A charnel ground (Sanskrit: श्मशान; IAST: śmaśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; Tibetan: དུར་ཁྲོད, Wylie: dur khrod)[1] is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. Although it may have demarcated locations within it functionally identified as burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria, it is distinct from these as well as from crypts or burial vaults.
In a religious sense, it is also a very important location for sadhana and ritual activity for Indo-Tibetan traditions of Dharma particularly those traditions iterated by the Tantric view such as Kashmiri Shaivism, Kaula tradition, Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana, Mantrayana, Dzogchen, and the sadhana of Chöd, Phowa and Zhitro, etc. The charnel ground is also an archetypal liminality that figures prominently in the literature and liturgy and as an artistic motif in Dharmic Traditions and cultures iterated by the more antinomian and esoteric aspects of traditional Indian culture.
A charnelground (Sanskrit: श्मशान; IAST: śmaśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; Tibetan: དུར་ཁྲོད, Wylie: dur khrod) is an above-ground site for the...
kapala is one of several charnelground implements made from human bone found by tantrics at sky burial sites. The charnelground, an ancient Tibetan burial...
from Middle French charnel, from Late Latin carnāle ("graveyard"), from Latin carnālis ("of the flesh"). In countries where ground suitable for burial...
predecessors, Aghoris usually engage in post-mortem rituals, often dwell in charnel grounds, smear cremation ashes on their bodies, and use bones from human...
a forest, under the shade of a tree, mountain, glen, hillside cave, charnelground, jungle grove, in the open, or on a heap of straw). The Vinaya and Sutrayana...
of Tantra, particularly the transgressive elements dealing with the charnelground. According to Samuel, one group of Shaiva ascetics, the Pasupatas, practiced...
said to have been practiced by numerous saints. Barrett discusses the charnelground sadhana of the Aghori practitioners in both its left and right-handed...
where a corpse would be left exposed to decay in a field, graveyard, or charnelground.: 25 The exact stages included vary between sources. The Mahaprajnaparamitita-sastra...
heads. His birth brings about plague and famine, so he is banished to a charnelground, but he survives by devouring his mother's corpse and returns in order...
Tibetan: pal dur tro dag po yab yum. English: the Glorious Lords of the CharnelGround - Father-Mother) also called Chitipati is considered Lord of Shmashana...
as the use of taboo substances like alcohol, consort practices, and charnelground practices which evoke wrathful deities. Ryujun Tajima divides the tantras...
and sky burial are understood in the Vajrayana Buddhist traditions as charnel grounds. Comparable practices are part of Zoroastrian burial rites where...
stramonium and D. metel have reportedly been used by some sadhus and charnelground ascetics, such as the Aghori, as both an entheogen and ritual poison...
the path and accomplish the fruit, the "ground" (Sanskrit: āśraya; Wylie: gzhi) of realization: The charnelground is not merely the hermitage; it can also...
ganachakra. This sādhanā (practice) is common to another denizen of the charnelground, Dattātreya the avadhūta, to whom has been attributed the nondualist...
Anālayo, the sources indicate that the practice could have been done in a charnelground with real corpses but also indicate that one may visualize this as well...
aṣṭhimudrā) such as human skulls and other ornaments associated with the charnelground, as well as being often depicted with sexually suggestive attributes...
contain a specific outer locality which is clearly identified as a charnelground. The colors for the painting are usually made with naturally colored...
tent of robes. Charnel-ground-dweller's Practice (susanik'anga) — living in or nearby a charnel-field, graveyard or cremation ground (In ancient India...
the following about tantric iconography of weapons and mentions the charnelground: Many of these weapons and implements have their origins in the wrathful...
generally lack the antinomian uses of sexual yoga, taboo substances and charnelground imagery found in the later tantras. Nevertheless, the concept of "great...
discrimination. Buddhism in Buryatia – Buddhism among the Buryat people Charnelground – Above-ground location for disposal of the dead Chöd – Buddhist religious...
the brain and body, set and setting. Given that Aghori tantrics are charnelground ascetics who pursue moksha (spiritual liberation) in settings of extreme...
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