Vultures gathering for a sky burial near the Larung Wuming Buddhist Institute, some 3,700m to 4,000m above sea level, in Sertar county, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in China's Sichuan province. Sky burials, in which corpses are offered to vultures, are practised by some Tibetans and Mongolians who believe that feeding the decomposed corpses of loved ones to vultures on a mountaintop is a respectful way to pay tribute to them.