Sammendrag
This thesis discusses religious beliefs and practices related to funeral rites among present Lhasa Tibetans. The study is based on materials gathered during a five months field work in Lhasa.Tibetan funeral has long been known to outsiders for such distinctive practices as the so-called sky burial, i.e. dead bodies taken to the charnel ground for the vultures to devour. However, the focus in this thesis will not be limited to the rituals undertaken on the charnel ground. Instead, this thesis is aimed to understand the mutual relation between concepts of death and mortuary traditions in contemporary Lhasa. The first part of thesis gives detailed depictions of the funeral practices in Lhasa, which contains the rituals and practices in the different four stages of the funeral conduct: rituals at moment of dying, the rites before the disposal of the dead, the rites on the funeral and post-funeral rites. The descriptions of the mortuary traditions are based both on written sources and data collected through interviews and observations of actual practices in contemporary Lhasa. In the second part, the thesis analyzes the daily taboos in Lhasa related to death, funeral traditions and the afterworld. The last part of the thesis suggests several reasons for why funeral practices rapidly revived soon after the Culture Revolution,when all the funeral rites related to religious beliefs were strictly prohibited.