We all know that once we are dead, we’re gone. Forever. This is the unavoidable natural phenomenon which no one can escape from. We sure miss our loved ones when they’re dead and to over come that, we do certain things like framing their pictures, seeing their things etc. But what these people do are unexpected. They keep the dead alive. You must be wondering how is that possible? Well that’s what I thought too.
Actually, they don’t keep them alive in the real sense. What they do is unbelievable! This is not the story of mummies from Egypt. Not how scientists preserve the dead for experiments. These people exhume the corpses of their family and loved ones. How surprised are you? Pretty much, I bet. Seems like they can’t get over with their family members, who can. So let’s read out the real story about how these people exhume the corpses.
This is a ritual practiced by some small Indonesian communities.Mostly the families of Taroja in South Sulawesi are found doing this ritual. These families believe in bringing the dead man’s spirit back to place where it lived. If it were you or me then we would definitely get scared at the thought of spirits, ghosts or the dead. But these people welcome them. Now that’s some real daring game! They say that they exhume or preserve the dead bodies of their families to respect them. According to them, they just can’t bury them forever.
So what they do is, take them out once in every three years. When their family members die, the cremation ceremony is quite normal, just like how we do. They bury them and bid farewell. But once in every three years, they dig up those graves and take them out. They take the dead bodies and walk around the village. Seems like the dead going for a morning walk after they wake up LOL. Anyway, before taking them to the village, they also clean the corpses. They groom the bodies, wash them and also dress them in the latest fancy dresses. Sounds thrilling, no? They don”t just take care of these dead bodies but also their coffins. These families would clean and also repair the damages, if any, of the coffins.
This bizarre tradition is named as Ma’en or The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses. Be it a child or an old person’s corpse, they are all given a proper bath and new clothes. After this they are taken for a walk in straight lines around the villages. Even though the logic of doing this is not know, these people do it to honor their ancestors. They actually call the spirits of their dead relatives. Sounds scary, but they do it. After performing this ritual, the bodies are again buried in their respective graves for another three years.