A Study On The Celestial Burial On The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau And The Reform Of Burial Customs At The End Of The Qianlong Reign

In the 58th reign year of Qianlong Emperor(1783),The Qing central government enacted Twenty-nine-Article Ordinance,And the relationship between Qing dynasty and Tibet has reached a new stage.At the same time,the minister in Tibet,he Lin,began to seek reforms in Tibetan customs,one of which was the reform of celestial burial customs.However,due to its geographical environment and social,economic and cultural connotation,the custom of celestial burial has deep-rooted characteristics in Tibet and Tibetan people,hard to shark just by official documents.After the reform of burial custom failed,the custom continued in Tibet.Until now,a large number of Tibetans choose celestial burial as their end of life etiquette every year.The first chapter of the text introduces the origin of the celestial burial from the perspective of the geographical environment,religious changes and social production types of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau,and draws the conclusion that the celestial burial custom does not happen accidentally on the plateau,but has a profound natural and social basis,which conforms to the living reality and ideology of the Tibetan people.It explains the important reason why the custom of celestial burial can last on the plateau for a long time.The second chapter mainly discusses the funeral custom reform carried out in Tibet by the minister He Lin of Qing Dynasty in the last years of Qianlong.This reform is actually the result of the two Tibet and Gurkha wars,after which the power of the minister in Tibet has been greatly improved,and it is also a handling practice after the conflict between Confucian culture and Tibetan culture.Yet,in order to publicize the"open Weathering" in Tibet,the ministers,without sufficient preparation,took the celestial burial as the first reform,ignored its rationality,seriously hurt the feelings of the Tibetan people,and met their opposition.The failure of reform is both expected and reasonable.In the third chapter,based on the analysis of other burial customs in the plateau,the author concludes that celestial burial is the most widely used and popular burial custom in Qinghai Tibet Plateau,and explains the situation of celestial burial in Xikang Province under the wave of implementing cemetery system in the Republic of China.Finally,under the unified leadership of the central government after the democratic reform,the Tibetan Autonomous Region Government and other grass-roots units in the Tibetan region have taken measures to manage and protect the celestial burial,drawing lessons from the past and meeting the new requirements of the reform of the funeral industry in the new era.The focus of the reform has shifted from "one size fits all"reform to selective reform,which is conducive to the long-term existence of the celestial burial custom at the level of respect and active guidance by the state and the people.