Dressing The Dead: Creepy Indonesian Festival Where Families Dig Up Corpses

#1 Every 3 years this Indonesia ethnic group called the Torajan exhume their dead ones to celebrate life.

This celebration is locally called Ma'nene which literally translates to "The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses".

#2 Celebrate life you say?

The Torajan are an indigenous people belonging to the mountainous region of Tana Torajan.

#3 How did this tradition begin?

According to the people, an animal hunter named Pong Rumasek found an abandoned corpse under a tree. The hunter then dressed the corpse in clothes and gave it a proper burial. This was more than a century ago and since then this tradition has been transferred through to the generations.

#4 The hunter Rumasek believed that when he dressed the corpse and gave it a burial he was blessed and that the spirits would reward him.

This belief was then adopted by the Torajan people who believe that they will be rewarded for taking care of their corpses.

#5 The people exhume, clean, groom and then dress the dead in the latest fashionable clothes.

#6 Their coffins are replaced or fixed as the relatives parade them in the village in straight lines.

#7 They believe the lines connect them to a spiritual entity known as "Hyang", a spiritual power that only moves in straight lines.

#8 Sometimes families hold on and wait for years to collect enough money to organize a grand send off into the afterlife for the dead person.

#9 This grand send off involves putting animals in trials of strength and then sacrificing them. The horns of the animals are placed in front of the families doorstep.

#10 Before the ceremony is completed the body is kept in a large stone cave until the funeral rituals are completed.

#11 Prior to the celebration the locals refer to the dead as "the one who is asleep" or "the one who is sick" they do not believe that they are dead.

#12 Torajans, believe that their dead should be buried in an area where they once lived. So if a husband and a wife wish to be buried together it is considered a breach of loyalty to the family.

#13 A ritual called "Sesemba" where hundreds of locals gather to pay respects to the dead on an island village at Sulawesi, Indonesia.

#15 Torajan men cook a pig in the traditional way using bamboo sticks and open fire.