Corpse jumps out of coffin to find home: Scientist's headache

The story of a dead body suddenly standing up, walking normally and returning to its home seems to only be in Hollywood horror movies. However, this is a real story and very familiar to the Toraja people in Indonesia, making zombies walk is an ancient ritual in their spiritual life.

“Magic” has existed for a long time.

The creepy story is one of the strange burial customs of the Toraja tribe in South Sulawesi, Indonesia (the word “Toraja” means “people of the highlands” ). Many years ago, when the land where the Toraja people lived was isolated and seemingly cut off from the outside world, rumors of magical powers that made the dead walk normally were known to many people around the world.

According to the oldest people in the tribe, the practice of making zombies walk dates back to ancient times. At that time, a civil war broke out between the Tana Toraja people in the West and the Tana Toraja people in the East.

The Tana Toraja in the West were defeated and almost all were killed. Meanwhile, the Tana Toraja in the East suffered fewer casualties and most of the warriors were able to bring the bodies of their dead back to their villages for burial.

On the contrary, because they could not bring the bodies of the unfortunate people back to their villages, the Tana Toraja people in the West came up with a special way to bury their dead. Then, they used some mysterious method to make the corpses walk and find their way back to their villages. Since then, the Tana Toraja people have kept this “magic” and until now, sorcerers only perform it when requested by the family of the deceased.

This strange story makes many people question the authenticity of the information and if it is true, what mechanism allows a dead person lying still in a coffin to stand up and walk like a living person?

The Art of Perfect Corpse Preservation

Since 1905, scientists have found intact, non-decomposed human bodies in this land. What is special is that these bodies seem to not have been embalmed with any chemicals, quite different from the embalming method known to the ancient Egyptians. However, many scientists still suspect that there is a special substance that helps preserve the corpses, but so far they have not been able to find the answer.

According to local people, the unique burial method of the Tana Toraja people along with special soil conditions may be one of the important reasons explaining why walking zombies are only found in the Mamasa region, Indonesia.

When a villager dies, their body is wrapped in clothes before being placed in a coffin. The men then carry the coffin to the tribe's burial site.

What is special is that the Tana Toraja cemetery is located precariously on steep limestone cliffs . Here, people carve squares deep into the rock, long and wide enough to fit a coffin.

From a distance, the graves nestled in the mountains look like pigeon nests or the windows of a high-rise building. Only strong men can undertake this arduous burial work.

Initially, they used bamboo ladders to reach the tomb chambers on the cliffs and then it took 4 to 5 people to transport the deceased's body up the vertical cliff like a wall before placing the deceased in their final resting place.

It is understandable that when approaching the graves, people do not smell the stench because the corpses do not decompose but dry up, looking like mummies . Many corpses step out of the coffin after many years still have eyelashes, eyebrows, hair and faces that are almost undisfigured or changed much.

According to the locals, the reason why the corpses are of such “good quality” may be because the limestone in this area contains a substance that helps preserve human bodies. In addition, the fact that the corpses are located deep in the cliffs, avoiding the effects of weather or digging by animals, may also be a reason why the corpses are kept intact. Because a corpse cannot walk normally if the bones are scattered in each place.

The Journey Home of the Dead

According to the beliefs of the tribe, the deceased must return to the village where he was born to meet his relatives. This is important because they will guide the deceased with skills to help him enter a new life in the afterlife.

In the past, many people were worried that the zombies' journey home was too long, and were afraid that these zombies would "die" again on the way, so they often hired a witch to go behind them, to help guide these zombies back home safely.

The dead must make their own journey home, no matter how far or short. After being “enchanted” , the corpse can walk normally. The zombies move stiffly, looking like robots, and their faces seem to show no emotion.

If someone speaks directly to the corpse, the corpse will collapse and be unable to continue its journey home. Therefore, one of the dangers of the corpses' journey home is meeting living people and being talked to by them.

To limit the risk, sorcerers often find deserted roads with almost no traffic so that the corpses can move freely without being disturbed.

How to make a walking corpse?

Until now, scientists are still struggling to find an answer to how Toraja witches can make corpses walk and recognize their homes to return.

The most plausible answer is that the sorcerers used a powdered poison to bring the dead back to life in an unconscious state for a certain period of time.

Accordingly, this powder is considered extremely toxic to living people because it is extracted from very poisonous animals in nature such as puffer fish, scorpions, poisonous spiders... These substances are also said to exist in the skin and internal organs of newts, toads, salamanders, blue-ringed octopuses...

However, for the dead, it has the same effect as a miracle drug that can bring the dead back to life. When this powder is "blown" into corpses, it will stimulate the dead nervous system to function again unconsciously like a machine.

Usually, this potion will revive the zombies for about 3 days, enough time to find their way home. If the zombies are to be revived for longer, the witches must mix the potion with different ratios and dosages.

However, many people are still not satisfied with the above answer and think that making walking zombies is just a witchcraft.

Today, the Tana Toraja people rarely see zombies making their way home. People fear that stories of walking zombies will soon be limited to movies or fantasy. Because fewer and fewer people know this “magic” and few families can afford the exorbitant fees of hiring a witch doctor.

To this day, making corpses walk remains a mystery that puzzles Indonesian and world scientists .

Perhaps only the Tana Toraja witches can answer the truth about this unbelievable fact. Whether it uses magic or not, this is still a precious spiritual ritual that needs to be preserved and protected by the Tana Toraja community and the Indonesian government.