A charnel ground (Devanagari: श्मशान; Romanized Sanskrit: śmāśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; ), in concrete terms, is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. Although it may have demarcated locations within it functionally identified as burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria, it is distinct from these as well as from crypts or burial vaults.