World's Weirdest and Most Bizarre Death Rituals

Did you know when some good race horses die only their head, heart, and hooves, are buried, the rest is cremated? Did you know that some people do not bury their human dead, rather they leave them out for vultures to eat? Have you heard of body farms; places where human bodies are left to rot so scientists can study how they decompose? What are some other bizarre death rituals?

Burials At Sea

You probably have heard of this, but may not have heard of the smallest bizarre detail. In a burial at sea the body of the diseased person, along with rocks for weight, is put into a burlap bag, and the bag is stitched up. Under the law of the British Navy the final stitch goes through the lips of the deceased, in theory to ensure that the person is dead.

Fantasy Coffins

In Ghana a person can have an attractive, coffin made in the shape of pretty much anything. The coffin shapes often represent something the deceased did, or loved, in their life. As such a fisherman might be buried in a colorful, fish shaped, coffin, somebody who enjoyed gardening might be buried in a coffin shaped like a flower.

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Sky Burials

In India some people (the Parsi) take there dead to the top of a tower, called the Towers of Silence, and leave them to be eaten by vultures.

Although the Parsi - Zoroastrians still practice the ritual of leaving their dead to be eaten by vultures. A dramatic decrease in the vulture population has occurred as the result of medications used on humans (and until recently in cattle) which when consumed by vultures is fatal to them. As such many corpses rot in the sun, rather than get eaten by the birds.

Buddhist Self Mummification

This is more of a suicide than death ritual, but worth sharing, and was practiced up until just over 100 years ago in Japan. A person would start eating only nuts and seeds for roughly 1,000 days, then eating roots and bark for 1,000 more. They exercise and dehydrate themselves using a poisonous tea derived from the sap of an urushi tree. This tea would also preserve the remains to some extent. At a point they enter a tiny cave and sit in a lotus position and ring a bell once a day to indicate that they are still alive. When they stop ringing the bell others know they have passed on.

Killing Relatives, Pets, and Friends

Noted to have occurred in Fiji, China, and Egypt it was not uncommon for some cultures to kill members of a deceased man's family. Servants and sometimes even pets too were killed under the belief that they would be reunited in the afterlife and could serve the deceased.

Sati

Again more of a suicide than death ritual, but still worth mentioning. When a man dies and his body is burnt in a funeral pyre sometimes the wives of the deceased throw themselves into the fire. Is this a ritual or the result of the woman understanding that as a widow she has few options?