Living with the dead in Indonesia - BBC News 

I wouldn't sleep one night in the house

I guess the living room is no longer a LIVING room😂😂😂 okay sorry I’ll go now

Distant relative calls :so how is dad doing? Man : yk he’s pretty much still dead and all ..... he still gets his cigarettes tho

"If we don't take care of him properly, his spirit will haunt us" *Brings Cigarette*

The reporter handled it very well.

I am 100% Indonesian but I will scare living with the dead people. Indonesia has 33 provinces with hundreds of different languages, different cultures, religious and different life style.But still respectful the differences.

I can tell that dead dude is enjoying that Sprite

"Grandpa, wake up, let's go eat!" Well... I would be glad if my dead grandpa doesn't really join me doing breakfast.

Indonesia has about 300 ethicity. You have to say Toraja spesifically or people in Indonesia will think that you are insane for saying indonesian people are living with the dead. hahahha

I learn the weirdest shit from bbc.

I'm an in home geriatric nurse. And it is a privilege to care for the dying and the sick. I wanted to be around death because I had so little experience with it. In Western culture we are so afraid of death that we hide from it. The second someone dies we send them to a funeral home so we don't have to deal with it. It didn't used to be like this and it doesn't have to be like this now. We can keep our loved ones at home and wash them and hold the funeral in our homes like we used to until very recently. Like 1960s recently. Severing our connection with death is a mistake. Our children grow up shielded and so grow up afraid of death. Death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. Not by a long shot.

In Ireland we keep or recently deceased in the house for a few days, family and friends come and say they're goodbye, and then we have a big funeral and party, which lasts a few days as well, then an official funeral in the church and burial. Similar, but on a much smaller scale. It helped my family deal with grief.

Am I️ the only one in love with the interviewer. She’s gorgeous!.

I lived in south sulawesi, and Toraja just about 8hours from my hometown (by car). Ive been there a thousand times. those who ask about religion, let me introduce you first, that a long time ago, before regular religion came, Torajan have their own believe called Aluk To Dolo, it kinda like ancient god. and they believe that even when someone died, they didnt really die until the family make a ceremony and sacrifie some pig and buffallo. so until they can make the ceremony, coz Tedong Bonga (a special kinda buffallo) isnt cheap (for seriously, one buffallo as equal as a house and a car), so they keep the body, and pretend the body still alive but lived in coma, thats why they keep offering some food, coffee or cigarette. and about the smell, theres no smell on it because they have some special herb to hold the smell. if you want to ask some more about toraja, please feel free. or if you wanna go there, please contact me, my father is a tour guide..

God I couldn’t imagine the smell of opening a casket after years of being buried

Why don't we just respect their culture? We have different ways of life.. Why don't you go there and educate them if you really that their tradition is wrong.., mind your own business. What would you feel if your own culture is being insulted by other ethnic group? Put your self on the shoes of the others. THAT'S THEIR WAY OF LIFE..

Just a piece of many cultures in Indonesia In Trunyan (Bali) the dead are not buried. They are simply laid on the ground and left to rot. Visit our country, you'll see a lot of unique cultures, beautiful places and many more

I understand it's creepy or weird but it's a different way to deal with deaths. You can't say that's wrong for there's no absolutely right way to let the loved ones go. Plus it's a insult to those people. We just have to acknowledge different rituals even it feels quite immoral to us.

It's not funny that a lot people here disrespect & make fun of sacred culture other country.

If it is their culture, I respect it. Who are we to judge.

Why did I came here

This would be illegal in many places.

By seeing this i thought if this tradition is followed in my culture i would be glad because my mother died when i was 1 year I didn't even remember the time spent with my mother I miss you Maa

I don’t find this at all disturbing but what is disturbing is grief. I find interesting educational videos like this, a comfort, a balance, a window into how different people cope with the horror of emotion after loosing a loved one which many can eventually relate to.

Kudos to the production team for creating the most humanizing investigative report on this custom that I have yet seen. This was not only a beautiful tribute to the reporter's father and a respectful boon to the deceased, but also a resounding testament to the love of family that can transcend the limits of death itself. When my grandparents passed away I couldn't bring myself to attend their wake, and for years I struggled to find closure. I still miss them very much. Last week I visited my grandmother's grave and I felt the emotional connection was still there. The Indonesian man's words to the reporter about how she was also observing Ma'nene in her own way had me in tears. It felt personal. Anyone that has lost a loved one will know that this is a universal experience, to love and have loved. I find this to be a beautiful if sometimes sensationalized or misunderstood custom. Wonderful story and all-round top reporting, you did your father proud.

Being Indonesians (tho not particularly from Toraja), I am never really told that this Toraja tradition of keeping the dead is related with dealing with the grief as much as it is with the actual amt of money needed to hold the funeral. That ceremony costs a fortune to most families, you know...and thats often why they cant immediately bury their dead relatives

Im impressed with indonesians.... Even the kids arent scared :0 Edit: omg thx for 9 likes!1!!!!!!!!111!!!!

I'm indonesian but from different ethnic (indonesia has sooooo many ethnicities fyi), and my reaction when watching this....😐😐

We Toraja tribe highly uphold the customs and we love our ancestors so do not berate what we do. Sorry, my English is bad.

It's called 'pretending they aren't really dead.'

*2:16** you know you thug when you get sprite and weed even after your death*

I'm Indonesian.. we have more than 17.000 islands, 300 ethnic groups , different languages, cultures , religions , and many more . even though I'm not from Toraja , but here in Indonesia we're respect each other, because we are unity in diversity. So please just respect our culture. They do this things because for make a funeral ceremony is spend so much money until 70.000 dollars.. so they have to saving money , before they have money . they're put their dead family in their house.

it is creepy, but I ain't afraid of the dead, I'm afraid of the living. dead people can't harm you, the living can harm you.

To each their own but i never wanna see a love one slowly decompose

People do this is out of love. They don't want to except the fact family member are gone. I can totally understand why.

Reporter : none of this kids are scared of this dead person laying here Kid wearing white shirt : sweating as hell 3:16

Does the whole house not smell bad?

The woman who kept her relative's body for 12 years think it helped her deal with her loss? If anything, it has stopped her from moving on with her life. Very sad.

Suprisingly the language I’ve heard here sounds similar to Ilocano, a language group in northern Luzon Philippines 🇵🇭. I appreciate the efforts of the documentarians and the Islanders for sharing their traditions and experiences 🙂

Who feels proud to be a Muslim ☺️

Imagine the reaction if the head fell of the corpse...

CANT YOU JUST RESPECT THEIR CULTURE?

When you die, your soul leaves your body. That body is nothing but dust. The deceased is no longer in that body. They're preserving dirt, that's all

I think watching my decomposing family member would do me more bad than good.

iam torajan,This is why my mother told me not to cry over my grandfather body before his burial, because we consider he just sleeping...

Hi, it's nice to see everyone's comments. But, I would like to point one or two things. Actually, this video is a part of their (the toraja) culture, so we don't need to try to justified their value since we aren't a toraja. And it have no (direct) relation to any official religions in Indonesia :"). Second, if I am not mistaken, the cost and preparation for the burial ritual in toraja is considered high (for some), so they treat them like a sick or dying person instead of the dead one. I not sure, but I think it related of their concept of 'soul'. Sorry, because I am not a toraja people, so my knowledge is very basic (but I am Indonesian, don't worry bout it LoL). Forgive my english, btw :"") So yeah, let's take a lesson from their culture and respect it in the same time :) And stop calling them... mmm... abnormal ? Hahaha Love from YK, INA.

I love learning about different cultures!! This is so coooool.

The reporter was cute 👀

I really enjoyed watching this. This gives me such a sense of respect for their culture and beliefs. They show so much respect for their dead

I am an Indonesian and I learned things like this when I was in the eighth grade. We were taught about the Toraja culture and honestly, It initially gave me creeps along with many of my friends. But we soon realized that their culture is to perserve the dead so they could still live with them both physically and spiritually and I respect it.

I know how the Narrator feels my dad is gone and when I watched this I almost started crying 😭

Pulling out a dead loved one will just rejuvenate the pain of loosing them. It's better to let them rest in peace.

its nothing to do with Religion, its just how torajan people do it, its their culture. these torajan people are confuse which one is religion which one is their culture. before Christianity came to Indonesia long long time ago, this is how they do it to the deaths, so long time a go people who spread Christianity make a way so that these people can accept Christian without them rejecting it and saying this is not how we do it, so they combine their culture with their religion. so, until now these people dont really know which one is which. they just simply saying its christian because thats how their parents, grandparents and great grandparents said so. If you go to java island you will see Christian bury body of their loves one, not like how torajan people do it. Indonesia is such a beautiful country, the culture is so thick that some time its own people mistaken with religion.

He died. Let him rest in Peace. He is with a higher power now. Let him rest

Walking dead enter the village Torajan: Yo what's up? Grandpa I have some new friends for ya!

As an Indonesian Batak Tribe, I love how Toraja Tribe respect their Anchestors. Because previously we did what they did on dead family members. Sometimes we kept them in a week, sometime a month, depend to the rank of the dead family members. But now as Christians, we has eliminate those traditions since decades ago. Now we only did mourning 1 until 3 days, then we burry them into their final resting place.

i rather remember the person who was still alive than seeing their dead body in a coffin..so if someone died i wont look on their dead body cause it will only remind me that thier gone already.i will only remember when they still alive so forever in my heart they are still alive

I am an Indonesian, even not a Torajan, I am so proud to be the part of Indonesian culture. And I don't take it as a weird thing even I am out from Toraja clans. I believe every clans, and every country have their own culture that may be different from ours, but it doesn't mean it is weird, every culture have philosophy that probably we don't know as outsider, and all we can do is respect those cultures, take it as unique things, instead judging.

When will they ever rest in peace?😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😭😭😭😭😭😭

So if you weren't loved in life, would your relatives still do all this for you?

It must be a very smelly village.

Wow... it's like this thing called, culture! Never heard of that before!!1!!1!1

When someone passes we have to have the funeral almost immediately

The houses are so dope to me! It's like they were built to intentionally look like ancient ships. If anybody who is Indonesian or from Sulawesi who knows more about that feel free to educate me! But overall I think the whole process of caring for your deceased loved ones is super unique & interesting! It's a lot different from my culture but by no means do I think it's weird at all!

They did not deal with death...they cannot even let goooooo

This culture is not only in Indonesia but my Madagascan brothers and sisters do this too, the only difference is that they don't keep the bodies with them in the house for long, the common thing with the Indonesians that they exhume the dead after some years for a family reunion

im from Indonesia, i dont from Toraja but im stil respect them

I respect it...this actually brought tears to my eyes

This is a good report.We should appreciate our diversity

I am a practicing Muslim,personally i think this is extremely disturbing.But the thing is i dont really know about the background andd culture of that particular part of indonesia,so that leaves me with no right to judge these people.Secondly,the other disturbing thing was the reporter saying that its an islamic practice...OMG no no no....Islam stricktly prohibits to keep dead,died in the morning should be buried till the evening,and when it comes to grieving,you are only suggested to grieve for 3 days only and then accept the fact that everyone has to die one day.

I read some of the comments and I saw hate comments why are people not respectful to the Toraja people im an Indonesian and not every Indonesian does this this is just a culture and you should respect that

8:39 .. wow. While we may not treat our loved ones as this culture does, it is Ma'nene.. I find something very comforting and beautiful about this tradition, even though it is so far removed from my own.

Sorry about your fathers death! This is really creepy and unhealthy though

As an indonesian im very proud that this got to BBC so everyone can learn a bit about indonesian culture :)🇲🇨

Indonesia is beautiful, full of culture full of surprise. I proud to be Indonesian

I feel like this is a healthy way of grieving when it was time to bury my grandfather I wasn’t ready I wish I had longer

at least their village is beautiful!

لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله.. استغفر الله

i would rather run away from my home instead of staying with a dead person

Honestly, this is a very touching culture. I can see why people choose to partake in it and keep it alive.

That's never a healthier way to dealing with loss... that's merely obsession and refusing to let go...

May Allah guide these people. From lost communitys dragging dead ppl around tobatoba

Man: *DEAD FOR TWO YEARS* Son: “we bring him cigarettes” Seems legit

I mean having a corpse in the house could spread diseases, but it's really cool how they embrace the dead and have such a sentimental connection with their dead relatives' bodily presence. I hope they'll keep practicing and preserving this custom.

for other people you would think that this is crazy and not make sense but its their tradition from the ancestor and it is need to be preserved. Toraja has the unique tradition to respect their families who have died.

This shit is not normal.

lost my dad nearly 2 years ago and still haven't quite come to terms with it, this vid hit a bit too close to home

I can't even imagine living with the dead people.. no wayyyyyy 💔💔💔💔🤯🤯🤯🤯

Thats just weird Extremely weird

12 years?? But the question is when do they get rid of it? Also why kill multiple animals because of one death of a human?

Imagine if they’re just posing and when the camera shuts off they start moving around.

Why people really don't like this Documentary? You can just leave that's it.

How can they keep death smell away ???????OMG

This is Torajan culture if you don't like to watch just get out huh... It's the same as in my Sumba Island We keep the dead for long time before buried them.. Burying the dead costly but that's out culture... I love my country and out culture 😍😍😍😍 God bless us all

I would be totally mortified if i had to live with a deceased family member for that long😶 the decaying would traumatize me 🥺

They love their dear one so much that they do not bear to leave them yet.

I respect ✊🏾👌🏾✌🏾

This is their culture/belief/tradition. Why one can't let them be? It might not be what we believe in or grow up to believe as 'normal' but this is their normal. Please respect everybody's belief.

Of all the documentaries i've watched about the Torajan Death Culture, this is by far the most neutral one. There's space given for actual Torajans to define and explain the beliefs and cultural systems they hold dear. No forced representation and grotesque editing that only puts emphasis to things that the western defines as taboo. Thank you BBC for the insight!

Jesus.. I think if I was dead I'd want to be resting in peace. Not be brought up from my damn coffin, danced about and Woo woo'ed over like im a puppet.. Let. Me. Sleep! 😂