In April police in Jaigaon, India, uncovered a human-bones factory and arrested six people. The factory's bones had come from cremation centers on the Ganges River in Varanasi, the Hindu holy city. They were being sold to Buddhist monasteries and to students of traditional medicine. Eastern India was once a flourishing center for the export of human skeletons. The government banned the trade in the late 1980s after human rights groups questioned bone-collection practices. ‘During interrogation [the gang] confessed that the hollow human thigh bones were in great demand in Bhutanese monasteries and were used as blow-horns, and the skulls as vessels to drink from at religious ceremonies,’ investigating officer Ravinder Nalwa told the Reuters news service Tuesday.
Dear Bhante,
ReplyDeleteI think the quote from Nalwa is misleading as it makes it sound as if Buddhists are using the skulls as vessels to dring from, whereas as far as I know this is never practiced in Buddhism, but must refer to groups like the Aghoris, a Hindu sect who have many such practices.
Dear Ven. Anandajoti, trumpets made out of human thigh bones, cups made out of human cull caps and aprons made out of other bones are commonly used in the Tantric rituals of Tibetian Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I am glad I live under a big fat stone...
ReplyDeleteAh! Next time I'll know where to find you.
ReplyDeleteShould we be horrified by this?
ReplyDeleteThese days it is difficult to see a corpse that hasn't been made up to look "like he's just sleeping!" or a skeleton.
Using human bones for religious purposes might be a good thing, especially with the thought that I too will become like this, mere dry bones.