Some customs and traditions can be absolutely horrifying to people who are not familiar with them. Case in point is the people who live in the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. The Toraja community co-exist with the corpse of the dearly departed.
While the corpse still remains in the house, they consider it as being sick, and as such provide it with all the love and care that is due to a sick person. They bring it food, pray with it and keep the fire in the room burning to keep it warm.
According to cultural expert Yacob Kakke, poorer people don't keep the corpse for long, they do so for only a few weeks (really?) and then conduct the funeral. The middle class on their part can keep the dead bodies for several months, while the high class keeps the dead bodies for several years.
In preparation for the funerals, the families buy a buffalo to be used as sacrifice. According to their tradition, a person who is buried without the buffalo will not transit quickly to the afterlife, because the buffalo is the vehicle to the afterlife.
As if living with dead bodies for years is not enough, every few years, the families return to the ancestral tomb for the second burial called 'ma'nene'. Here the villagers clean the corpse and change their clothes to give them a fresh look.
