Anthony Bourdain participated in 'death ritual' on 'Parts Unknown' months before suicide

Bourdain's big break came in 1998 when he became the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles. (CNN)

TV chef Anthony Bourdain talked about his own mortality — and participated in an ancient death ritual — in the season finale of his CNN show “Parts Unknown,” which aired about two weeks after his suicide.

The episode, which aired Sunday, followed the celebrity chef and his friend, director Darren Aronofsky, across Bhutan in South Asia as they ate with traditional yak herders in the Himalayas and dined in the country’s capital of Thimpu, Eater said.

In one scene, a man explains the country’s religion, Bhutanese Buddhism, as something meant to remind people “time and again, not to take things too seriously. This is, in fact, an illusion.”

Bourdain responds: “Life is but a dream.

“It is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes a day,” he narrates over a shot of breathtaking mountain ranges.

In an article for CNN, “Black Swan” director Aronofsky reflected on the meaningful nature of his travels with the late chef.

“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.”

Footage for the finale was shot about six months ago, and the crew had already begun shooting for Season 12. It is unclear if or how the network plans to air it.

Bourdain was found dead earlier this month in a hotel room in Kayersberg, France, where he had been filming an episode of the show. He was 61.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post.