The 11 Most Bizarre Burial Traditions

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• published: 06 May 2016
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Across countries, across cultures, and across time, the living have laid the dead to rest in a myriad of different ways. These are the 11 most bizarre funeral traditions. 1. Funeral Clowns: In many European countries, mourning families hire clowns to lighten the mood of serious funeral proceedings. The tradition dates back to Ancient Rome, where hired jesters dressed as the dead person in an attempt to placate the soul and bring joy to the living. These days, funeral clowns just break wind or make funny gestures to make grieving loved ones giggle. 2. Famadihana: For centuries, the Malagasy people of Madagascar have been unburying their dead as part of the Famadihana tradition. Also known as the "turning of the bones," Malagasy remove dead relatives from their graves once every seven years to spend the day dancing with them around tombs. Once the corpse has completely deteriorated, the practice is over and the spirit of the loved one is thought to have joined its ancestors in the afterlife 3. Hanging Of The Coffins: Some cultures in China, Indonesia, and the Philippines hang coffins on the sides of cliffs to prevent animals from reaching the dead and to bless the deceased's souls. In Sagada, Philippines, the practice can be traced back two millennia 4. Sky Burials And Scavenging: Most Tibetan Buddhists prefer sky burials, a funeral practice in which bodies are left on mountains to be devoured by vultures or other scavenging animals. The idea is that the dead will survive only in spiritual, soul like form without leaving behind the empty, flesh vessel of their material life. The Parsi people of South Asia similarly dispose of the dead after first cleaning and preparing their bodies. 5. Endocannibalism: Some ancient cultures, including the Melanesians of Papua New Guinea and the Wari people of Brazil, ate their dead. Though the practice is no longer widespread, the Aghori monks of Varanasi still devour human flesh because they believe that the taboo practice will lead them to enlightenment. 6. Sati: As far back as 4th century BCE, widows in some Asian cultures practiced Sati, or the practice of self immolating on a dead husband's funeral pyre. The tradition is thought to have begun with a warrior aristocracy near India before spreading out to other groups in the 12th through 18th centuries. Though the fire-assisted suicides were supposedly voluntary, there are accounts of women being drugged and tied to pyres before they were lit. Sati is now outlawed in India. 7. Finger Amputation: Until recently, when a man died in the Dani tribe of Papua New Guinea, his wife and children had their fingers chopped off with an axe. The tradition was meant to cause physical pain to equal the emotional grief of mourning family members, as well as drive away any powerful spirits leftover from the dead. Once the fingertips were removed, they were dried, burned, and buried in a ritual separate from the funeral. 8. Aboriginal Mortuary Rites: In Australia, deceased Aboriginal loved ones were covered in red ochre so that the spirits of the Land of Dead could more easily identify them. The body is then left to decompose on a raised platform where its fluids are said to help identify its killer. 9. Fantasy Coffins: In Ghana, the dead are buried in insanely elaborate coffins that reflect their work or life's passion. The "fantasy coffins," which were first created in the 1950s, can be customized to look like anything from a Mercedes Benz to a pig or a sneaker. To make them, craftsmen use wood from a local wawa tree and spend weeks chipping away at the desired shape using simple, non electrical tools 10. Green Funerals: In America, "green" burial processes are on the rise. Instead of interring harmful embalming fluids into the Earth, the families of deceased individuals are opting to bury their loved ones in biodegradable caskets capable of decomposing into the ground. Another version involves attaching human remains to ocean reefs to support surrounding sea life 11. Funeral Strippers: To lure more mourner's to relative's funerals, family members of the deceased in rural China often pay strippers large sums to perform at wakes. The common practice, called "kusangren," ensures that grief is displayed in a noisy, spectacular way, as is Chinese custom. Unfortunately for the dead, exotic dancing is currently outlawed in China and the country's Ministry of Culture has issued a harsh crackdown on the traditional funeral stripteases