There is a huge mass of stories in which deceased people are the main characters. Each culture has its own way of burying the dead, seemingly reliably paving the line between the real and the other world.
There are countless beliefs about how our soul is transformed after imminent death, and people have formed a long tradition of funerals, special ceremonies and rituals.
Regardless of the culture, the accepted practice of burial and beliefs, in most cases the deceased corpse remains dead for all the further time.
Indonesia, The Walking Dead
In our story, we will have to remember the attitude towards all the mystical, because in Indonesia, the dead can easily come to visit. I'm not talking now about these terrible zombies, or vampires, who crawled out of the grave and gritted their teeth in search of a victim. Many people may not believe, but in Toraja culture there is a term "Walking Dead" (Walking Dead). Moreover, this is not a metaphorical term, but, most likely, real reality, without any mysticism with revived corpses.
Toraja, an ethnic group of people representing the indigenous population of the mountains of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Locals build houses with huge gabled roofs like boats (tongokonan). Also local have long been famous for exquisite woodcarving and unique traditions. The Toraja are well known for their complex and extremely bizarre funeral rites, as well as their choice of a place for the rest of the dead.
This eerie fascination with death can be seen throughout the villages of the tribe. The impression is enhanced by the intricate burial sites carved right into the rocky cliffs in the traditional style of the locals. Unique houses, tongokonan - immaculately decorated with buffalo horns, a symbol of wealth, in which they not only live but are also used as resting places for the corpses of recently deceased relatives.
Promotional video:
Classic Tongokonan houses.
In the funeral rites of the Toraja, one can see all their long-term relationship to death, or rather a strong belief in the afterlife, and the transition process from death to burial is long. When a person dies, their corpse is not always interred, as a rule, washed and kept in the house. To avoid the effects of decomposition, the body of the deceased is covered with the traditional ingredients, betel leaf with banana juice. In some cases, such a residence may take a long time.
In poorer families, the deceased may be kept in the next room of their own house. As a funeral ceremony in Torajo is usually an extravagant affair and requires the presence of all relatives, no matter how far away they may be. Quite naturally, waiting for the arrival of all the relatives of the deceased takes a very long time, plus, it is necessary to collect money for an expensive funeral service and the burial itself.
For us, this will seem like something strange, unusual, not everyone is able to sleep next to the deceased, although this is not particularly unpleasant for the villagers of Torajo. In the local community, it is believed that the death process is long, the soul slowly and gradually makes its way to the afterlife in "Puya".
During this waiting period, the corpse is still treated as if it were still alive. The soul is believed to keep close by, waiting for its way to Puya. The body is clothed and groomed regularly, to the point of offering dinner, as if it were still a living member of the family. And only when all agreements are observed, the relatives will gather and the funeral ceremony begins.
Depending on the level of wealth of the deceased, funerals can be incredibly lavish and extravagant, including mass festivities for several days. During the ceremony, hundreds of family members gather at the Rante ceremonial venue, where they express their grief with music and singing.
Burial caves.
A common feature of such events, especially among the wealthy people of the tribe, is the sacrifice of buffalo and pigs. It is believed that buffaloes and pigs are necessary for the soul of the deceased to move on to the afterlife, and the more animals were sacrificed, the faster the journey will pass. For this, depending on the wealth of the family, I can kill up to a dozen buffaloes and hundreds of pigs, accompanying the event with fanfare of revelers who dance and try to catch the flying blood with bamboo straws.
Shedding blood on the ground is considered important for the soul's transition to Puya, and in some cases, special cockfighting known as "bulangan londong" is held as if the blood of all those buffaloes and pigs is not enough.
When the celebrations are over, and the body is ready for burial, the corpse is placed in a wooden box, after which it will be laid in a cave specially cut for burial (they thought they would bury it in the ground?). Of course, this is a specially prepared cave that meets the requirements for the ritual.
In the event that infants or small children are buried, the box is suspended from the rock with thick ropes until they rot and the coffin falls to the ground, after which it will be re-suspended. The ritual of such a burial, with the hanging of coffins, echoes the tradition of the Indians who lived in an anomalous place known as "Isle of the Dead".
They try to place their dead Toraja higher, since they are placed between Heaven and Earth, it will be easier for the soul to find its way to the afterlife. The burial cave houses many of the tools and equipment the soul needs in the afterlife, including money and, oddly enough, piles of cigarettes.
Walk with a mummified corpse
Burial caves can have only one coffin, and represent complex mausoleums for the rich, there can be rich decoration, and the place itself can wait for the death of relatives. To put it simply, they are a kind of family crypts.
Some of the tombs are more than 1,000 years old, with coffins containing rotted bones and skulls. However, after the actual burial in the Toraja tribe, this does not mean that no one will see the deceased again.
A photograph of the alleged corpse's walk.
Here there is the most unusual ritual for the dead, giving birth to tales of the living dead or zombies. Once a year, in August, residents come to the caves to visit the dead, they not only repair a broken coffin in case of need, but also take care of the dead: they wash and bathe the deceased!
The ritual is known as "Ma'nene", a ceremony for caring for corpses. Moreover, the care procedure is carried out regardless of how long they have been dead or how old they were. Some of the corpses spent so long in the caves that they were mummified quite well.
At the end of the procedure for refreshing the dead, residents hold them in an upright position and “walk” with them through the village to the place of their death and back. After this strange walk, the inhabitant of the afterlife is sent back to the coffin, and left until the next year, when the whole process is repeated again.
To some, all this may seem rather creepy and strange, however, as it is argued, in some remote areas of Indonesia, more strange ceremonies take place: the dead here can walk on their own!
It is also true that the funeral rites and rituals in Toraja are extremely demanding, because in order for the spirit of the deceased to be able to pass into the afterlife, certain conditions must be strictly observed.
First, absolutely all relatives of the deceased's family must attend the funeral. Secondly, the deceased must be interred in the village of his birth. If these conditions are not met, the soul will forever linger near the body in limbo, and will not be able to travel to the afterlife. Such an assurance led to the fact that people did not want to leave their native villages, fearing to die far from the place of birth, thereby depriving the soul of the opportunity to get into the afterlife.
The walking dead go home
All this created some problems in the past, when the Dutch showed up here with colonization. The Toraja lived in remote villages, autonomous, which were completely isolated from each other and from the outside world, with no roads connecting them.
When someone died far from their place of birth, it was difficult for the family to get the body to the right place.
Rugged and mountainous terrain, long distances, presented a rather serious problem. The solution to the problem was unique, and it boiled down to the fact that the corpses must go home themselves!
In order for the deceased to independently reach the village where he was born, and thereby remove a lot of trouble from loved ones, shamans began to look for a person who has the power to temporarily bring the dead back to life. Perhaps this is from the field of black magic used by shamans to return the dead to temporary life.
The Walking Dead are said to be largely unaware of their condition, and are often unresponsive to what is happening. They lack the ability to express thoughts or emotions, and resurrected corpses are able to perform only the most basic tasks, such as walking.
When the deceased is returned to life, it is only for one purpose, to drag his feet to the place of his birth, guided by the instructions of the shaman or family members. Although legends tell, in some cases the walking dead walk on their own.
Relatives take care of the long-dead.
Have you now imagined how you met a walking corpse on the road? Do not be alarmed, in fact, in front of the group of wandering dead, special people necessarily walked, they showed the way, and warned about the dead man walking to the grave.
By the way, black magic is certainly a powerful thing, but the journey to the place of birth had to take place in silence, it was forbidden to turn to the lively one. One had only to call out to him by name, as all the power of magic was destroyed, and the dead finally died.
The walking dead, danger of a zombie invasion?
It is not even known whether a bullet can achieve such a striking effect and knock down a living deceased, but the decaying spell knocks him down with a swing. Nevertheless, if someone panicked and starts preparing for the imminent outbreak of zombies, then I will note that this process is only a temporary effect. It is necessary to transport the corpse to the place of birth, although depending on the distance it can take several days or even weeks.
At the same time, there is no word about what will happen if a resident dies abroad. Although it is known, being in a "zombie" state, the dead did not growl, did not attack a person with the aim of biting, it is completely passive to the surrounding creature. After the walking dead man reaches his native place, he again becomes a simple corpse, awaiting his funeral in the usual way. Interestingly, as they say, the body can be reanimated to life again so that the deceased can reach the coffin.
Currently, with the increase in the number of roads and the availability of transport, the ritual of the walking dead is considered an unnecessary practice, in our time, the return of the dead to life is extremely rare in the Toraj culture.
Needless to say, the modern generation has little faith in the stories of grandmothers, considering the walking dead as an old invention.
However, some outlying villages allegedly still practice the ancient rites of bringing the dead to life. There is an isolated village in these places called "Mamasa", especially famous for the practice of this terrible rite.
Here, they still use the possibilities of black magic to talk with the dead and tell them about the accomplishments of their descendants. Often, such moments are captured by cameras and become publicly available.
Despite the fact that the bodies in the attached photographs look very real, they are considered nothing more than a hoax. It is also suspected that the photographs show people suffering from some kind of disfiguring disease that gives the body the illusion of death.
It is difficult to say which is more present here, folklore or deception. Or maybe in the Toraja tribe shamans really have tremendous power, temporarily raising the dead and allowing them to walk? In any case, eerie and nightmarish traditions exist in South Sulawesi, where some residents believe that what is happening to the dead is real.