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With such a diverse range of cultures around the
globe its hardly surprising that tribes and communities have developed
special practises of their own over time. Some of the more general
rituals, such as wedding celebrations and birthdays can often overlap,
but many countries have managed to develop bizarre cultural practices
all of their very own.
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Finger cutting
The death of a family member in the Dani tribe brings about this bizarre
custom, which sees women of the tribe physically expressing their grief
by cutting off a segment of one of their fingers. Before it is cut, the
finger is tied with a string for 30 minutes to numb it, and afterwards
the finger is burned to create new scar tissue. This cultural ritual is
performed, according to the tribe, to satisfy the ancestral ghosts. |
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The smoked corpses
From the cliffs of a village in Papua New Guinea's Morobe highlands,
charred corpses leer at passers-by. Their flesh is stained red, and they
seem to be imprisoned within cages of bamboo, as if to keep them from
leaping down and devouring any explorer who strays too close. But this
macabre practise is not (only) a way to scare away strangers. For the
Anga people in these remote parts of the country, it is the highest
honour they can bestow on their dead. Dead men, women and children are
effectively smoke cured, in much the same way as a kipper.First,
experienced embalmers make cuts in the feet, knees and elbows of the
cadavers, to allow body fat to drain away, before jabbing bamboo poles
into their guts and collecting the drippings. These are smeared onto the
skin and hair of surviving relatives in a ritual believed to transfer
the strength of the dead into the living. Any leftovers are used as
cooking oil, for the same reason. |
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The Toraja people and the most complex funeral
rituals in the world
The Tana Toraja is a regency of South Sulawesi in Indonesia, a
picturesque mountainous region that is home to an indigenous group known
as the Torajans. For the Toraja people, life very much revolves around
death, but not in a morbid sense. For them, a funeral is a great
celebration of life, much like a going-away party, and is an occasion in
which the entire family of the deceased, and all the members the village
take part. Their ancient traditions involve funerary customs that have
been practiced over many centuries and are known to be the most complex
funeral traditions in the world. |
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The incredible village which plants 111 fruit
trees for every baby girl
In a country that celebrates the birth of boys over girls, the tiny
Indian village of Piplantri offers a refreshing perspective that seeks
to challenge traditional views. Instead of the Western custom of buying
dolls for newborn girls, this Rajasthan settlement plants 111 trees
every time a baby girl is born in the village. Villagers band together
to donate money and help to plant the fruit trees, which provide food
for the child and her family.As the woman blossoms into adulthood, so do
the trees in a brilliant example of eco-feminism. Not only have a
quarter of a million trees been planted from this initiative, but the
families have to pledge their daughters will not be married until they
receive an education and reach the age of 18. The incredible custom was
started in 2006 by the former village chief, Shyam Sundar Palawal,
following the tragic loss of his daughter, Kiran, to illness. |
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In Indonesia Football Is Played with a Ball of
Fire
Sepak Bola Api, or The Fireball Game, is a unique game Indonesians play
to welcome the month of Ramadan. It’s a lot like football only they have
to kick a flaming fireball. It seems regular football is pretty boring.
At least that’s the feeling I get after discovering similar games like
Footdoubleball, Cycle Ball or Burton-on-the-Water. The latest addition
to the list of games that makes football look easy is an Indonesian
tradition that had people kick a flaming football in celebration of
Ramadan. It’s called Sepak Bola Api and is usually celebrated in the
Yogyakarta, Bogor, Tasikmalaya, and Papua regions of the Southeastern
Asia archipelago. Just like in the regular game of football, two teams
of 11 eleven players kick a ball and try to shoot it in the opposing
goal. But that’s easier said than done when playing barefoot and kicking
a flaming ball.
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El Colacho
Within the village of Castrillo de Murcia in northern Spain, the locals
observe the Catholic feast day of Corpus Christi in a rather bizarre
way. The modern day ritual, known as El Salto del Colacho or the devil’s
jump, sees men dressed as devils jumping over the babies born within the
village in the last 12 months. Laid out on mattresses ready for the men
to take their dangerous leap, the babies are supposedly guarded against
illness and evil spirits by the custom, which is also thought to cleanse
original sin.
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Foot Binding - Traditions of Altering Feet in
China
Foot binding was an old Chinese custom in which young girls' feet were
tightly bound to restrict and alter their growth. Although it was banned
nearly a century ago by the Chinese government and is now seen as
barbaric, the practice took years to die out, and a few of its victims
-- most far older than 70 -- can still be found today. oot binding is
thought to have originated in imperial China in the 10th or 11th
century, probably as a fashionable practice among wealthy women.
Although its first adherents used it as a status symbol to indicate
their high social rank, foot binding gradually spread throughout the
culture. By the 12th century, even the poorest families practiced it. |
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Sky burial
The practice of sky burials in Tibet involves Tiebtan priests splitting
a corpse into smaller pieces, which are then left on the top of a
mountain to be broken down naturally. This might mean degrading via the
elements or it could be that numerous birds of prey and other predators
will consume the body. It is believed that the ritual is based on the
Buddhist belief in the body being a vessel that holds the soul and
should so be destroyed to allow the body to be released after death,
making the sky burial a practical means of disposing of a corpse. We’ve
decided numbers eight and nine on our list are just a bit too gruesome
to show you a picture.
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