ARANGA — [Noun] A raised platform used by Siberian peoples to expose the bodies of the deceased—often shamans or their horses—to the elements in a sky burial. From Evenki арангас (arangas) and Yakut араҥас (araŋas), meaning a raised platform or structure for sky burials. Unlike a 'burial mound' (which seals the dead beneath earth) or a 'pyre' (which consumes them in flame), the aranga is an open-armed relinquishment to wind and beak and sky. It is the stark silhouette of a wooden scaffold against the tundra’s endless sky, the slow work of scavengers, the bones bleaching white under the indifferent sun—a final act of trust in the world’s indifferent cycles.