Come and see

 

"Vultures of Tibet” is a mini-documentary about Tibetan-Chinese animosity in northern Sichuan, a province of China. Tibetan nationalists consider this particular region of Sichuan to be part of Tibet, since it belonged to the historical Tibetan country of Amdo. A large portion of the population seems to be of Tibetan or related ethnicity. Apparently, Buddhist monks in the area have self-immolated in protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The mini-docu isn´t about this, however, but about a somewhat more piquant problem. In northern Sichuan, Tibetan Buddhists still practice the ancient custom of “sky-burial”, during which a dead person´s body is exposed at a charnel ground to be literally eaten by vultures. Often, the corpse is “prepared” so the vultures can eat it. The birds are seen as a kind of compassionate spirit-beings helping the soul of the deceased to reach the afterlife.

The problem is that Chinese tourists often travel to the region to see the sky-burials and take photos of the custom (which they clearly see as pretty bizarre) without permission from the Tibetans. Local Chinese authorities gladly take bribes to bus the tourists to the charnel ground. Some of the tourists seem to enjoy their exotic little trip and laugh rather profusely, while others vomit just as much! The Tibetans obviously see the entire situation as disrespectful and as another example of Han insensitivity to their native culture…