Carla,

Intriguing possibility. Of course, the Tibetans may have some elaborate
aesthetic/ritual/theological justification for it, or perhaps they've
learned that it works.

Gene Hunn.

On Wed, 29 Jun 1994, Carla Holley wrote:

> After a lively discussion accompanied by several nice pints 'o at
> La Boheme (Seattle tav), I found my journal full
> of conversation grist and several (some of them wild) conjectures.
>
> Here's one for you: Tibetan/Nepalese hats made for little children have
> startling human eyes embroidered on the tops of them. I never gave it
> much thought beyond "isn't that quaint?" 'til somehow the subject of
> birds on the hunt being slowed or halted by eyespots came up in
> conversation. So now it occurs to me... Of course! The Tibetan plateau
> is full of large buzzard-like creatures. Humans after death are often
> given sky-burials, where the body is laid on a mountain side to be
> disposed of in a most natural way by the birds. A sleeping, or even
> sedate small child is quite a potentially tasty morsel, one could
> assume. So now I think the hats were designed specifically to ward off
> birds. Is that too wild? Any thoughts?
>
> Carla
> cholley at eskimo.com
>