Funeral Rites and Rituals of the Bhutia Tribals of the Eastern Himalayas: A Photo Essay
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.
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Excellent post thanks for sharing. I'm so sorry for your loss
Thank you for your concern.
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Thank you for the mention! What you are doing is a boon for this community.
I'm curious whether you got the family's permission to photograph and to post here. It's not the kind of thing I would ask about during a ceremony, but if they saw the photos here, in this somewhat commercial context, would it upset them? Just thinking out loud, really.
I posted these as some of these photos were also used in a local magazine which covered the death. But thanks for pointing this out as I had never thought on those lines and shall be more cautious in future.
I just met a young lady from Sikkim last weekend and knew almost nothing about her country. Would like to read more.
Yes most young people have no clue as to Sikkim's unique history as the later political changes had suppressed information for almost 40 years.
There is a book by the ex-editor of the statesman, Sunanda K Dutta Ray, called "Smash and Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim". I find this book to be the most complete and would recomend it if you are interested.
Thank You.
I found this documentary as well,
mentioned in this article about the book.
http://scroll.in/article/820287/why-this-book-on-indias-annexation-of-sikkim-needs-to-be-read-today
This documentary called "Sikkim" was made in 1972 by the Master Movie-Maker of India, Satyajiy Ray, but was banned for the next 40 years. We have now managed to digitize it from the only copy left at a museum in New York. It is a good watch and I have the whole docu if you want it!
Is your copy better than the one on YouTube? I met a young lady from there who might like to see it, or even show it.
As being involved in the restoration, I have a good print. Around 15 mins of the film could not be restored out of the existing four prints but it is a huge file.
The one on youtube seems complete and is pretty close to what I have, and she may use that too!
A misfortune happened to my friend in Moscow - a car hit him right in the center of the city. Doctors could not save him. Parents had to order the transfer of the body to Bulgaria by plane at https://en.ritual.ru/. They were very worried about everything, but this company worked well. The body was delivered in a special coffin, then buried.