Tana Toraja – INDONESIA

17 June 2017

80 year old, Ne Selpi, does the sign of the cross after She placed food next to the coffin containing the body of her sister Norma in the interior of the Tongkonan, the house that precedes the rest of the buildings in the family home in Deri village.

Many families keep their deceased relatives in their homes for weeks, months, or even years after they die. Until the funeral ritual, a deceased person gets treated as a “to makula” – a person who’s ill, to whom one can talk to and feed symbolically.