negative implications for the individual and/or the individual's family, such as the individual being buried having lived a bad life or accumulated bad karma throughout their lifetime and throughout their past lives, thus predetermining them to a bad rebirth. In places where fewer bodies are offered, the vultures are more eager, and sometimes have to be fended off with sticks during the initial preparations. Often there is a limit to how many corpses can be consumed at a certain burial site, prompting lamas to find different areas. It is believed that if too many corpses are disposed in a certain burial site, ghosts may appear. Not only are vultures an important aspect to celestial burial but also to its habitat's ecology. They contribute to carcass removal and nutrient recycling, as they are scavengers of the land. Due to an alarming drop in their population, in 1988, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife added certain species of vultures into the "rare" or "threatened" categories of their national list of protected wild animals. Local Chinese governments surrounding sky burial locations have established regulations to avoid disturbance of the vultures during these rituals, as well as to not allow individuals who have passed away due to infectious diseases or toxicosis from receiving a sky burial in order to prevent compromising the health of the vultures. See also References Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . Further reading . Description of Drigung site, Keith Dowman, orig. pub. 1988 External links Eyewitness account, Niema Ash, 1980s Survival and Evolution of Sky Burial Practices, Pamela Logan, 2021 Eyewitness account, Mondo Secter, 1999 - This page also includes references and links to other eyewitness accounts and to a 1986 documentary film that shows a jhator Sky Burial Footage available on YouTube Birds in Buddhism Death customs Tibetan culture Tibetan Buddhist practices