Tibet will increase its spending on the protection and maintenance of the region's sky burial sites, it's department of civil affairs said.

The regional government will invest 165 million yuan ($25 million) this year on 47 sky burial sites, most of them close to religious buildings. Each site will be assigned up to 5 million yuan, which will finance repairs and protection work, according to the department.

Sky burial is a Tibetan and Mongolian custom which the bodies of the dead are fed to predatory birds, in place of cremation, so that their souls may ascend to heaven.