To the British, sky burial is essentially a Tibetan death practice, albeit one that appeals to those with environmental lifestyles. Indeed, since retiring from managing cemeteries and crematoria for 45 years, people still ask me about sky burial, second only to natural burial. The enquirers are usually women and suggest a spiritual dimension, a desire for their body to be consumed by birds. I have always given a negative response to such enquiries but more about that later. Aspects of sky burial can be gruesome so be warned.
Firstly, what exactly is sky burial? Well, the Tibetan style requires the body to be entirely crushed, by hand, so that vultures eat all the flesh and bone. The vulture is, in their culture, essentially an angel carrying away the entire body. The surprise for many is that the early people of our island practised a form of sky burial, more properly called excarnation. This, as in Tibet, was not used for the elite, who were most often cremated on a pyre. Remains of our cremated elite were interred at places like Stonehenge. Other than these elite, we do not find any remains of the remainder of the general population.
The first people on this island, after the last Ice Age, arrived around 8000 BC and were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Living on the margins, they were pragmatic and food was their priority. With no metal, they used antler picks for excavating soil. To the burial expert, who knows how much work is involved, it is inconceivable that they would dig graves. Indeed, such graves are not found even though they would have to be deep enough to dissuade both wolves and bears from reaching the body. Also, in winter the ground was frozen solid. Neither could these people readily cut wood, using a flint axe, to build a cremation pyre. The remains of pyres are rarely found. The pragmatic solution was for them to expose bodies on the ground to animals and birds. Having retrieved the skull or the larger bones, these could be carried between camps and brought out for ceremonies. This ritual kept them in touch with their ancestors.
Around 4000 BC, the hunter gatherers became horticulturalists; stationary and no longer nomadic. They built chambered tombs for storing bones but ritually sealed these off around 3000 BC. Near Stonehenge, archaeological excavations found sets of four postholes forming a square. The size of the posts suggests a height of 4 – 5 metres and is assumed to have carried a supporting platform, essentially a sky tower.
Placing bodies on a sky tower was sophisticated. It stopped wolves from running off with an entire leg or arm. Even pagans might have seen this as indelicate. Only birds could feed on the body and large species such as eagles, even heavier when fed, would be able to take flight easily. Locally, equilibrium would be reached between the number of birds and the quantity of bodies being offered. The flesh on the body may well have been consumed within hours, a day or two at most.
Unlike in Tibet, our forebears appear to have wanted to recover some larger bones and perhaps the skull. This linked them to the hunter gatherer forebears. These were retained and some probably placed over hut portals or perhaps inside. Excarnation probably continued for the majority of the dead up to contact with the Romans. They would have identified excarnation as pagan but there is no evidence that they actually prohibited this practice. The Romans utilised burial as we know it, reinforced by the subsequent spread of Christianity.
The reasons why I dissuade anybody from sky burial today are numerous. First, and most obviously, because being neither a burial nor a cremation, it’s not allowed under English law. Secondly, assuming you could find a remote spot screened from view, our birds are not familiar with the concept. Okay, a few carrion crows and ravens would feed but they would not readily consume a whole body. Given time, we know that red kites get to know of sites where meat is fed daily to them. A single body placed out, spasmodically, is not a regular feeding station as with our Neolithic forebears.
Even though we British created the RSPB and love birdlife, the third and most serious objection is that a human body will, in most cases, poison the birds. A single Diclofenac tablet, used to treat a cow, is all that is needed to poison a vulture in India. It means that the person who desires sky burial cannot be on any medication at the point of death. That means no painkillers! Can you imagine how few people could meet that requirement?
Excarnation was efficient, involved little labour and left people to concentrate on growing and gathering food. Their deaths left a very light touch, especially as regards carbon emissions. We, on the other hand, created a funeral culture based on granite memorials from India, flowers air freighted from Africa and coffins from China. We burn huge quantities of gas to cremate and immediately release the 16% carbon in the body. Because we demand tidiness, we also mow vast areas of grass, which also harms the environment. However, it is worth noting that excarnation and natural burial are similar. In both instances, death is not seen as a blunt ending but as part of a natural sequence. Such eco funerals utilise what remains of the body and puts it to good use. Unfortunately, sky burial is not feasible and only natural burial exists to create new life and new habitats. The death really becomes a benefit, a gift, to the environment, as did sky burial to our forebears.
Ken West
Stonehenge Pensioner
