket of black hole hole, the mouth of pyralid opens, facing the door and window. In front of the wall are several large flat stones, which are used as cutting boards for dismembering corpses. It is said that when Princess Wencheng came to Tibet, she thought this place was a geomantic treasure land, so she entrusted her Lunbu to build the temple here and was presided over by the living Buddha Dabu. The practice of celestial burial and skull preservation is only about one hundred and thirty years old. Why the skulls are preserved in the celestial burial here is still a puzzle.

Skeleton wall

A skeleton wall is a wall with a skeleton on the wall. Skull wall is located in naquru County, Tibet. It is a wall made of human heads and skulls, which is related to celestial burial. It is a good example to study human funeral culture.

position

It's about 300 kilometers southeast from nagutuku Town, where the administrative office is located in the north of the city. For example, it means "Female Yak horn". It is said that this place was originally settled by "Female Yak tribe". Dharma temple Duoka heavenly burial platform is located in the western suburb of the county, for example, and is also the location of the skeleton wall. Celestial burial is the most acceptable and the most common burial custom in Tibetan areas. According to the ancient tomb sites in Tibet, it is inferred that the celestial burial may have originated after the 7th century. Some scholars believe that this form of funeral was founded by Zhigong Gaju. In 1179, Zhigong Ba Ren Qin Bei built zhigongti temple in Zhigong, Mozhugongka County, and implemented and improved the celestial burial system at that time.

There are skeleton walls on three sides of the platform. How tall is one person? Later, on a rainy day, muddy water rolled down the mountain and the wall of the platform fell down. The two walls of skeletons are built with the remains of skeletons in recent decades. The remaining two walls are only half the height of the original.

There are two gates in the West and south of the courtyard. The west gate is the entrance for living people, the south gate is the entrance for carrying corpses, and the north side is a bungalow, which is specially used by monks chanting sutras and praying for the dead. There is another secret in the courtyard of Duoka Tianmu terrace, that is, the courtyard is empty, much like the vegetable cellar in winter in northern China. The four sides and the bottom are all made of stone. There are statues of Buddha in it, storing scriptures, religious supplies and offerings. Interestingly, the temperature here is extremely low in winter, sometimes below - 37 degrees. However, no matter how hard the ice is, if the corpse is put in the sky burial pool of dodoka overnight, it will thaw 100% the next day and can be buried in the sky normally. No one knows why. Because of the existence of this enigma, dodoka heavenly burial platform has a great reputation. People died in many nearby counties, and they were all brought here for celestial burial.

A river separates three burial platforms with human skull walls. From the mouth of the dodoka celestial burial master, we know that in the whole of Tibet, there were three temples where the skulls of the dead had been preserved in the past. In addition to the dodoka celestial burial platform of the Dharma temple, there are also the ridan Temple celestial burial platform opposite to it and the nearby qaidai Temple celestial burial platform. Because these three burial platforms are located in Ru County, they also make Ru famous. Unfortunately, natural and man-made disasters destroyed most of the skeletons in the three burial platforms. Until the early 1980s, even though the religious policy was implemented, the skulls of the dead were no longer kept on the burial platform of the temple. Some of the skulls of the dead were originally preserved in ridan temple. During the cultural revolution, some of them were secretly buried underground by the local people. So far, some of the skeleton walls are still preserved there, but the scale is far less than that of the skeleton wall on the Duoka heavenly burial platform.

Mystery

Few people have the chance to approach the Tibetan skeleton wall. Ma Lihua, a famous Tibetan writer, affirms that there is a wall of skeletons in Tibet in his travel to the northern Tibet library, and the "duodoka" in northern Tibet has become the only celestial burial platform for the preservation of skulls in Tibet. The solemn sky burial platform, the hovering eagles and the unparalleled sky burial scene form a mysterious world, attracting countless people who are destined or not to go to the Tibetan Plateau.

Related Legends

There are mainly two kinds of legends. One is that as early as 80 years ago, there was a little boy in a tribe in Qinghai. When he was 8 years old, he saw three people killed. He was so scared that he ran to the fifth Dabu living Buddha in Juxian County. The living Buddha of Dabu appointed him the celestial burial master of the heavenly burial home of Damo temple. So he took down the bodies of all the dead and left them in the southeast corner of the celestial burial yard. When they became skeletons, he picked them up one by one. He started to put it in order from the northeast corner of the celestial burial yard, and when he returned to heaven in his 50s, it was basically placed in the southwest corner. It is said that the reason why he wanted to do so was that he was afraid that the murderer would join the celestial burial procession after his death.

Another way of saying is that the skull of the deceased was preserved during the 13th century. The temple rules were set by the living Buddha danbatukuwuzhu (also known as baimabaizha) of qaidai temple in xiangqu Township, for example. The specific motive is still unclear. Ziwen wrote in the book: a Wang Danzeng, the celestial burial master, said: to leave the skeletons behind and build a wall is nothing more than to warn the living that they should do more good and have less common sense. No matter who dies, that's all. Today, the Duoka heavenly burial platform of Dharma temple is named "skeleton pyramid" by artists. Archaeologists realize that it will be of great significance to anthropological research, while writers are infected and shocked by its profound philosophy and legend. Because ridan temple and Damo temple are only separated by the Nujiang River, ridan temple is located on the north bank and Damo temple on the south bank. In addition, the two temples' celestial burial platforms are managed by a highly respected celestial burial master. At ordinary times, you can take a cowhide boat to and from the two banks to form a solemn and solemn celestial burial platform. Although the sky burial is a peculiar burial custom in the eyes of today's people, the relationship between human and nature is closer through the sky burial. Just as the local people's unique way of life adapts to the unique natural environment of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the sky burial is also a unique way of life for the coordinated development of Tibetans and nature.

Introduction to celestial burial

Reasons for the epidemic

As for the celestial burial, Tibetan Buddhism believes that lighting the mulberry smoke is to pave a colorful road. Please come to the celestial burial platform and offer the bodies as offerings to the gods, pray to redeem the sins of the dead while they were alive, and ask the gods to bring their souls to heaven. The eagles and vultures attracted by the mulberry smoke on the celestial burial platform do not harm any animals except human corpses. Tibetans call them "divine birds". It is said that this burial method imitates Sakyamuni's behavior of "sacrificing one's life to feed a tiger", so it is still popular in Tibet.

Contents of celestial burial

In the middle of dodoka celestial burial yard, there is a body burial pool about 4 square meters in size, which is paved with pebbles. To the north of the pool, there is a 60 cm high rectangular stone, which is used to park the body during celestial burial. At the South Gate of the celestial burial yard, a flag pole with a height of more than 10 meters is also erected, on which there is a skeleton sculpture, and on the top there are many faded prayer flags. Send the deceased to Duoka celestial burial platform, curl up the corpse, bend the head to the knee, make it into a sitting position, wrap it in a white quilt, and on an auspicious day, the corpse carrier will send the corpse to the celestial burial platform, light the mulberry smoke to attract the eagles, and then carry out the autopsy. Because eagles like to eat meat and don't like to eat bones, so the procedure of celestial burial adopts the flashback method, feeding bones first.

The whole courtyard of the celestial burial platform is more than 4000 square meters. There are about one person high earth walls around it. There are wooden frames on the south wall and the west wall, about four or five grids. Each grid is neatly arranged with a personal skull, forming two long skeleton walls, one by one majestic skeleton, which makes people feel sacred deterrence and heartfelt exclamation. Only then did I know that the skeleton wall was a product of celestial burial

In Tibet, all the dead bodies are fed to the eagles without leaving any. Only in northern Tibet, such as the duokaka heavenly burial platform in the county Damo temple, the skulls of many dead people are preserved, which is a unique move in the world. In his vast Tibet, Ziwen wrote: originally, Damu was a place.

Address: Naqu area, such as the western suburb of the county

Longitude: 93.26686

Latitude: 31.531483

Tel: 0896-3822991

Ticket information: Free

Chinese PinYin : Ku Lou Qiang