The unusual tradition of Ma’nene in Indonesia’s Toraja region, in South Sulawesi shows families cleaning, dressing up, and even putting cigarettes into the mouths of the exhumed bodies of their dead relatives. While they are vacant, they also take the opportunity to clean their relatives’ crypts. It is a ritual that happens in August every three years— some families honor the ritual every five years.

Torajans spend an exuberant amount of time and money on funerals and subsequent rites, believing that death is not the end. It is important to appease the spirits of their ancestors because it is an accepted belief that if their ancestors are upset, this may very well result in a poor rice harvest. It is also not unusual for bodies to remain in homes for long periods after death, while families save for lavish funerals.

For Torajans, death is a gradual — and social — process. The bodies of people who have recently died are kept at home and preserved by their families, sometimes for years, until the family has enough money to pay for a funeral. The spirit of the dead is believed to linger in the world before the death ceremony is held. Afterward, the soul will begin its journey to “Puya”, the land of the spirits.

The longer the deceased person remains at home, the more the family can save for the funeral — and the bigger and more expensive the ceremony can be. Elaborate funeral ceremonies can last for 12 days and include the sacrifices of dozens of buffalos and hundreds of pigs. Such ceremonies can cost as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Today, Torajans are largely Christian, but their age-old funeral practices
— which predate their conversion to Christianity — persist. Ma’nene’, for example, which is carried out for three years (or more, depending on the family’s agreement), is meant to be a way to honor deceased relatives. According to the belief, performing the rite will result in a better harvest in the following year.