TV chef Anthony Bourdain discussed his own mortality while participating in an ancient death ritual while filming the season finale of his CNN show Parts Unknown, which aired on Sunday, about two weeks after Bourdain’s death. The episode followed the beloved chef and his friend, director Darren Aronofsky, across Bhutan in South Asia. The duo ate with traditional yak herders in the Himalayas and dined in the country’s capital of Thimpu, according to Page Six. During one scene, a man explains the country’s religion, Bhutanese Buddhism, and said that is meant to remind people “time and again, not to take things too seriously. This is, in fact, an illusion.” Bourdain responded, “Life is but a dream.”
As the camera pans over breathtaking mountain ranges, Bourdain narrates, “It is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes a day.”
In an article for CNN, Black Swan director Aronofsky reflected on his final trip with his friend.
“It seems ironic now that on our last day of shooting we performed a Bhutanese death ritual,” Aronofsky wrote. “We debated the fate of the country, the fate of the world. He was perplexed as to how mankind’s endless hunger to consume could be curtailed.”
The footage in Bhutan was shot about six months ago. The crew had begun filming Season 12 when Bourdain died at age 61.
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