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    PHOTOS: The Dead Live With Their Loved Ones On This Indonesian Island

    The Toraja people of Indonesia keep the preserved bodies of their deceased relatives at home for years. They're saving up for a big funeral. But there's a deeper reason for the custom.
    by Tommy Trenchard Sep 29, 2019 5 minutes
    Suande, whose uncle died a month previously, lays a cloth over his coffin on the eve of the funeral.

    Editor's note: This story contains images that some readers may find disturbing.

    As a host, 90-year-old Alfrida Lantong is somewhat passive. Lying resolutely on her back and gazing up through a pair of thick, dusty spectacles, she roundly ignores her son's murmured greeting as he enters the room and pays little heed to the gaggle of grandchildren clustered around her.

    But Alfrida can hardly be blamed for her unresponsiveness. After all, she has been dead for the last seven years.

    Alfrida belongs to the Toraja people of southern Sulawesi in Indonesia, for whom the line between life and death is not black and white. Though her heart stopped beating in 2012, as far as her family is concerned she is only which translates loosely as "sick." They still visit her regularly, talk to her and bring her three meals a day, which they leave on the floor.

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