Thanks ants. Thants.

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"What I was used to was people who smiled for the camera. It's usually an automatic response. But these people never smiled. They were incredibly serious; and more than that, they weren't pretending anything any more. People are almost always pretending something, but these people had lost that need."

Life Before Death
This is the end - A German photographer captures the dying

Sky Burial & Self-Mummification

Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common practice in Tibet. A human corpse is cut into small pieces and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals – especially to birds of prey. In Tibetan the practice is known as jhator (Tibetan: བྱ་གཏོར་), which literally means, "giving alms to the birds."

Tibetan sky burial in China (w/photos)
Sky Burial (Alternate Description)

Scattered throughout Northern Japan are two dozen mummified Japanese monks known as Sokushinbutsu. Followers of Shugendô, an ancient form of Buddhism, the monks died in the ultimate act of self-denial.

Self-Mummified Buddhist Monks