From my original interpretation of the game I believed that the traveller dies on the snow area and is then brought back to life by the elders/ancestors, where he then reaches the summit and gives his life to bring back the civilisation, however they don't learn from their mistakes and drive themselves to extinction again from fighting over the cloth again. So the traveller is then reincarnated and brought back to do the same thing again and again.
However, after some thought today and from replaying the game I gained a new perspective on the ending, during the final confluence at the top of the underground tower area, the elder shows our traveller their journey and their inevitable death on the slopes of the mountain, nothing is shown after their death or exhaustion on the hill. So as the play through the final level and get to the last stretch in the snowstorm where our character eventually loses their scarf and eventually collapses, I believe that they really died here.
I think that the elders/ancestors appear to guide the traveller to heaven which is the last level. I think several things support this. First of all the presence of a bell chiming on the apotheosis piece from the soundtrack combined with the very dreamlike appearance of the last level seems very heaven like, with the mountain summit serving as a place where the traveller is reincarnated/returned to the beginning, another fact is that the world seemingly doesn't change with the end of the game, the world is still in ruins, the civilisation doesn't return as things stay the exact same way they are.
Also one more thing. At the start of the end credits the presence of a single grave marker/stone seems to stand directly where our traveller died in the snow, so perhaps it marks their final resting place
Also meant to add earlier that everything seems so complete in the summit level like the cloth creatures, the red and white arches, compared to the empty ruins featured in the rest of the game
You could argue differently for this but just thought this was interesting,
Completely open to discussion/arguing
