Study On Tibetan Water Burial Culture

Water burial is an ancient way of bury human’s body and has deep historical origin at Tibetan areas in China, which widely circulated and even in modern civilization rapidly developed today, is still very popular. The thesis based on analysis Tibetan water burial ritual origin, process, and popular scope to interpret reality meaning of water burial ritual, strive for comprehensively study the special funeral culture of water burial.In this thesis mainly take Angla township, Jianzha county in Qinghai as my field, and through the case to study the ritual in water burial custom, the cultural connotation, religious ritual and the future trend of development. The first chapter is mainly about the overview, form, origin and popular region of the water burial custom. In the second part further tells the main factors of prevailing burial custom. The second chapter mainly about the whole process of water burial ritual the preparation and lay the dead body etc. The third chapter is the religious ritual in the water burial custom, chant soul guard scripture, the post water burial ritual content and the cultural taboos in the water burial custom. In soul guard scripture is mainly about the funeral custom ritual in Tibetan Buddhism. The fourth chapter is about analysis cultural significance of water burial ritual, contained attitude of the local people toward life and death, the conception of the choice between good and evil, and charity conception. The fifth chapter is about the future tend of water burial culture. The first section is mainly about what factors influence local people’s attitude toward water burial custom. The second part is about how water burial custom impact on the environment and the influence of building water conservancy facilities leads to water burial custom. This paper mainly through writing each water burial ritual and use the meaning of culture contain in it to further analyze the cultural significance and value embody in water burial.The origin of Tibetan water burial ritual have long history. The process is complicated. It popular in specific region because of the influence of historical inheritance, so interpret Tibetan water burial ritual overview from the way of water burial,ritual process, and the existed range. Water burial culture also in another way elaborated Tibetan value, belief, lifestyle and other aspects. Actually water burial is the result of the early Tibetan ethnic cultural evolution, and also is product of Tibetan local culture and the foreign Buddhist culture integrate. At the same time, during research water burial custom, we can see Tibetan value, religious belief and the unique way of lifestyle and so on, also can learn about the Tibetan’s choice between good and evil and the conception of charity embodied in Tibetan Buddhism.