Ma’nene which translates as The Ceremony of Cleaning of Corpse has been practised for more than a century and takes place in Toraja, South Sulawesi Region of Indonesia.
The Ma’nene ritual or The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses
They say the dead live on in our hearts and minds – but in one Indonesian province, 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 province by following a path of straight lines.
Extravagant funeral ceremony
The Toraja People are an ethnic group indigenous to the mountainous region of Tana Toraja. Funeral ceremonies are incredibly important to the Tarajans and are often held weeks, months, or even years after the death of a person to give the family of the deceased time to raise enough money for expenses. Many families go deeply into debt in order to hold an extravagant funeral ceremony. During the Ma’nene festival, an ancient ritual, every three years they are dug up and admired by loved ones and dressed in new clothes. It is also a time where coffins are repaired or replaced to stop bodies from decomposing. Even the bodies of babies and children are dug up to celebrate the ritual that last for three days. The families open the coffins and let the bodies dry for sometime. After that, they wash, groom and dress up the mummies in new fancy clothes and take them for a walk through the village in straight lines in much zombie-like fashion.
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.
The Ma’Nene Ritual is about to start…
The coffins have been dragged out of the family’s mausoleum. After cleaning the dead body, clothes will be changed before having a sunbath. Rising to Puya (Heaven) also means to enter the afterlife. And, to continue with the living standards one is used to when being on earth. That’s why it is customary for the Torajans to put a gift in the coffin of their ancestors before locking it into a family mausoleum or the traditional stone grave. For some, a bracelet or a watch would do, while the highest cast might even bury a diamond with their loved ones. Nowadays, many are afraid their gifts get stolen. Local police authorities are even investigating cases of stolen mummies. The rumor spread that there’s a high demand from foreign antique-collectors based in Bali. Supposedly, they’re hiring thieves from the area to steel bodies for their private exhibitions. Not to forget about the missing baby mummies who apparently are used for occult medicine.
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