News › General News       11.11.2015

Photos: In Indonesia, people dig up dead relatives for festival

The ritual, known as MaiNene, involves exhumed up dead family members, cleaning them and re-dressing them.

With gloves on their hands and nose covers, the people of island of Sulawesi dig out the corpses for the Cleaning of the Corpses Festival.

The ritual which dates back hundreds of years, islanders pay respects to deceased relatives by digging them up, cleaning their corpses and dressing them in their favourite clothes.

The practice, according to them was adopted by the Toraja, who believed the spirits would reward them for taking care of the dead.

Most members of this group consider themselves Christians- many converted after the Dutch colonized the area. However, old traditions and cultural practices are still very visible within their burial traditions.

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