Tibetan Customs: The Prayer Wheel, Hospitality and Burial Rituals

Despite the Chinese invasion of Tibet and subsequent cultural oppression of the Tibetan people, Tibetans have maintained the richness of their cultural heritage in the everyday activities that define their lives. While it was and is possible for the Chinese to destroy Tibetan temples and historical artifacts, expel the Dali Lama from the country, limit the number of monks in each monastery, and otherwise oppress the Tibetan culture, it will always remain impossible to destroy the Tibetan identity as long as the Tibetan people keep these everyday customs alive.

Meanwhile, cultural death has long been pointed to as the cause of all of America's problems ever since the end of WWII; because we lack the rich customs practices by Tibetans on an everyday basis, Americans are particularly prone to feel as if they are drifting through the world without meaning, identity, or purpose.

PRAYER WHEEL CUSTOMS

As is obvious to even the most inattentive of outsiders, prayer wheels are of utmost important to the customs of cultural Tibet. In America, it is not uncommon to see the golden or silver glint of a cross hanging around a Christian's neck, the skull cap pinned to the head of an orthodox Jew, or other various symbols and ornaments of religion prominently displayed by the faithful. However, none of this compares to the abundance of prayer wheels in Tibet. In monasteries, there are massive, water-powered prayer wheels; along streets, there are large, hand-powered prayer wheels; in the hand of nearly every Tibetan, there is a small, constantly-spinning prayer wheel. This nearly universal public demonstration of faith is unmatched in even the most religious regions in America.

Like most customs having to do with direction in cultural Tibet, the only acceptable way to spin a prayer wheel is clockwise; an unknowing tourist, spinning a prayer wheel counterclockwise, will be quickly reprimanded and shown the correct way of practicing this particular custom.

HOSPITALITY CUSTOMS

In America, a host is usually expected to offer his or her guest some sort of refreshment, a place to sit, and perhaps to take whatever extra clothing a guest might have. That is the extent of American hospitality, and even those few customs are by no means required or universal. One feature of the customs of cultural Tibet is the need of the Tibetan people to act as good hosts to their guests (somewhat ironic considering their recent history of being occupied by hostile foreigners). When visiting Gyama, I had the opportunity to experience the quality of Tibetan hosts. In fact, some of these qualities were so foreign to my culture that they seemed to be rude (at first) rather than the acts of good hosts to honored guests. For instance, while I sat in the large tent provided for our group (well stocked with food and beverages), we were waited on by two young Tibetan girls, dressed in what was probably their nicest, most ceremonial clothing. These girls would walk around the tent, picking up each one of our teacups and bringing it to each of our lips to encourage us to drink. If we obliged by drinking even the smallest amount of the Yak butter tea, the girls would immediately fill our cups to the top. This process can only be stopped by refusing to drink even a sip of the tea, which (hopefully) indicates that the guest is full and satisfied, rather than implying that the tea is unpleasant.

BURIAL CUSTOMS

In America, after a funeral or memorial service, the dead are usually cremated and somehow disposed of, or buried in a casket underground (usually marked with a grave or other marker). While the specifics of a given American burial differ due to individual preferences and traditions, the basics are essentially the same everywhere; in fact, the American burial process is so uniform that we have a preponderance of nation-wide funeral parlor chains. In cultural Tibet, there are five distinct forms of burial. Not only do Tibetans have more forms of burial than Americans, but they more strictly observe the rules of each of these forms of burial, while we mix and match our funeral traditions to our own liking.

When they die, the great majority of Tibetans are buried in what is called a "sky burial". After death, a Tibetan is kept upright in his or her home for at least a day; meanwhile, a lama will read prayers over the body to help the soul find its way through the Tibetan hell. After this period has ended, Tibetans believe that because the soul has departed, the body is nothing more than meat. As such, they feel no discomfort in what follows. The dead body is carried to a sky burial site, where it is chopped up, mashed up, and left open to the air for vultures to eat. If all goes well, the vultures will dispose of the remains, benefiting the Tibetans (in terms of clean-up) and vultures alike. However, according to my Tibetan guide, if the deceased lived a bad life by drinking excessively, smoking, or engaging in other negative activities, the vultures will refuse to eat the tainted meat, thus exposing the person's evil deeds.

The other remaining forms of burial are relatively rare. "Ground burials" are extremely rare, given only to babies and people contaminated with infectious diseases. Cremation, or "fire burial", is limited to high priests (primarily due to the lack of wood in Tibet), as well as to people with poison or disease in their systems. "Water burials" are now reserved primarily for babies, although in the past, rivers were used to dispose of criminals and the poor. "Stupa" or "chö-ten burials" involve placing an embalmed body inside a tomb, and are reserved for high lamas only.

CONCLUSION

In its effort to exterminate the Native Americans during America's expansion westward, the U.S. government not only took their land and their lives; it took their customs as well. Native American children were taken away from their homes and families, and required to enroll in schools that "educated" them in the ways of "modernity". What this meant was that they would have American haircuts, wear American clothes, speak American English, and learn (and live) American ways. As intended, these schools effectively stripped these Native American children of the everyday customs practiced by their own culture, thereby "converting" them to the American culture. Evidenced by the high rates of alcoholism and poverty among Native Americans today, these policies were extremely effective at destroying the culture that identified and sustained Native Americans; without their everyday customs, their culture withered and died to the detriment of their people.

Fortunately for the Tibetan people, the Chinese were less effective in their efforts to eradicate/assimilate the Tibetan culture. During the invasion of Tibet and the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese destroyed many (or most) of Tibet's culturally important structures and objects; however, Tibetan culture survived. The Chinese humiliated, exiled, and/or killed many of Tibet's culturally important people; however, Tibetan culture remains strong. Because the Chinese did not or could not prevent Tibetans from practicing their everyday customs (for instance, those related to prayer wheels, hospitality to guests, and the burial of the dead), Tibetan culture withstood the assault upon it and continues to provide a sense of identity to Tibetans today.