Chapter 23: Peaceful Birth, Peaceful Death Iii (1/2)

The meeting room on the second floor was where Father hosted his yearly conference with important figures from all over the world.

Granny and Mother were both frightened by Grandfather's sudden appearance.

Grandfather shut the meeting room door, effectively dimming the chants and chorus outside.

I took my seat quietly.

Grandfather slowly walked to the master seat. ”One wants cremation?”

Mother nodded.

”The other wants a direct burial?”

Granny nodded.

”These methods are too popular. I want a sky burial,” Grandfather commented.

Granny and Mother's faces changed.

”I'm the oldest one here and I am the most qualified. I'm guessing no one has any objections?”

Mother stood up but she did not dare to talk.

Granny, too, stood up, but she didn't say anything.

Even then, Grandfather realized that he had no absolute power over this matter.

His firm tone softened a little as he asked, ”How long has Ansheng been dead?”

”Six days. Tomorrow will be the seventh,” Mother replied.

”Tomorrow… that's just right. I”ll give my brother a call so please arrange the air transport. Nine hours should be enough to reach Tibet. He should be back in time for Ansheng's sky burial,” Grandfather said.

Mother objected immediately.

”Why not?” Grandfather questioned.

Granny said, ”You can't do that. I want him to be buried so that we can remember and visit him every year. If we go through with the sky burial, wouldn't there be nothing left of him?”

”How can you say that? The idea behind sky burial is to allow the soul to reincarnate. It will never be destroyed. Death is merely a separation between the soul and the expired body. The vultures will bring the body back to Buddha. This is Buddhist's doctrine so what do you mean there's nothing left?” Grandfather responded before gazing into the distance quietly.

Granny fell into a short silence before replying, ”Give me some time. I'll give the experts a call to check if the sky burial will affect the feng shui at home.”

She took her phone out and made the call in front of everybody.

Seeing that made Mother's expression changed slightly. She went over to sit on a stool at the side.

She knew she had the least say in this room.

Which was why she had called Grandfather and me over.

She needed more support in order to change Granny's mind.

However, while panicking, she had forgotten that I, too, had no say in this family.

Or why else had I been thrown into another part of the world by my own father, and been left without any power to resist?

Grandfather was the person she really shouldn't have called over.

Father had never been able to deal with Grandfather's antics.

Grandfather was a free spirit. No one could control him.

According to him, Tibet's prairie was his home.

Perhaps he had seen a unique species of b.u.t.terfly on that prairie.

He chased after it. It was a chase that lasted forty over years.

Later on, Father became wealthy and Grandfather was finally able to find his own hobby - to search for prairies all over the world.

Throughout his search, he never dared to return home because a lot has changed over forty years.

People, things, sceneries.

Of course, he was unwilling to go home not because he hadn't been back before.

It was because his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother were all gone.

His brother had been the one to send all of them off, one by one.

He washed them and chose the cliffs.

Chanted and waited for the vultures to take their bodies to heaven.

That was what sky burial was.

Back then, his brother had no money since all of it had been used to further Grandfather's studies.

Grandfather did well, too, by entering a university, except that he had decided to chase b.u.t.terflies instead.

Grandfather's brother could only chant and fast for three days because he had no money,

With each round of prayer beads, he restarted his chants until he reached the eighty-first time, which took him a full three days.

It wasn't surprising then, that Grandfather's brother hated sky burials the most.

Nevertheless, he repeated the process four times.

Grandfather had left him alone all this while.

His pursuit lasted forty over years and when he finally returned home with money, everything had changed.

Grandfather gave his brother a lot of money but the latter never did forgive him.

”I'll prepare a sky burial for you after you die so I hope you'll do the same for me if I go first,” his brother said.

This was Grandfather's story.

Ending her call, Granny announced, ”It's alright, the experts said. Sky burial isn't part of the five elements so our feng shui will not be affected. It's Buddha's blessing. Sky burial is a good thing.”

Grandfather took his phone out and keyed in a familiar number.

He never saved numbers since he had full confidence in his memory.

But this time… the line was busy.

Grandfather was stunned. He looked closely at the eleven digits.

He called over once more.

A long time later, a voice message in the Tibetan language was heard.

We couldn't understand a word but Grandfather started crying.

Bawling, in fact.

Granny asked quietly, ”What is it, old man?”