Photograph of Indonesian undead? The walking corpse of Toraja.

reply to post by pepsi78


I completely agree Pepsi78. Although the ceremony isn't a hoax, they way it has been presented here is.

Now I'm not claiming that this pic/story is true, all I want to say on the matter is zombies are real. there was a report a few years back that disclosed the information. They aren't the zombies that movies portray them as.
It's a disease which after death, this virus is able to restart the heart of it’s victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believe to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

Originally posted by ThirdI
Now I'm not claiming that this pic/story is true, all I want to say on the matter is zombies are real. there was a report a few years back that disclosed the information. They aren't the zombies that movies portray them as.
It's a disease which after death, this virus is able to restart the heart of it’s victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believe to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

Ummm no. That's a complete fabrication. It was a BBC April Fools prank. Basic knowledge of human anatomy eliminates the concept of zombism short of RC and cybernetics.

Originally posted by shamus78
reply to post by galadofwarthethird

 

So what is it, you think they took her out while still fresh and has some meat on her, so they can smack her with some leafs, take some pictures and videos and put her back?

Not quite. It's a way of guiding the corpse (and by default the soul) into their new resting place. The burial plot was only temporary, and she will be interred into a new plot further away from the village. This is done as a way to say final goodbyes to the person, and as I said, to guide them onto the next life.

The reason they were buried close to the village was to give the family time to say goodbye. It sometimes takes many days for relatives to come to say goodbye, and for this reason they are kept close for a while.

And galadofwarthethird, please refrain from using insulting language in your posts. We are not a community that likes hearing crud issue forth from people who don't know what they're talking about. Look into the T&C's if you're confused. At the very least, try to make it a bit more creative then out-right name calling.

Cheers
Shane

So sue me..... so its a ritual by that group of humans, still better then the zombie thing....or the march of death by the leapers....the zombie at least have little senses or awareness....the leapers and there march is just sad, they are conscious the whole time.............remember kids zombies are people to.....

Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask
reply to post by galadofwarthethird

 

Rule #1 Thou shalt read up on post and gain knowledge(in this case of said culture and burial practices) before making posts.
#2 Thou shalt treat other posters with respect
#3 Follow rules 1 and 2

1# I dont have to read up on anything I dont want to..............2# I treat these smart ass replies by some, the way I see fit, why so offended by a silly word...could of done much worse.....All in all my time frame thing got mixed up thought this was something else. 3# follow rules 1 and 2...

So, theoretically, a powerful wizard could be the one who raises the all of the great undead armies?

Can these zombies be stopped by a head-shot?? Or, more importantly:

Maybe I could just dance like John Travolta at them and they would 'all fall down'?

"Stayin' Alive" (except of course, in this case, it would be the opposite.)

Interesting. Her mouth is open slightly and her eyes are open. Its like she is looking but in a state of paralysis due to rigga. In Indonesia there are many "wives tales" but some are shrouded in truth. They do things differently in the poorer parts of the world and therefor we can only speculate. However, there traditions and the way they live seems to work for them. We have modern technology, they have dark magic. Two peas from the same pod if looked at from opposing countries.

I'm a registered nurse and have seen an exhumed body many weeks post death. This woman's condition is nearly identical with the skin's yellowing, mottling (blotchiness), and shrinkage around arm and hand bones. Also, the skin of her face has sunk deep into eye sockets and around cheek bones. The internal structures of her nose have started to decay causing it to look shrunken or near-nonexistant.
I do not have any doubts that this is a corpse.
I have read and seen how many cultures treat their dead - ways that would shock most of us in America. Our culture makes us fear the dead and to have nothing to do with the dead body of a family member. Other cultures deal with their dead themselves - hands on; which includes bathing, clothing, etc. They do not use funerals or have anyone else do it for them.
Also, if you notice, her hands are posed as if lying in a coffin.

I deffinately think this woman is dead. The hands look, almost mumified. The thing that gets me is not knowing the truth. I would love to believe this, not that im saying its completely false, but very hard to believe.

I didnt read all the replies to this so it might have been said already ut this looks to me like a case of crusted scabies. Or it could actually be a corpse that has been postured in an upright position for some reason.

okay ...so I spent 3 weeks in Bali last spring. I was staying with a couple of friends that live & work there. Also they speak the language. We also had a local driver... needless to say we had No trouble communicating and learning local customs and culture....

with that said... while there we witnessed a couple different funerals and its was explained to us like this

There are ceremonies for every stage of Balinese life but often the last ceremony-cremation-is the biggest. A Balinese cremation can be an amazing, spectacular, colorful, noisy and exciting event. In fact it often takes so long to organize a cremation that years have passed since the death. During that time the body is temporarily buried. Of course an auspicious day must be chosen for the cremation and since a big cremation can be very expensive business many less wealthy people may take the opportunity of joining in at a larger cremation and sending their own dead on their way at the same time. Brahmans, however, must be cremated immediately. Apart from being yet another occasion for Balinese noise and confusion it's a fine opportunity to observe the incredible energy the Balinese put into creating real works of art which are totally ephemeral. A lot more than a body gets burnt at the cremation. The body is carried from the burial ground (or from the deceased's home if it's an 'immediate' cremation) to the cremation ground in a high, multi-tiered tower made of bamboo, paper, string, tinsel, silk, cloth, mirrors, flowers and anything else bright and colorful you can think of. The tower is carried on the shoulders of a group of men, the size of the group depending on the importance of the deceased and hence the size of the tower. The funeral of a former rajah high priest may require hundreds of men to tote the tower. A long the way to the cremation ground certain precautions must be taken to ensure that the deceased's spirit does not find its way back home. Loose spirits around the house can be a real nuisance. To ensure this doesn't happen requires getting the spirits confused as to their whereabouts, which you do by shaking the tower, running it around in circles, spinning it around, throwing water at it, generally making the trip to the cremation ground anything but a stately funeral crawl. Meanwhile, there's likely to be a priest halfway up to tower, hanging on grimly as it sways back and forth, and doing his best to soak bystanders with holy water. A gamelan sprints along behind, providing a suitably exciting musical accompaniment. Camera-toting tourists get all but run down and once again the Balinese prove that ceremonies and religion are there to be enjoyed. At the cremation ground the body is transferred to a funeral sarcophagus, this should be in the shape of a bull for a Brahmana, a winged lion for a Satria and a sort of elephant-fish for a Sudra. These days, however, almost anybody from the higher castes will use a bull. Finally up it all goes in flames funeral tower, sarcophagus, body, the lot. The eldest son does his duty by poking through the ashes to ensure that there are no bits of body left unburned. And where does your soul go after your cremation? Why, to a heaven which is just like Bali!

In conclusion what I believe is being played out in the OP's picture is the transfer of deceased corpse from a Temporary burial site to its cremation sarcophagus.

Now if they had video of the corpse walking on its own with No Help from anyone.....well this would be a whole different ballgame. The fact is Homie to her left is the Puppet-Master...Holding Upright a Stiff Human corpse....in its current state of decay (imo...unprofessional) I would say that thing weigh's no more than 25lbs. if that....making it No Problem for home-boy to hold it up with one hand

Not a Zombie ....just a Upright Stiff

For those coming from various cultures dont you find it amazing that certain people believe that their belief system is the only one that exists. The walking dead of Toraja I have been hearing about now for 30 years. This ritual was supposedly lost or minimized due to foreigners coming into the country and saying this was the work of the devil. Belief systems again. One of the stories I have heard from several sources is that if a family wanted to see a loved one, one last time they could hire a traditional doctor to perform this ritual if they had enough money. It makes sense that the body is still hardwired (info from another individuals post) so all it is lacking is an energy source. What would happen if you could put a spirit (energy) back into the body. Is it not feasible that this energy source could bring the body back to life. We put a battery in an old car and 'voila' the car is able to start again.

@:

The fact that it's standing upright doesnt mean its "undead"...where is the logic

I think it's a corpse but propped up for the picture + tourism. The nurse it right with her comments.

reply to post by One Step Beyond...


Looks like some old woman with disease/ covered in dry mud.


Someone just decided to make a story around it for attention.

Whoops. Wrong. Corpse propped up..

reply to post by One Step Beyond...i thing these kind of things r sometimes ture but most of them r fake

*Grabs shotgun, ties bandanna around head, glare strips under eyes*...... but these certainly look like corpses taken from their coffins for some kind of ritual, as stated before some cultures will dig up dead relatives and redress them etc etc as for ruling out riga mortis, wouldn't the the skin have turned into a leathery casing by now anyway thus restricting movement (not in the sense of reanimation)?

reply to post by One Step Beyond...


reminds me of the Chinese jiang shi, or hopping corpse. apparently before, some families would not have enough money for transportation, or the corpse had died far away from home. they were reanimated to travel back to their villages by hopping with their arms outstretched. they could be put back to sleep by sticking a piece of paper with a spell on their foreheads. or at least that's what i've been told. ^^

Not sure what to make of this... She could be a burn victim possibly?

I'm not sure what's up with the "corpse" but as someone already pointed out many posts ago, the guy holding her up has skin that doesn't look very healthy and seems to be flaking off, too. That must be a hazardous job, handling corpses and being exposed to disease in a country with sub par health care availability. Extreme poverty combined with a strong reverence for family and the pressure to have elaborate funerals nobody can afford produce situations that cause people to act contrary to good sense.

The left hand of the female assistant looks a bit suspect, too, but that could just be the angle of the photo and artifacting making a bad picture on my screen.