The Mandalorian belief in the collective afterlife of the manda was of notable influence to their burial practices. Though the Mandalorians typically preferred cremation, when burying the fallen in large numbers, Mandalorians would dig large, mass graves in which to lay their dead to rest. Though many species considered the prospect of unmarked mass graves horrid, Mandalorians believed that the body was merely a tool for doing deeds and passing on knowledge, and once the soul had gone to the manda, what happened to the body was ultimately irrelevant. Burying their people together in mass graves mirrored the collective consciousness every Mandalorian was believed to share in the manda after death.