Resource #: 19473 (URL for reference)
Collections: 2001 Upper Tibet Antiquities Expedition (UTAE)
Description:
A raptor and anthropomorphous figure in close contact, bkra shis do chung. This very important pictograph, dating from the pre-Buddhist or early historic period, has been interpreted as depicting a celestial burial scene (Art of Tibetan Rock Paintings 1994; Bellezza 1997a). dun huang and Bon funerary texts record that lammergeyers and horned eagles (khyung), played a vital role in conveying the deceased to the celestial afterlife, precisely the theme that appears to be represented here. The supine human figure, legs dangling, is being led by the raptor (deity) who gestures upwards with its left wing. The decisiveness of the activity portrayed and the symbiotic posture of the human and bird figures seems in keeping with ancient concepts pertaining to the ritual transference of the dead by winged deities to an ancestral paradise. In the Tun-huang and Bon funerary texts this heavenly realm is often called dga' yul (Joyous Land). I conclude this cornerstone report with this composition, underlining the richness of Upper Tibetan cultural and archaeological resources, and the untold noble mysteries that still surround them.Associated Resources
Resource type: Image
Photographer: John Bellezza
Recording Note:
dam gzhung