Digging up and dressing up the dead

They say the dead live on in our hearts and minds - but in one Indonesian village, the deceased continue to walk the earth in a rather more literal, zombie-like fashion.

Families in Toraja in South Sulawesi dig up the bodies of their dead relatives before washing, grooming and dressing them in fancy new clothes.

Damaged coffins are fixed or replaced, and the mummies are then walked around the village by following a path of straight lines.

The ritual is called MaiNene, or The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses, and takes place every August.
According to the ancient Torajan belief system, the spirit of a dead person must return to his village of origin.

So if a person died on a journey, the family would go to the place of death and accompany the deceased back home by walking them back to the village.

In the past, people were frightened to journey far, in case they died while they were away and were unable to return to their village.

 

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