Sky Funeral Idea with Aang and Tenzin
Feb. 18th, 2012 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljwritesI suddenly have what could be a very disturbing but in its own way beautiful idea for Aang's funeral.
After doing some research, I'm finding a few fics dealing with the same subject matter including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yukinoomoni's Sky Burial, another called One Kind of Good-bye, and a couple of chapters from longer fics that mention the custom though not for Aang's death. My idea is to do this for Aang and explore the issues it would raise. If there's already a story that does this, I'd love to read it!
So my idea is basically about Aang being given a sky burial, modeled after the Tibetan sky funeral. This is the traditional Tibetan funeral ritual of exposing the body of the deceased to the elements so that predatory birds can eat the body.
This has a number of reasons, including: 1) Many areas of Tibet are hard and rocky, making it hard to dig graves; 2) the birds will bring the body closer to the sky where the ancestors are; 3) Buddhism teaches freedom from material attachment (though the default Buddhist funeral in other cultures seems to be cremation); and 4) feeding the body to the birds rather than wasting it is a final act of generosity to living things.
The full sky funeral is a long and involved process, which includes (PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH) disemboweling the body and disassembling it into easily digestible parts, waiting for the vultures to feast, then pounding the bones and mixing it into a paste to feed the vultures. Evidently families that don't have the resources to go the full route can just leave the body on a slab of rock and let the vultures take care of the rest. (Here be pictures, which are not for the faint-hearted. Be warned that the deceased's head is rolling on the ground at one point.)
It just seems a natural fit for the Air Nomads, since they are based on Tibetans and because if the other nations have element-appropriate burial rites, it seems the Air Nomads should as well.
Of course the real fun of the story is that it's so disturbing to the other peoples. I would not be surprised if the Fire Nation used this custom to spread lies about the Air Nomads during and after the extermination campaign against them, that they practiced human sacrifice or kidnapped children to do this or something. I'll mention this angle in an upcoming chapter of Shadow of the Dragon King.
I also would not be surprised if Aang wanted this to be his funeral and charged Tenzin with making it happen, with Katara and Aang's other friends horrified at the idea. Katara may want a funeral in accordance with her people's traditions, and Tenzin may well have to fight his own mother on this. It's going to bring up all sorts of issues about cultural sensitivity and how to honor a destroyed culture. And of course there's the irony of a vegetarian becoming food himself in death. :)
And then there's the issue of who is going to be the one to disembowel and dismember the Avatar's body. Back when there were Air Nomads they would have had professionals to do this, but now? I first thought about Tenzin doing it and maybe I still will, but that really seems like unnecessary trauma for a member of the family.
The best bet is probably a butcher, since cutting large amounts of meat and bone is a specialized skill. The hunters of the Water Tribes may also have experience with dressing big game, but many of them may have been too close to Aang. Anyone have ideas about a good candidate to do the honors? Somehow I'm thinking Pipsqueak, who I think could make a good butcher, though he'd be fairly old by the time of Aang's death. (Is there any info on how old Aang and Tenzin were when Aang died?)
The reactions of Aang's friends should be interesting, too. My first thought is that Katara is going to be against the idea, but whether she is or not she'll probably accept it in the end. Sokka and Toph I think would take a more philosophical view. I really wonder how Zuko would react and whether he'll be present at the funeral. Tenzin would probably wonder if he's doing the right thing, and whether he'd want to go this way--or if anyone would remember this way of life when he dies and be prepared to fight for it to happen. I would love to hear thoughts on the characters' reactions because I'm kind of drawing blanks. Would it be a Big Deal for one or more of them, or just a eh, it's culture sort of thing?
After doing some research, I'm finding a few fics dealing with the same subject matter including
yukinoomoni's Sky Burial, another called One Kind of Good-bye, and a couple of chapters from longer fics that mention the custom though not for Aang's death. My idea is to do this for Aang and explore the issues it would raise. If there's already a story that does this, I'd love to read it!So my idea is basically about Aang being given a sky burial, modeled after the Tibetan sky funeral. This is the traditional Tibetan funeral ritual of exposing the body of the deceased to the elements so that predatory birds can eat the body.
This has a number of reasons, including: 1) Many areas of Tibet are hard and rocky, making it hard to dig graves; 2) the birds will bring the body closer to the sky where the ancestors are; 3) Buddhism teaches freedom from material attachment (though the default Buddhist funeral in other cultures seems to be cremation); and 4) feeding the body to the birds rather than wasting it is a final act of generosity to living things.
The full sky funeral is a long and involved process, which includes (PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH) disemboweling the body and disassembling it into easily digestible parts, waiting for the vultures to feast, then pounding the bones and mixing it into a paste to feed the vultures. Evidently families that don't have the resources to go the full route can just leave the body on a slab of rock and let the vultures take care of the rest. (Here be pictures, which are not for the faint-hearted. Be warned that the deceased's head is rolling on the ground at one point.)
It just seems a natural fit for the Air Nomads, since they are based on Tibetans and because if the other nations have element-appropriate burial rites, it seems the Air Nomads should as well.
Of course the real fun of the story is that it's so disturbing to the other peoples. I would not be surprised if the Fire Nation used this custom to spread lies about the Air Nomads during and after the extermination campaign against them, that they practiced human sacrifice or kidnapped children to do this or something. I'll mention this angle in an upcoming chapter of Shadow of the Dragon King.
I also would not be surprised if Aang wanted this to be his funeral and charged Tenzin with making it happen, with Katara and Aang's other friends horrified at the idea. Katara may want a funeral in accordance with her people's traditions, and Tenzin may well have to fight his own mother on this. It's going to bring up all sorts of issues about cultural sensitivity and how to honor a destroyed culture. And of course there's the irony of a vegetarian becoming food himself in death. :)
And then there's the issue of who is going to be the one to disembowel and dismember the Avatar's body. Back when there were Air Nomads they would have had professionals to do this, but now? I first thought about Tenzin doing it and maybe I still will, but that really seems like unnecessary trauma for a member of the family.
The best bet is probably a butcher, since cutting large amounts of meat and bone is a specialized skill. The hunters of the Water Tribes may also have experience with dressing big game, but many of them may have been too close to Aang. Anyone have ideas about a good candidate to do the honors? Somehow I'm thinking Pipsqueak, who I think could make a good butcher, though he'd be fairly old by the time of Aang's death. (Is there any info on how old Aang and Tenzin were when Aang died?)
The reactions of Aang's friends should be interesting, too. My first thought is that Katara is going to be against the idea, but whether she is or not she'll probably accept it in the end. Sokka and Toph I think would take a more philosophical view. I really wonder how Zuko would react and whether he'll be present at the funeral. Tenzin would probably wonder if he's doing the right thing, and whether he'd want to go this way--or if anyone would remember this way of life when he dies and be prepared to fight for it to happen. I would love to hear thoughts on the characters' reactions because I'm kind of drawing blanks. Would it be a Big Deal for one or more of them, or just a eh, it's culture sort of thing?
