Baby grave: how the dead grow with the alive

Losing a child is probably one of the worst kind of losses anyone could possibly go through. The way Torajan people bury babies may offer some comfort. Babies less than six month old are buried in big trees. A square hole is opened in the tree trunk and the little corpse put inside. The trees must have a white sap, so that the dead babies can feed on them like on breast milk. So can they, who were denied the opportunity to grow on themselves, grow with the tree that carries them.

A tree can have as many as 20 graves in it. A special ceremony has to be performed for such a funeral. The food cooked has to be eaten at the burial place, and will not be distributed to outsiders.

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, May 2009.