Fancy being buried in a giant-sized shoe? Or being left out for the vultures? That’s what could happen if you lived in one of these places…
Madagascar
The Malagasy people follow a tradition known as Famadihana (https://theculturetrip.com/africa/madagascar/articles/famadihana-madagascars-day-of-the-dead/ ) which means ‘turning of the bodies’. What this tradition involves is the Malagasay bringing the bodies of their ancestors from the family crypts and rewrap them in fresh clothes. You would think that this would be enough but it isn’t. The Malagasay then dance with the corpses around the tomb to live music. Apparently, it is a way to remember their dead relatives and loved ones from time to time. They bury them again after carrying them around their villages.
Surely a photograph would be easier.
The Zoroastrians
At one time, Zoroastrianism was one of the most widely practised religions of the ancient world. However, after thousands of years of persecution, there remain only about 200,000 practising members living mainly in India.
Zoroastrians, as a rule, aren’t all that comfortable with dead bodies. Because the corpses of the deceased are seen as defiling everything they touch. Zoroastrian ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/ )funerals begin by cleansing the body in unconsecrated bull’s urine. After the body has been “cleansed,” it is laid in linen to be visited by “Sagdid” a four-eyed dog. The ‘four-eyes’ comes from the idea that ideally, the dog has a spot over each of its’ normal eyes to focus its’ gaze. This rite is repeated five times throughout the day. Finally, the linens are removed using special tools that prevent members of the community from touching the defiled garments and the deceased is placed on the top of a “Tower of Silence” to be consumed by vultures; a process that’s seen as doing the smallest possible amount of harm to the living.
Tibet
Tibetan Buddhists also practice ritual dissection or ’Sky Burial’ (https://www.tibettravel.org/tibetan-local-customs/tibetan-funeral.html )and follow the tradition of chopping up the dead into small pieces and giving the remains to animals, particularly birds. Although at times, the body is left intact. To the western world this may seem undignified and even a bit disgusting, but, from a Buddhist perspective, it makes complete sense. Buddhists have no desire to preserve or commemorate a dead body, something that is seen as an empty vessel.
Furthermore, in tune with their respect for all life, Buddhists consider it most fitting that one’s final act is to have their remains used to sustain the life of another living creature; and in fact, the ritual is seen as a gesture of compassion and charity. Even today, over 80% of Tibetan Buddhists choose Sky Burial, a ritual that has been observed for thousands of years.
Papua New Guinea
Losing a loved one is a traumatic experience in itself but the Dani people of West Papua, New Guinea until not so very long ago took this to a whole new level and made any woman and child related to the deceased cut off their own fingers. Astonishingly, the reason for this was to drive away the spirits of the deceased and to use physical pain as an expression of sorrow and suffering. To perform the amputation, fingers were tied tightly with string and then cut off with an axe. The leftover piece was then dried and burned to ashes or stored in a special place. Not surprisingly, the barbaric ritual is now banned in New Guinea, but older members of the community still display the physical signs.
Benguet, the Philipines (https://www.funeralwise.com/digital-dying/the-spectacular-death-rituals-of-the-philippines/ )
The Philippines, although it is largely a Christian society nowadays, people who live in more remote regions follow the customs they have followed for hundreds of years. Benguet is a landlocked province in the southern tip of the island of Luzon. When someone dies here, friends and relatives convene at the deceased’s house. The body is cleaned, and a few of the men are dispatched to collect bamboo, which they then fashion into a chair, so far so normal, nothing too out of the ordinary, but this is when things start to go awry. The body of the deceased is seated on the bamboo chair and fastened in place with more bamboo and strips of cloth. So that the deceased does not have to bear witness to the suffering in the world, the body is blindfolded. A fire is lit to fend off insects and also to act as a beacon just in case the deceased’s spirit wanders off and is unable to find its’ way home.
This period lasts for eight days and, as you might expect, the body begins to decay. And while we in the West may find this pretty distasteful, this holds no fear for the Benguet people, quite the opposite in fact. They actually make jokes about the smell, and happily offer alcoholic drinks to the body during the mourning feast. The night before the funeral, elders give a chanted biography of the deceased and as the body is buried, mourners hit bamboo sticks together in the belief it will help the departed find their way to heaven.
South Korea
Cremation is becoming a more popular choice for many families in the small country of South Korea but not for the reasons you may think. In fact, because the country is so small it is fast running out of burial space and a law passed in 2000 requires families who choose burial for their loved ones to remove the grave after 60 years.
But rather than have their family members stored in urns, the Koreans prefer to have the ashes pressed into ‘death beads’ for about £900, in a choice of colours turquoise, pink or black. These are then displayed around the house.
Ghana (https://roadsandkingdoms.com/travel-guide/accra/the-fantasy-coffins-of-ghana/ )
While the tradition of the funeral itself is more like what we are familiar with in the UK as the service is a memorial and a celebration of the deceased, there is one very significant difference in Ghananian funerals. The departed is laid to rest in a ‘fantasy coffin’( see photo)
The idea is that the coffin is fashioned to represent something that the person was known for in life; a Nike training shoe, a 747 jet or maybe a guitar, and by being buried with something that represents their passion, it’s taken with them into the next life.
Coffin making in Ghana is an art and the designs are purposely brash and colourful, so they stand out as the dead are taken to their resting place in true party style, with some funerals lasting as long as two or three days.
So, if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to make choices over the funeral of a loved one, be grateful that, difficult though it is, your choices are going to be restricted to cremation or burial and what sort of coffin to have and not which finger you should choose to remove!