Warning Graphic: Villagers dig up their ancestors and dress them for ancient ritual

 WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Photos show the Ma’nene Festival in Indonesia where bodies of dead relatives are dug up and dressed up

• The ritual has been going for more than a century and is celebrated by the Torajan people in Indonesia
• Relatives parade decomposing bodies dressed in new clothes and pose for photos with the corpses
• The festival’s name means ‘The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses’ and it takes place every three years

• The Torajan people of Indonesia proudly display their dead relatives after digging them up and dressing them in new clothes in an ancient ritual that is meant to show respect for their late loved ones.

  Every three years, the tribe from Sulawesi island exhume their dead, who they wash and dress in fresh clothes and then pose for family photographs in a festival known as Ma’nene.

  The ritual, which translates as ‘The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses,’ has been going for more than a century.

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  In some cases the deceased’s funeral is held several weeks or even years after their death so the family have can have time to save up and pay for an extravagant funeral.

  But the funeral is never the last time their relative’s body is seen. Whenever an elderly villager dies, their body is wrapped in several layers of cloth to prevent decay.

  Then, they are dug up every three years, admired by loved ones and dressed in different clothing.

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  Another important element of the Ma’nene festival is replacing and repairing the coffins to stop bodies from decomposing.

  The Torajan people live high in the mountains of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The area is so remote that many of the villages were completely autonomous until the 1970s, when the area was exposed to the outside world by Dutch missionaries.

  The villagers are encouraged to marry within their family – but only beyond the fourth cousin.

  In the Torajan belief system, death is not a final step, but just one step in an ongoing spiritual life.