Friday, November 30, 2012

Disposing of the dead

I was fascinated by a NYT story about a death ritual in India.
MUMBAI, India — Fifteen years after vultures disappeared from Mumbai’s skies, the Parsi community here intends to build two aviaries at one of its most sacred sites so that the giant scavengers can once again devour human corpses. 
Vultures, bears, crows, whatever -- I think something should benefit from our bodies after we die. It just makes sense. Why cordon our bodies off from nature?