Death is often considered as a great loss but not more than the fear incurred from the unnatural deaths; such as accidents from falling off a tree or death caused due to an encounter with wild animals as they strongly believe that death has been caused from dishonoring the deities or by evil spirits or by bad spells from somebody. They conduct very elaborate ceremonies to appease the spirit of the deceased and deities, especially the deceased with food and drinks so as to prevent misfortune to the surviving people. Lhops believe in the dual existence; that when death occurs, the soul, Se-hok, leaves the body and dwells in the emptiness for certain period and later joins the world of Sim-pu (death).

Talang or the ox sacrifice ritual is one of the three main rituals performed by Lhops community; each of which includes an animal sacrifice. Tseney is an annual festival where each Lhop family sacrifices a rooster, while the Tenlha Soel ritual involves the sacrifice of a pig. Talang ritual is derived from the name of the deity of the Laskey clan that sacrifices an ox. Although Lhops are Buddhist by nature, the Lhops continue to practice many pre-Buddhist rituals which includes an animal sacrifice with no taboo attached to it for the slaughter of animals, hence everyone readily volunteers for the ritual. The ritual is conducted on any day preceding the 19th day, since, after the 20th day; it indicates the close ending of a month, which is seen as the end of the life of the month, and thereby considering it as inauspicious days. It is conducted once every nine years, since this ritual has had huge financial implication on a household. The ritual is conducted in an individual’s family home with an elder member of the family, generally a man, with support and help from other community members. This ritual does not require any monk or a pandit or any other specialist to conduct this ritual. Usually the ritual is performed by the Laskey clan household.

One can easily identify a Lhop in a crowd by his or her unique clothing. They have a distinct clothing culture that marks the physical identity of their ethnic group community. The origin or tradition of the clothing is still unknown, but the elders of the Lhop community believe that it has been passed down from generation to generation. In the past, the Lhop wore clothing made from the fibers of the nettle plant, which grows on the foothills of mountains 500 to 1000 meters above sea level and is called Yadzin. With the planting of cotton in the Lhop community, the nettle fiber was abandoned. Nowadays, the traditional clothing of the Lhops is quickly being replaced by the national clothing Gho and Kira. The Lhops have their own traditional dress called Gaada. It is a simple, without pattern, white, coarse cotton cloth about 3 x 2 meters in size. Both men and women wear simple, without pattern, white cotton clothing. Lhop dress Gaada is a white piece of coarse cloth about 3 x 2 meters in size. Lhop men and women wear Ra-hem and Gui-hem, respectively, which are made of Pas-jin (cotton). Ra-hem Ra-hem is a simple, plain white garment that is folded over from the back, crossed over the chest, and knotted at the neck. The cloth is tied around the waist with a belt called Pa-dzin. The edges are tied together at the center fold point using a bamboo spindle called a rim. The cloth is pulled up above knee length and tied tightly. The loose cloth forms a large pouch in the front part of the body, which can hold many things. Gui-hem Women put on their clothes in the same way, but the cloth covers their body from the shoulder to mid-calf, leaving a smaller pouch on the front along the torso. In their traditional dress, they do not need carrying bags. Gui-hem was always like any other Kira worn by most Bhutanese women, except that it was made of cotton. They tie the edge of their cloth over their shoulder with a brooch made of bamboo called a lung. On important occasions, women wear jewelry. Both men and women wear Pun-gop (tego or shirt) over their shoulders. The Lhops use very few garments at home. Currently, they do not weave or knit their own clothes. Wear and tear on their clothes are crudely repaired or sewn with the help of native bamboo needles, selvages, and threads (Jin) made from plant fibers. Steel needles and mill threads from commerce are rapidly displacing selvages and Jin. Lhops no longer wear their traditional clothing regularly, but they still wear it at Lhop dances.

Beyond the daily harmonic life of the Lhop’s society, there lies an undisputed belief and idea on birth and death. Lhops have their own ways of interpreting the physiological and morphological processes of birth, growth, aging and death as it unfolds to them. As the child grows, she or he crosses different stages with status and roles and responsibilities in the community. They get educated in life skills and rituals of life. Their departure or separation is also honored with elaborate rituals. It is considered as a taboo for Lhops to accept a child from a female who has no approved partner in the community or outside mates from the community. Ideally, it is the cross-cousins only who can give birth to a legitimate child in the society, though marriages between different clans are now accepted. However, marrying out of the community continues to be strongly discouraged. From the moment cross-cousins partners are born in the family, their marital and issues are thereon legitimate in the community, and so is their new born child. Lhops has well and predetermined destined relationships when it comes to the copulation between male and female. Lhops believe that the copulation between male and female produces a child in which male contributes bone and female contributes flesh, but it does not mean that any male can impregnate a female, and be the father or husband of someone else. Cross cousins are referred to as Lhir-ra and Lhi-met, laterally meaning male and female seedling (Lhi- seedling, met- female, ra-male). They believe that the human body as a combination of flesh (sa) and bone (ruish).They believe that the male is like that of a seed (lhi) and rain (wai), while the female is like that of land or soil (boh) that holds the seed and rain water together to allow germination and growth, so as in the combination of bone from a male, and flesh from the female, that give rise to an individual. Cross cousins undergo an educational process of identifying their mates and their families. They slowly start to develop a mindset and behavior towards their growing age and body. Once they reach a mature age, they are encouraged to execute the marital rules and take up roles in the community. Male partners take residence in the wife’s households, and it is a matter of pride for the female to conceive and have him in her house.

Just like any other communities, the livelihood of Lhops also started with hunting and gathering activities. In the past, Lhops gathered wild edible plants like Burr (Kochu or Colocasia) or Lohbol (Tapoica), and hunted as well as fished. With the recent developments in the community, Lhops have adopted agriculture as their source of food and nutrition, and with the passage of time, agriculture has become a way of life for subsistence and commercial means.

In Bhutan, there are several funeral practices as mentioned below: 1. Cremation of dead body at cremation ground or near one’s own house or on a river bank; 2. Sky burial, where the body is placed on a mountaintop for vultures to consume; 3. Water burial, where the body is immersed in the river and weighed down with heavy stones, or else cut into small pieces which are then scattered in the river; 4. Ground burial, where the body is buried underground; 5. Cave burial, where the body is deposited or hidden in caves on cliff faces; and 6. Surface burial, where the body is buried above the ground but covered with a structure made of stones and plaster. Cremation is the most common practice throughout the country. People prefer to cremate the body of a family member at a charnel ground, which has been prepared in accordance with the mandala of Buddha Akshobhya, and consecrated and blessed by highly attained lamas. The Hindus in the southern foothills cremate their dead on riverbanks so that the ashes and remaining debris are easily disposed of in the river. People in Merak and Sakteng communities (eastern Bhutan) dispose of dead bodies in the river or else bury them underground, while in places like Lingzhi (Western north) the dead bodies are left on a flat stone at a higher elevation for the vultures. In the Lhop community (Southern ethnic) , the dead body is buried above the surface of the ground within a stone mound which is plastered to make it air proof. Where cremation is practised, dead children below the age of eight are not allowed to be cremated. In olden days, they were either taken for sky burial on high mountaintops where vultures could feed on them, or they were buried in the river, weighed down with heavy stones to prevent them from being carried downstream. Sky burial is discouraged these days, however. In the event of a death, it is of utmost importance to seek divination from an astrologer before disposing of the body. Based on his ruling, various religious and charitable activities are organised in the name of the deceased. The main purpose of such activity is to accumulate enough merit to speed up his or her next rebirth as a human. Failing to accumulate enough merit will lead the deceased to be reborn into one of the four unhappy states of existence below the human plane. The virtuous person will either take rebirth as a human being, or be reborn in the pure realm of a Buddha field, from which they may travel the path towards enlightenment without falling back into the lower realms. The Buddhist tradition of funeral rite continues for 49 days after death. Aspiration prayers for the deceased are recited and rituals performed almost daily by those who can afford it, depending on the availability of monks or gomchens (lay-monks) and nuns. Those who cannot afford daily rituals, must at the very least initiate the droda zhi on the 4th day since the death, duen tshig on the 7th day, chuzhi on the 14th day and nyishu tsachi or gewa on the 21st day and finally zhipchu zhegu on the 49th day for performance of kangsha (prayer rituals) to the various forms of Compassionate Buddhas (mithrugpa and chenrezig), without fail. The family also conducts a ritual at the first anniversary after the passing away of the person, but for those who can afford it, the anniversary ritual can go on up to any number of years from the third year onwards. Relatives and intimate friends will try to attend all the rites including the annual rites, but people from the community will prefer to come mostly during the last two days (i.e. 21st and 49th days since the death). Following the funeral rite, a drigo (meaning, an effigy or a photograph of the deceased) is kept in the corner of the shrine room and offered meals, butter lamps, tshog (other forms of food), fruits and drinks every day, starting with the first day of passing away, until the 21st day rite, after which the drigo is removed. This is because the soul of the deceased is thought to hover around the body instead of leaving to seek the path of liberation. After cremation, any remaining fragments of bone are collected from the cremation site, then ground into powder, mixed with clean mud and made into tshatsha (mini stupas). These are laid in caves, on ledges of cliffs and at other sacred sites before the 49th day. One hundred and eight prayer flags printed with the Chenrezig mantra (om mani padme hum) are hoisted for the deceased, in order to benefit all sentient beings. Customarily, the six-syllable mani mantra would be sung melodiously with heartfelt devotion by those present at such rituals, but the practice is slowly diminishing, either because people nowadays do not know the tradition or because it is coming to be seen as obsolete. Even in remoter areas of the country, the tradition is no longer very strong.