A young man and his dead grandfather join a video chat in the highlands of Sulawesi, Indonesia.
During the ma’nene ritual – which takes place each August in the Tana Toraja region – bodies of dead ancestors are exhumed to give thanks for a bountiful harvest.
Locals believe that family members continue to watch over them from the afterlife, and are responsible for successful crops.
Ma’nene is staged to show gratitude, and during the ritual descendants open coffins to let corpses dry out and discourage rotting.
They also give cadavers a change of clothes if their costumes looked ragged.
The ritual is only staged in remote communities in northern Toraja, and getting to them is an adventure in itself.
Although the atmosphere at a ma’nene ritual is sombre, the families of the deceased are genuinely happy to see their lost loved ones.
They’re also delighted when respectful foreign visitors take an interest in this macabre ritual.
The arrival of smartphones in Toraja has changed life irrevocably.
Now family members who’ve left the region in search of work no longer need to travel long distances to observe ma’nene, and can see their long lost relations using video chat.
