In Indonesia, The Dead Are Removed From Their Tombs To Change Clothes

INDONESIA: In Tana Toraja, Indonesia, the dead are removed from their tombs to replace their clothing each year. The Toraja people have fascinating rituals surrounding death and the afterlife.  When someone dies, their ritual states that the deceased are to be buried in the town they were born in (and not necessarily in the town in which they have died).

Further research into the term “Rolang” uncovered a Tibetan connection.  This one is even more freaky.  In this scenario, a holy man (a “ngagspa”) gets shut up in a dark room with the newly deceased and lies on top of the corpse, wrapping his arms around it and placing his mouth over the mouth of said dead person (EWWW!).  By breathing into the dead body’s mouth, the corpse is eventually revived, and leaps to it’s feet, attempting to escape the grasp of the ngagspa.  The holy man must hold onto the thrashing corpse, or he will be killed.  Oh, and he has to wait for it to stick out its tongue, so he can bite it off.  Apparently the tongue makes  a powerful magic weapon used in healing etc.