Embalming in West Toraja Regency of Indonesia

Embalming is a way that used to be dead or living creatures who've not animate do not rot. This way I know when you are in the hamlet of Barerreng in 1999. At that time there was a neighbor died , named Ne'tammubua ', when I visited the family home that I smell very sting. When I asked to my friend of named Katiandagho "smell is this?"
"Is the process of preserving bodies" he replied. On this occasion I while reminiscing about the area I told the previous experience I never experienced it. More than one I tell them is Baruppu' society, Unique culture cemetry.

Ma'nene procession ' at Toraja

Centuries earlier, when the practice of preserving bodies is done, nobody knows exactly why and when it starts. Obviously, before Christianity entered the Tana Toraja Regency the first time around 1913, the Toraja people embraced the faith or belief Todollo Aluk ' to ancestors and nature. At first the corpse-bodies that laid out in a rock cave, then put on a stone. The corpse was decay, even dry up.
Until a while preserving the bodies performed using potions, using leaf vinus, kerosene, stem plants resembling tille – sugar cane stalks but smaller and not eaten –, tea leaves, and salt. These materials together and then crushed and poured into the mouth of the corpse. The rest is smeared on the skin. Natural and helps preserving and drying the corpses properly.

Entering the 1990s, preserving bodies done simpler, i.e. injecting chemicals or better known as formalin. The result of dozens of bodies not durable when compared to their ancestors tens and hundreds of years ago. "Ways of injecting use chemicals called formalin is done to every millimeter surface of bodies", said Mr. katiandagho added the explanation to me.
After the process is completed, then the cadaver preservation stored at home, while waiting until ready for the grave stone to be placed or already prepared by the family of the deceased. To get the cost of a funeral procession which require tens of millions of corpses even billions of rupias, each Member of the family to wander in all directions in the territories or abroad.

Another corpse in Sicily, Rosalia Lombardo, a daughter of Sicily was two years old, who died in 1920, still looks fresh. Muminya known as "the Sleeping Beauty" is stored in a glass box in Palermo, Italy.
Herb what makes these mummies still looks fresh, became a secret for years. However, biological anthropologist from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman named Dario Piombino-Mascali managed to uncover her inimitable blend of which are used to preserve the Rosalia.
He find out the materials used from the relatives and close people Alfredo Salafia, an expert maker of processed taksidermis or who died in 1933. Hand made note of Salafia revealed that he injects a chemical substances to the body in the form of Rosalia formalin, Zinc salt, alcohol, salicylic acid and glycerol.
Formaldehyde is an ingredient that is currently most commonly used to preserve corpses. A mixture of formaldehyde and water it kills all the bacteria causes decay the flesh. Salafia is one of the pioneers of the use of such chemicals to preserve the corpses.

While alcohol in a dry area will function maintains the corpse remains dry thus more Rosalia durable against changes in temperature and humidity. Glycerol as the oil will prevent her body too dry and salicylic acid to prevent the growth of fungus.
However, the primary key is embalming Zinc salt. According to Melissa Johnsons Williams, Executive Director of the American Society of Embalmers, zinc is not used in the process of preservation in the us. With zinc bodies become stiff, if lifted from the crate and let it stand, bodies will be able to stand ... heheh

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