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By Ayesha Sitara
Indonesia’s Torajan hill tribe is known for its animistic funeral rites, that involve caring for the dead at home – sometimes for years after they dieduntil a buffalo has been sacrificed. Click here for Part 1.
💡Note: This gallery contains graphic images of human remains and animal slaughter.
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Torajans practice a class based society and so funerals of the richer noblemen are more extravagant to mark their status. Their graves are decorated with statues in their image, knows as tau taus, and the most elite noblemen who have sacrificed more than 23 buffalos have monoliths erected in their honour.
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The dead are never forgotten and continue to be attended to through a unique ritual called Ma’nene. After the yearly harvest, whole families and villages help to exhume the dead bodies and dry them out in the sun for a few days to a week.
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The dead are then carefully and affectionately cleaned, given new clothes, their hair is combed, and they are bestowed with jewellery, toys, musical instruments and other such items.
Some bodies are even erected onto bamboo poles and families gather to take group photos, just like any joyful occasion such as a birthday party or wedding ceremony.
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The Ma’nene ritual is also celebrated with animal sacrifice, feasting and drinking locally brewed liquor in a way that is unique to Torajans, who believe that loving and caring for their dead family members does not stop with life on this earth.
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Ayesha Sitara is a documentary photographer based in Hong Kong. She has published work in Gestalten, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Hindu, HarpersCollins, Asia Times, SCMP and Wall to Wall Media UK (Documentaries) to name a few. She received honourable mention at the 19th Pollux Awards and her photos were exhibited at Fotonostrum Gallery in Barcelona. She is a member of Cathay Camera Club in Hong Kong and winner of the annual exhibition in 2022.
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