Death is inevitable as the order of nature. But different people have a different understanding and attitude towards it, which it turn influences funeral customs.

    Death, to most Tibetan people, does not mean the ending of a life, but instead, it means the inception of a new life. Because, according to the doctrine of the Tibetan Buddhism, every thing has soul, and every life will be reincarnated. That is, every thing is the combination of casing and soul, and the human being is the integrity of soul and corpus (or body), with the latter being nothing else than a carrier of the soul. In this sense, the death means a separation of the two; while the soul that escapes from an old body transmigrates to a new body. This moves in cycles for good.

     However, according to the doctrine, life is cycled in six different kinds of existence of the tripe world. Those who exercised virtuous practices will be sent to one of three virtuous kinds of existence, i.e. celestial, human or denizen; while those who had committed sinful deeds will be sent to one of three sinful kinds of existence, i.e. hell, animals or Preta. Sage Padmasambhava, the eminent Indian monk invited by the Tubo King Tsisong Detsan the 8^th century wrote these concepts in his book Death and Rebirth.

     Though the concepts concerning the funerals in ancient Tibet are little known, we can still infer from the funeral customs during recent centuries, that the people’s attitude towards the death as well, as their concepts that permeate the funeral practices and rituals are generally the same. These are guided by the Buddhist doctrine about the soul and transmigration, and also lead to Tibetan funeral customs with the utterly different character.

     With their understanding of death as a synonym of rebirth, the Tibetan people will be calm in the face of death, without any fear or grief. It is not only the dying person who can peacefully accept the destined fate, but also his or her relatives and friends do not appear so deep in sorrow as the people in other regions do. The book named Soul as the wind, written by Ma Lihua, records such a verse written by a Tibetan friend on the first anniversary day of the death of his younger brother:

    Oh, My younger brother, you have gone away, Have a good journey and never dismay. I will lighten a lamp for your early return, Until we joyful brothers meet and talk again.

    This verse expresses the Tibetan people understanding concerning death, which, to them, is no more than a temporary departure, and therefore, it is not necessary to have extreme grief about it. This unique way of understanding and annotation about the life and death helps to form the kernel of overall Tibetan folk customs. That kernel is their optimistic personality, which makes the people here attach more importance on harmonizing with, than of struggling against, the harsh natural environment.