Meanings
plural sky burials
- countableuncountableA funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed atop a mountain or other outdoor structure to decompose or be eaten by scavenging animals.
“A sky burial? What’s that?” “Just what it says. You bury them in the sky. They do it in Tibet and places. You bring the dead body to a mountain and leave it so they can be out in the open until they're not.”
2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 423Synonyms: wind burial
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed atop a mountain or other outdoor structure to decompose or be eaten by scavenging animals.
Translations
Afrikaans aasvoëlbegrafnis, lugbegrafnis
- aasvoëlbegrafnisfuneral practice
- lugbegrafnisfuneral practice
Chinese Cantonese 天葬
- 天葬 (tin¹ zong³)funeral practice
Chinese Mandarin 天葬
- 天葬 (tiānzàng)funeral practice
Dutch luchtbegrafenis, hemelbegrafenis
- luchtbegrafenisfuneral practice
- hemelbegrafenisfuneral practice
Finnish taivashautaus
- taivashautausfuneral practice
French inhumation céleste
- inhumation célestefuneral practice
German Himmelsbestattung
- Himmelsbestattungfuneral practice
Hebrew קבורת שמים
- קבורת שמיםfuneral practice
Indonesian pemakaman langit
- pemakaman langitfuneral practice
Italian sepoltura celeste
- sepoltura celestefuneral practice
Japanese 鳥葬
- 鳥葬funeral practice
Persian خاکسپاری آسمانی
- خاکسپاری آسمانیfuneral practice
Polish pogrzeb powietrzny
- pogrzeb powietrznyfuneral practice
Spanish entierro celestial
- entierro celestialfuneral practice
Cite this entry
sky burial. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sky%20burial
“sky burial.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sky%20burial. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sky burial,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sky%20burial.
Source: sky burial on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.