Sky burial

 

Sky burial

Dakhma (Tower of Silence) Yazd, Iran

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

'Jim and Barb’s Adventures' commented that vultures are simultaneously fascinating and repulsive, and that reminded me of ‘sky burials.’

Sky burial is not a burial at all, but an excarnation. It is the Western expression for what Tibetans call ’giving alms to the birds.’

It was a practical solution to the problem of finding enough fuel for the more traditional Buddhist practice of cremation. There was no requirement to preserve the body – it was empty once the soul had departed and migrated elsewhere. It was considered a practical and generous ritual, providing sustenance to birds and wild animals.

It is a ritual still practised in many Himalayan communities.

Parsis (Zoroastrians) traditionally placed the bodies of their dead in Dakhmas (Towers of Silence) for the vultures to consume. The Parsis of Mumbai in India have tried to maintain the practice, but it is difficult because the population of vultures declined dramatically in the late twentieth century. The cause was the use of diclofenac, commonly prescribed for ailments like arthritis and migraine. It is toxic to vultures.

Some mountain tops had been designated as charnel grounds, but the practice was banned in China in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) though it has been re-established in some areas.

Other forms of air burial involved putting the cadaver in a hollow tree.

Australian Aboriginal people placed the bodies of their dead on raised platforms and covered them with grasses and leaves. They would be left for a year. The purpose was to prevent the ghost of the departed returning to plague the people.

Some North American peoples similarly raised their corpses to the sky in tall trees, leaving them there for two years, after which they would be retrieved and buried.

Thus, for some, such practices were undertaken to dispose of a body no longer occupied. For others, it was a way to ensure that spirits were appeased so that they would not return to haunt.

Gilbert the Good

 

Gilbert the Good – special!

It’s a special day today. It’s my birthday and I’m three years old.

 I’ve had a smashing day. I went for a splendid walk in the woods (it’s actually part of Swinley Forest) Well, I do that every day, I know, but Roxy and I went in the comfortable car today because there’s something wrong with the dog box. The air bag warning light has come on, and the speedometer and other lights aren’t working. It’s at the garage now.

Anyway, Roxy and I had lots of swimming in lots of ponds. We met some other dogs and played with them, too. It was a really excellent walk and lots of people wished me a happy birthday, so I feel very cheerful.

I’m tired now, but it’s the sort of tiredness that comes from having lots of fresh air and exercise, when my lungs have worked hard and my muscles have stretched. You may be sure that if I were invited to go for another walk right this minute, I’d be only too delighted.

Supper to look forward to now.

                                            Roll on tomorrow!

TTFN

 

Gilbert

Oft-repeated

 

Oft-repeated

One of my favourite songs is ‘All God’s creatures got a place in the choir.’ The version here is by Makem and Clancy.

The song was written by the American folksinger Bill Staines (1947-2021)

One of my oft-repeated phrases is that everything has its place in the world.

All things in nature contribute to the ecosystem, though it’s sometimes hard to appreciate the role of the less attractive.

One that makes people shudder is the cockroach. They have been in existence for about three hundred and twenty million years.

Associated with decay, dirt, and disease, there are four thousand, six hundred species, and of those, around thirty are associated with humans. They live in a wide range of locations, from Arctic to Equatorial, and the members of most species are insignificant and innocuous. Many are social, gregarious animals, living in close proximity to each other, for protection and to reproduce.

They range in length from 3.5 mm to 97 mm and most of them are rusty brown in colour, though the Domino cockroach is black with white spots.

Repulsive as they are, they are vital agents in the removal of decaying matter, like dead animals, plants, and leaf litter. They are one of Nature’s refuse collectors.

They also enrich the soil with their droppings. They are an important food for animals, like birds, reptiles, and small mammals.

As they dig through soil and fallen leaves they function as aerators, breaking up and improving the earth. Some even assist in seed dispersal.

They have been studied extensively in the fields of locomotion and antibiotic research.

Nonetheless, cockroaches do not live in isolation, and where there is one, there will be others nearby, possibly dozens, or even hundreds of others.

Baby snail

 

Baby snail

Almost the last of the apples were gathered this morning. One of them carried a tiny passenger, a baby snail.

The UK apple harvest has been phenomenal this year. The trees in our garden always crop well, but have been outstanding in 2025. The dry mild spring was beneficial for pollination, and later, when the blossom was setting.

A hot dry summer, the warmest on record apparently, gave more than enough sunshine to develop the fruit and give them sweetness. We had worried that there hadn’t been sufficient rainfall, but it seems there was enough to satisfy them.

Commercial apple growers are overjoyed, with harvests exceeding their best for more than a decade. Cider producers, in particular, had crops so heavy that boughs were breaking under the weight of the fruit. Some producers have bought extra tanks to hold the juice. It is a good year for cider!

The prediction was for a superb pear harvest, too, but our trees didn’t receive the memo.

It is still mild enough for infant snails to feed and strengthen their shells before hibernating. I hope they won’t be caught out by a sudden cold snap or a sharp-eyed blackbird or the carelessly placed boot of a human.

Medicalisation

 

Medicalisation

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

As ever, I can only read the ‘headlines of Chris’s posts at ‘Always smiling,’ but I had to smile at the heading of her latest post, ‘I feel I missed out.’

Her post was about menopause. There’s peri-menopause and post-menopause as well, so there’s no escape from all the ‘research’ that goes into this mysterious condition that affects every woman if she lives long enough.

Of course, some women have gynaecologically challenging times, and deserve sympathy and practical help. Most women I know have ‘just got on with it.’

My apologies if I’ve trampled on any toes, but my gripe is a general one, that we live in an increasingly medicalised world.

Natural conditions are transformed into marathons of ‘experience,’ with ‘problems’ to be faced and ‘overcome,’ as if we are climbing a mountain and need to be provided with ropes, axes, and crampons. Don’t forget the ‘special diet,’ either, to compensate for all the things that will now and forever be missing, or to provide for the ‘new’ and ‘challenging’ things we will face in any new or unfamiliar condition in which we find ourselves.

Of course, it is essential to be aware and alert, to monitor our health and take steps to preserve strength and wellbeing. It is also important to maintain a sense of balance.

There is no cure for life.

 

Samhain

 

Samhain

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,

Every nighte and all,

Fire and sleet and candle-lighte,

And Christe receive thy saule.

The Lyke-Wake Dirge, folk song in Yorkshire dialect

This song was beautifully performed by Pentangle, with Jacqui McShee’s sublime soaring voice and perfect diction.

Samhain (Sauin in Manx) is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic name for November.

The festival of Samhain begins at sunset on October 31^st, to mark the end of harvest and the beginning of winter.

It is said that the veil between life and death is at its thinnest on this sacred night. The spirits of the dear departed may visit their homes and in some cases, places are set at table for them.

It is common to speak of dying as passing away. Maybe it is not simply an anodyne way of referring to something distressing, but a reference to Samhain. It is comforting, for those who do not robustly deny such beliefs as outdated nonsense, to think that souls slip from one realm to another through the sheerest curtain.

‘Pass’ meaning ‘die’ has been used since the beginning of the fourteenth century and was used in that sense by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) and later by Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 ‘Passing away’ came into the common lexicon in the fifteenth century. The belief then was that a person’s soul remained until the funeral rites were completed, after which it could ‘pass away.’

 

Just to get you in the party mood and ready for those wonderful jokes inside Christmas crackers. Prepare to groan.

 

Q:  What do you give the man who has everything?

A:  Antibiotics.

 

Q:  What goes, ‘Ha, ha, ha, clonk?’

A:  A man laughing his head off.

 

Q:  What did baby corn say to mummy corn?

A: Where’s Pop corn?

 

Q:  Why did the thief take a bath?

A: So he could make a clean getaway.

 

Q: Why do black sheep eat less than white sheep>

A:  There aren’t as many of them.

 

Q: What do you call a fish with no eyes?

A: A fish.

 

Q: Where would you find a dog with no legs?

A: Right where you left him.

 

Q: What did the hat say to the scarf?

A: You hang around while I go on ahead.