Martha Kande’s family lived with her greying, shrivelled corpse at their home in Indonesia for seven months, as they prepared an elaborate funeral that is central to the Toraja people’s centuries-old death rituals. “We keep the body in a coffin at home,” Meyske Latuihamallo, the 81-year-old woman’s granddaughter, told AFP. “But it’s kept open before they are buried because we see them as sick so they are brought food and drink every day.” Torajans — an ethnic group that numbers about a million people on Sulawesi island — have few qualms when it comes to talking with an embalmed corpse, dressing them up, brushing their hair or even taking pictures with a mummified relative. AFP / GOH Chai Hin The body is put into a red coffin — in the form of a traditional, boat-shaped house Traditionally the embalming process involved sour vinegar and tea leaves but these days families usually inject a formaldehyde solution into the corpse. “After a week, there’s no odour anymore”, local tourist guide Lisa Saba Palloan told AFP. It may seem a ghoulish practice to some: living side-by-side with an embalmed body for months — or even years — before paying homage in a ritualistic display of blood and guts. But the Toraja believe that a person is only dead — and their soul freed — after an elaborate funeral known as “Rambu Solo”. ‘Preserve tradition’ Wild boars howled and blood poured from a sacrificial buffalo’s throat as Kande’s family prepared her mummified body for the afterlife. AFP / GOH Chai Hin Relatives drag dozens of pigs into the centre of the village for slaughter as the ceremony unfolds Following the five-day ceremony, the octogenarian was placed in one of the many burial caves scattered around the mountainous region, where skeletal remains are arranged by social hierarchy. They sit alongside wooden dolls in traditional clothing, representing deceased nobility, while some bodies are kept in coffins that hang from steep cliffs — owing to limited space. “These are the customs of our ancestors,” said Kande’s 72-year-old nephew Johanes Singkali. “We maintain them to preserve these traditions and keep them sacred from outside influences.” Although most Torajans are Christian — a product of Dutch colonialism — they have held onto earlier traditions rooted in animistic beliefs. The more elaborate a funeral the more likely the person’s spirit will reach the level of the gods. But it comes at a cost. As many as 100 buffalo could be slaughtered for a noble person, while as few as eight will suffice for a middle-class Torajan. AFP / GOH Chai Hin Funerals can set a family back up to two billion rupiah ($133,000) — an extravagant amount in Indonesia Funerals can set a family back up to two billion rupiah ($133,000) — an extravagant amount in a country where more than half the population live on less than $5.50 a day, according to the World Bank. “We used to be animists, so we buried people with boars and buffalos to offer the spirits on the way to the afterlife,” Singkali said. “It costs a lot and there are a lot of preparations while all the relatives living outside Toraja must come too.”