Tibetan sky burials abandoned as bodies pile up following earthquake

Tibetan monks are forced to cremate bodies as the death toll from Wednesday's earthquake continues to climb. The corpses are piled three-deep at Jiegu's Tibetan Buddhist monastery, perched on the mountain above the earthquake-ravaged town. "More than a thousand bodies were brought here," said Ge Laidanzeng, a 20-year-old Tibetan lama at the monastery.

Traditionally, the dead would be given sky burials, their bodies dismembered and then scattered on the top of the mountain for vultures to eat. "We cannot do this for them," said Ge. "There are too many for the vultures to eat."



Instead, the dead will be cremated on Saturday after a prayer service by the head of the Aka monastery, a Living Buddha. The number of bodies at the Jiegu monastery contradicts the official death toll from Wednesday's quakes, the largest of which measured 7.1 magnitude, according to the China Earthquake bureau.

On Friday, the official death toll climbed to 760, with a further 243 people missing and 1,174 severely injured. "I believe at least 10,000 were killed," said Ge. "There are four other monasteries collecting the dead and they are the same as us," he said. "Then there are all the people still buried. The government is playing down the figures."