Does self end after death? Does self end after death?

Please note:

In my question »death« means: the physical processes of brokenness, graying, wrinkling, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty which turn the physical body into dust. Materialistic death, physical death, the ending of life death that we see happening every day on television, i.e. death that happens when somebody is killed by pistol, disease, car accident, etc. Death that happens at complete breakup of the physical body. 

And »self« means: grasping (upadana) as »I«, »me« and »mine« to one or more of the five aggregates (physicality, feeling, perception, mental formations and sense consciousness) with craving (tanha).
In the Dhammapada 153-154, we find the Buddha exclaiming:


  Through the round of many births I roamed
  without reward,
  without rest,
  seeking the house-builder.
  Painful is birth
  again &amp; again.
  
  House-builder, you're seen!
  You will not build a house again.
  All your rafters broken,
  the ridge pole dismantled,
  immersed in dismantling, the mind
  has attained to the end of craving. 


The commentary on these verses by Ven. Thanissaro states:


  DhpA: These verses were the Buddha's first utterance after his full
  Awakening. For some reason, they are not reported in any of the other
  canonical accounts of the events following on the Awakening.
  
  DhpA: "House" = selfhood; house-builder = craving. "House" may also
  refer to the nine abodes of beings — the seven stations of
  consciousness and two spheres (see Khp 4 and DN 15).
  
  The word anibbisam in 153 can be read either as the negative gerund of
  nibbisati ("earning, gaining a reward") or as the negative gerund of
  nivisati, altered to fit the meter, meaning "coming to a rest,
  settled, situated." Both readings make sense in the context of the
  verse, so the word is probably intended to have a double meaning:
  without reward, without rest.


The commentary by Acharya Buddharakkhita states:


  According to the commentary, these verses are the Buddha's "Song of
  Victory," his first utterance after his Enlightenment. The house is
  individualized existence in samsara, the house-builder craving, the
  rafters the passions and the ridge-pole ignorance.


I interpret this as saying that the self ("house") is deconstructed at death, but reconstructed again in the following birth, due to craving ("house-builder"), according to dependent origination.

So, the answer to your question would be "yes, it ends, but then it arises again".



Apparently, this question was asked with the skeptical view on whether rebirth truly exists or not.

I think this reference from the DN2 should lay our doubts to rest:


  "With his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished,
  free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to
  imperturbability, he directs and inclines it to knowledge of the
  recollection of past lives (lit: previous homes). He recollects his
  manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two births, three births, four,
  five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred, one thousand,
  one hundred thousand, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of
  cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion,
  [recollecting], 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had
  such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure
  and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I
  re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan,
  had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of
  pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that
  state, I re-arose here.' Thus he recollects his manifold past lives in
  their modes and details. Just as if a man were to go from his home
  village to another village, and then from that village to yet another
  village, and then from that village back to his home village. The
  thought would occur to him, 'I went from my home village to that
  village over there. There I stood in such a way, sat in such a way,
  talked in such a way, and remained silent in such a way. From that
  village I went to that village over there, and there I stood in such a
  way, sat in such a way, talked in such a way, and remained silent in
  such a way. From that village I came back home.' In the same way —
  with his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished,
  free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to
  imperturbability — the monk directs and inclines it to knowledge of
  the recollection of past lives. He recollects his manifold past
  lives... in their modes and details.