In most cultures, when a person dies, their bodies are either burnt or buried in a grave, but people of the Toraja ethnic group live and walk among the dead. It might shock people of other cultures, and some even find it bizarre, but this unique tradition is rooted in the belief that death is yet another in a great journey.
If you ever visit the Tana Toraja Regency, a landlocked part of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, you will get the chance to witness the living dead people. The funeral cost in this region is exorbitant, so high that some people spend their entire life gathering money and other means of currency, but until that price is paid, the corpses are mummified and kept in special spaces, called tongkonan.
The Toraja tribe lives with its dead ancestors. Photo: Wikipedia
Tribal Culture Of Living With The Dead
A funeral in this community is a celebration, unlike the rest of the world, where people across cultures see it as a period of mourning. The tribe of Toraja grieves the dead, but also mummifies the body and continues to interact with it, including offering food and dressing them every couple of years to reintroduce them to the young generation. This is the Manene ritual.
When a person dies, some families keep the embalmed bodies in the family home until the funeral, which could take years. Between the death and the funeral, families often excavate the bodies, undress them, clean them, and dress them in fresh and new clothes before reintroducing them to the kids or new additions.
High Funeral Prices
Travel bloggers who have visited the province have reported that the funeral cost can go as high $500,000. It does not end here, since a funeral is more like a celebration. It is usually a 5-day event, where the family has to sacrifice a certain number of buffaloes and pigs, feed hundreds of guests, and build a new space (a hut) for the dead and burn it during the funeral. All of this excludes the price of burial and caring for the mummy until the last rites.
Sometimes, people preserve the dead, so they can cut the cost of th funeral until another member of the family dies. For example, if a man or woman has died while their partner is alive, they would preserve the body until their spouse joins them in the afterlife journey or puya.
What's In There For Tourists?
Tana Toraja Regency is known for its picturesque green landscape, but people who trek to Toraja do not go there just to click pictures. They visit the region to experience the local culture and witness the unique rituals of death and funeral.
Recently, Sharanya Iyer, a travel influencer, also visited the village in Indonesia and shared her experience of living and walking among the dead. She showcased how many dead bodies had their head full of hair and mouths full of teeth. Would you visit this place to witness this unique culture?
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