To get over the death of a loved one is not easy. A person’s culture also plays a part in how you come to understand and deal with death.
In the remote South Sulawesi, Indonesia, the Torajan cultural group view death differently. For those that are buried, the community hold the Ma’nene every three years.
The bodies are exhumed to be washed and dressed in new, clean clothing. The event can occur after months, or years of the death. When all the family members are present. The family members will take the decease into their homes. They are fed their favourite foods and spoken to like a regular person. Here, one can make an excuse to not show to a wedding, but not a funeral.
Wooden replicas of the dead is called tau-tau. This is reserved only for the wealthy families.
The area where the Torajan live is so remote they were not exposed to the outside world till the 1970’s. Through carbon dating of wooden coffins, archeologists believe this practice began in the ninth century.
