A way of death

For the Toraja people of South Sulawesi in Indonesia, death is a very drawn-out affair. When a Torajan heart stops beating, their loved ones do not speak of them as dead –, ‘a sick person’, from the point of biological death through to their burial in a cave. Torajan funerals are elaborate and expensive, so that could be months or even years away. Until then, the lays embalmed in their house. Even once buried, the dead keep coming back. Every August the Toraja have a festival called , where the dead are removed from their tombs, re-dressed, cleaned, even have their make-up re-done.The living walk the dead around their village, give them cigarettes, and take selfies with them. The dead are then reinterred with new grave gifts, such as mobile phones.