Tribal graveyard

Our guide stopped at this graveyard on the way to the jungle . During the pre Christian era on Sulawesi, tribal members chiseled out hollow boxes from solid stone. They placed their dead in a kneeling upright fetal position in these tomb boxes. The believed they entered the world in the fetal position so should exit it the same way . They placed personal items in with the body and kept these boxes inside their huts. In 1908 the Indonesian government said no more bodies in houses so they were moved to graveyards. The carved tops have faces, upside down figures, etc etched in them. They have an almost Polynesian look to them. Very interesting and unusual site.