Resurrection and Facebook
By Claire Thompson: Assistant Producer
It is incredible to observe her unique grieving process, which finally begins 18 months after Tadung’s last breath.
For the Circle of Life episode, we have flown to Sulawesi in Indonesia to film the most elaborate funeral rituals in the world.
When Torajan people die, they remain in the house for several months, even years before their funeral. It is very disconcerting to see an embalmed dead body at home, but here Tadung is considered only sick, not dead, until his funeral.
A highlight of our filming trip is meeting the widow, our main character, who acts immediately like everyone’s favourite granny, always offering us food and trying to fatten us up. It is incredible to observe her unique grieving process, which finally begins 18 months after Tadung’s last breath.
The week of funeral rituals include buffalo fights and sacrifice, songs being chanted round his great sarcophagus, which is finally carried by 30 men to the family tomb.
The Torajan links with the dead don’t end there.
We also film a resurrection ritual called a ‘ma’nene’, as another family remove the body of a long dead husband from his tomb. He is unwrapped and welcomed back to the land of the living by his family, who greet him as if he is alive; trying on his glasses and commenting on how smart he looks.
They even stand him up to bounce the dust off him, most of which ends up coating the crew with a fine layer of very dead skin! Then the family take selfies with him to post on Facebook.
What might seem macabre to us, is so natural for them, that perhaps it should make us rethink our own attitudes to hiding death away.
The most extraordinary death ritual of all, Ma'Nene, Indonesia
Loved one's bodies are raised from the grave in the Ma'Nene ritual, Indonesia
