[00:00.678]For a few,[00:01.679]there is one final but essential task to perform.[00:07.425]Buddhists believe in the concept of rebirth,[00:10.660]and at Kailash[00:11.678]the journey from one life to the next[00:14.179]is marked with an ancient but outlandish ritual.[00:19.427]Tibetans believe there's no need to keep or bury the bodies of their dead,[00:23.670]since a departed life will already have kindled a new one elsewhere.[00:31.427]The word for burial in Tibetan means "giving offerings to the birds",[00:37.179]an act of generosity in line with the concept of compassion for all beings.[00:47.174]By doing good deeds, Buddhists believe[00:49.668]that they can contribute to the process of enlightenment.[00:53.678]So a sky burial at Kailash contributes to a brighter future.[01:17.171]There may be legends of mythical mountains and rivers that form the "axis of the world".[01:23.426]But the Tibetan plateau itself,[01:25.926]with its mountains, glaciers, and rivers,[01:28.926]and as the engine that drives the monsoon,[01:31.677]lays fair claim to being the real axis of the world.[01:39.927]Apart from feeding the rivers of India and Pakistan,[01:43.921]Tibet's glaciers are the source of even more great rivers.[01:48.179]Vietnam's Mekong,[01:49.926]Burma's Salween and the Yangtze and the Yellow,[01:53.677]both of which flow into China.