Not for the faint of heart

[DerrickC]

I witnessed a sky burial when i was in tibet. It was interesting but not something which i would go and see again. I'm quite squemish when it comes to gore but somehow the whole thing seemed surreal to me and i felt quite detached. It was pretty amazing how fast the vultures stripped the bodies of meat though.

Photography was strictly disallowed at this one so my cameraswere left inside my bag. They had signs stating so in tibetan, mandarin and english.

There was a korean guy who was part of a small tour group who was apparently sneaking in photos with a point and shoot under his jacket. One of the butchers who was cutting up the bodies must have seen him cos he walked up to him, snatched the camera, said in chinese "i saw you taking photos, don't deny it", took his knife and sliced through the camera strap which was wrapped around the guy's hand, brought the camera to the area where they smash up the human bones and proceeded to smash up the camera with a huge mallet.

 

[ch1]

I witnessed a sky burial when i was in tibet. It was interesting but not something which i would go and see again. I'm quite squemish when it comes to gore but somehow the whole thing seemed surreal to me and i felt quite detached. It was pretty amazing how fast the vultures stripped the bodies of meat though.

Photography was strictly disallowed at this one so my cameraswere left inside my bag. They had signs stating so in tibetan, mandarin and english.

There was a korean guy who was part of a small tour group who was apparently sneaking in photos with a point and shoot under his jacket. One of the butchers who was cutting up the bodies must have seen him cos he walked up to him, snatched the camera, said in chinese "i saw you taking photos, don't deny it", took his knife and sliced through the camera strap which was wrapped around the guy's hand, brought the camera to the area where they smash up the human bones and proceeded to smash up the camera with a huge mallet.

Clearly there are differences of opinion in Tibet about the "appropriateness" of taking photos.

I would point out that "desmos" photos have no "action" in them (just the resulting "parts"). Perhaps the objection you encountered was to someone taking pictures of the "processing" phase?

 

[DerrickC]

Clearly there are differences of opinion in Tibet about the "appropriateness" of taking photos.

I would point out that "desmos" photos have no "action" in them (just the resulting "parts"). Perhaps the objection you encountered was to someone taking pictures of the "processing" phase?

Yes, it was during the "processing" phase. But basically photography was not allowed at all at whichever phase it was at at this place. Once you entered the sky burial enclosure no photography was allowed. I guess it really depends on where you are. I had a friend who visited another part of China which was close to the Tibetan Autonomous Region so had alot of ethnic tibetans. In that area there was also no restrictions on taking photos during the whole sky burial.

 

[desmo]

Yes, that was something thay asked me to refrain from which is why I don't have shots of the Monk cutting the body: it would have personalised it.
My shots were allowed because I had built a rapport with them over 3 years and because I was not shooting while the ceremony was in progress )I was there but took none).

Clearly there are differences of opinion in Tibet about the "appropriateness" of taking photos.

I would point out that "desmos" photos have no "action" in them (just the resulting "parts"). Perhaps the objection you encountered was to someone taking pictures of the "processing" phase?