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.
Even
dead children are exhumed - two of these photos show the skeleton of a
baby wrapped in a print dress with a doll laid next to it.
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.
Zombieland: The bodies resemble
something out of a horror film as they are dug up every year to be
washed and dressed up in new clothes
In need of a
comb: A man brushes the hair of a female corpse (left) and two
mummified bodies stand rigidly next to each other, as if back to life
(right)
Even the
children: The skeleton of a dead baby has a floral dress laid on top of
it, as a boy clutches a fluffy pink doll and stares worriedly down the
camera lens
What a drag: The dead bodies are dragged from where they died back to the village, always following a path of straight lines
Back
together again: A couple stands reunited and dressed in brand new
clothes (left) and a boy places a dead relative back into a coffin
(right)
A stone cemetery for mummies, whick look out from cubby holes during Ma'Nene ritual at Toraja in South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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