The Chaku Township Dam Monastery Skull Wall

　　The Chaku Skull Wall is located at the sky burial site of Dam Monastery, 65 kilometers from Biru County. This sky burial site was created by the 8th Panchen Lama, Pema Bazar Rinpoche, who instructed the sky burial masters of that time to feed the corpses to vultures while preserving the skulls, so that every living person who sees them would be reminded of their own eventual fate. Both the Dam Monastery and Reden Monastery sky burial sites house skulls and are managed by a single sky burial master. The two monasteries are connected by a suspension bridge and can be considered as one site. There is also a secret beneath the courtyard of the Dam Monastery sky burial site — the ground underneath is completely hollow, much like a root cellar used for winter vegetable storage in northern China. The walls and floor are all built with stone blocks, and inside are Buddha statues, religious scriptures, ritual items, and offerings. Interestingly, despite the extremely low temperatures in winter, no matter how frozen corpses may be elsewhere, if placed in the sky burial pit at Dam Monastery overnight, they will unfreeze completely by the next day, allowing normal sky burial rituals to proceed. The reason behind this remains a mystery, contributing to the widespread fame of the Dam Monastery sky burial site. It is said that Dam Monastery was built because Princess Wencheng, during her journey into Tibet, recognized this place as a feng shui treasure and entrusted her "Lunbu" (a high-ranking official) to have a temple constructed here under the supervision of the Dabu Rinpoche. The practice of conducting sky burials and preserving skulls has been carried out for only about 130 years. The Dam Monastery sky burial site is the only one in Tibet where skulls are preserved, and the skull wall formed by these remains is truly unique in the world, considered an extraordinary sight and an excellent example for the study of human funeral culture. It is also hailed as the world’s premier destination for life contemplation and emotional experience.

　　Source: Biru County Tourism Bureau