Pretend Nothing’s Changed
When someone dies in their home, those who find the body are often quick to have it removed from said home. Decay is imminent, after all, and that creates all kinds of hazards. Some, however, do not abide by this logic and instead treat their dead as if they’re still part of the family.
On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, people of the Toraja tribe stage funerals that can be more elaborate than a royal wedding and take months or years to plan. The Torajans believe that the deceased only gradually move along to the afterlife, so they’re still hanging around while the living plan the funeral.
After the family finishes the feasting, singing and dancing, animal sacrifice, and elaborate cliffside interment, they still have obligations to the deceased. That’s why every August they exhume the dead bodies, clean and dress them up, and then walk them around the village to visit with family and old friends. This goes on until the bodies have decayed totally beyond repair, at which point the dead have finally moved on to the afterlife.
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LifeGem/Getty ImagesA LifeGem diamond made from cremated remains.
Industrialized nations, too, are chock full of funerary eccentricities.
In South Korea, for example, cemetery space shortages have led to a law that requires graves to be dug up and removed within 60 years of burial. To avoid this hassle, many Koreans now cremate their dead, and that has opened up a new niche in the market. For a fee, a Korean company called Bonhyang will convert your loved ones’ ashes into colorful beads that you’re free to do with as you please.
Some American companies, such as LifeGem, take this a bit further and offer to compress the carbon in your loved one’s body into a synthetic diamond of gemstone quality that you can wear in a setting or pendant. For a fee of between $3,000 and $19,000 – which is consistent with the cost of a large funeral in the United States – you can have up to .90 carats of your departed in your choice of Princess, Belgian, or Tiffany cuts.
Or you could convert to Zoroastrianism and go find some vultures.
Next, check out more of the world’s most fascinating death rituals. Then, brush up on seven unusual cultural practices carried out around the world today.
