did not perform their task with gravity or ceremony, but rather talked and laughed as during any other type of physical labor. According to Buddhist teaching, this makes it easier for the soul of the deceased to move on from the uncertain plane between life and death onto the next life. Some accounts refer to individuals who carry out sky burial rituals as a tokden which is Tibetan for 'sky burial master'. While a Tokden has an important role in burial rites, they are often people of low social status and sometimes receive payment from the families of the deceased. Disassembling the body According to most accounts, vultures are given the whole body. Then, when only the bones remain, these are broken up with mallets, ground with tsampa (barley flour with tea and yak butter, or milk) and given to the crows and hawks that have waited for the vultures to depart. In one account, the leading rogyapa cut off the limbs and hacked the body to pieces, handing each part to his assistants, who used rocks to pound the flesh and bones together to a pulp, which they mixed with tsampa before the vultures were summoned to eat. In some cases, a Tokden will use butcher's tools to divide the body. Sometimes the internal organs were removed and processed separately, but they too were consumed by birds. The hair is removed from the head and may be simply thrown away; at Drigung, it seems, at least some hair is kept in a room of the monastery. None of the eyewitness accounts specify which kind of knife is used in the jhator. One source states that it is a "ritual flaying knife" or trigu (Sanskrit kartika), but another source expresses skepticism, noting that the trigu is considered a woman's tool (whereas rogyapas seem to be exclusively male). Vultures The species contributing to the ritual are typically the Himalayan and griffon vultures. In places where there are several jhator offerings each day, the birds sometimes have to be coaxed to eat, which may be accomplished with a ritual dance. If a small number of vultures come down to eat, or if portions of the body are left over after the vultures fly away, or if the body is completely left untouched, it is considered to be a bad omen in Buddhist beliefs. In these cases, according to Buddhist belief, there are