Walls Piled of Human Skull in North Tibet

ZHANG GUOYUN

I long heard of walls piled up with human skulls in the Dordorka Celestial Ground in north Tibet. But I never knew anyone who had seen such walls.
When I told some of my friends about my understanding of the phenomenon, one of them, a senior Tibetologist, advised me to visit Biru County.
"Go there, and you will see these walls piled up with human

Egrets at the celestial burrial ground

skulls,'' he said.
Seeing suspicion in my eyes, he showed me pictures taken by Mr. Cao Changjin from Biru County. Indeed, these were pictures of human skull walls!
Lured by this discovery, I recently paid a visit to Dordorka in Biru.
Biru County is 300 km from Nagqu Town. Meaning "horn of female yaks,'' the county is home to the Dordorka Celestial Burial Ground. And the human skull walls are located inside the Ground.

Legend has it that Zhigungba Renqenbai set up the Zhigungti Monastery in Maizhokunggar County in 1179, and worked hard to press ahead with perfecting the celestial burial system to mark the legendary fact that Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, cut off his flesh to feed a tiger.

However, an analysis of what have been found from some ancient tombs in Tibet shows that the system began in the 7th century.
When a celestial burial ritual is held, aromatic plants are burnt for smoke to guide the soul to reach the Ground. The human body serves as a sacrificial object to the Goddess and other deities, who are requested to take the soul of the dead up to Heaven.
As a matter of fact, smoke resulting from burning aromatic plants lures the hawks, "holy birds'' in the eyes of the Tibetans. The body is laid on a piece of stone slab measuring 60 cm high, which lies by a pond built with pebbles. The body, in a sitting stance, is sliced. Its bones fall prey to hawks first. The Master in charge of the ritual does so because hawks tend to shun bones.
The Ground covers 4,000 square meters, and is surrounded by man-high clay walls on four sizes. The southern and western walls are complete with wooden frames each with four to five layers piled with human skulls. Only after seeing this did I come to understand that the human skull walls are product of the celestial burial system.
Historical records say there should be three human skull walls in the Ground. But downpours compressed them during a rainy season. The two human skull walls I saw were actually piled up in the past few decades, and are only half the height of the original.

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STORY OF HUMAN SKULL WALLS

There are two explanations as to why human skulls are preserved and used to build walls:

Human skull walls.

Explanation I: Some 80 years ago, a KMT army officer killed two civilians in Tibet. A boy who witnessed the tragedy reported to the 5th Living Buddha Dagbo in Biru County. The Living Buddha appointed him the master in charge of the Celestial Burial Ground of the Dharma Monastery. In the ensuing years, the boy master left heads of dead brought for celestial burial at the corner of the southeastern wall. When they were reduced to skulls, the master piled them up from the northeastern to the southwestern corners. He did so with a view to preventing the KMT army officer from sneaking into the Ground. The master kept doing this until he died when he was over 50.

Explanation II: Human skull walls were built according to the stipulation of the Living Buddha Dapu Dainba Wozhub (also called Baima Baizha) with the Qudai Monastery in Biru County during the period of the 13th Dalai Lama. This was intended to warning the living against perpetrating evil: Whomever you are when you live, you will be like this (human skull) after death.