Funeral horrors: Boil in the bag to mummies in bedrooms - five most unusual ways to say goodbye

There is no easy way to say goodbye to a loved one, and since the beginning of time, we humans have sought to find ways to make the passing more bearable.

Over in the UK, tend to fall into one of two categories: burial or fire cremation. However, the options available appear to be expanding, with reported to be on the horizon.

is naturally one of the most difficult topics to broach, and often we Brits can keep it at a distance, perhaps not wanting to confront that we too will one day pass on, and leave everything and everyone we know behind.

Elsewhere across the world, various cultures have found very different ways to approach death, reflected in the diverse range of unique and fascinating funeral rites which are still being practised to this day. Here, the takes a look at some of the most intriguing ways to say goodbye to the dead.

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Sky burial

In Tibet, people may say goodbye to their loved ones through a sky burial. And although it may seem unusual to those outside of Tibetan Buddhist culture, this tradition holds deep spiritual significance and is rooted in a profound respect for nature.

A person's body is first wrapped in cloth and kept at home for a few days, in an environment of great peace. During this time, monks will read aloud scripture to ease the spirit's journey into their next rebirth, in accordance with Buddhist teachings about death being a transition, not the end.

Then, on a chosen lucky day, they will be placed on a flat rock or platform at a designated site among the mountains, away from residential areas. For this bit, loved ones will be kept away. Here, smoke is used to attract the birds of prey who graze there, and sutras are chanted to redeem any sins the deceased may have committed in life.

The corpse will then be dissected by skilled body breakers who, according to Tibet Travel, will continue to laugh and keep things light as they cut up the body. which they believe will help the person enter the light of their next life. The flesh is then offered up as sustenance to the circling vultures. Anything left behind is collected and burned.

Keeping the dead at home

While in many cultures, death is kept at a distance, for the Toraja people of Indonesia, it isn't unusual to have loved ones preserved and kept at home for a long period of time after their passing, sometimes for years.

As explained by photographer Puta Sayoga in a piece for The New York Times, Torajans view death as more of a "gradual" process, with the soul believed to remain in this until the death ceremony takes place. This delay also serves a practical purpose, giving the family enough time to save for an elaborate 12-day funeral to honour their loved one. Only then can the dead find peace in Puya, the spiritual realm.

Until that day comes, they will live with the deceased almost as if they were still living, even dressing them in new clothes and laying out food for them, as if they were joining family meals. For many, this helps with the grieving process, offering a transitional period in which to say goodbye.

Torajan woman, Yohana Palangda, previously told National Geographic: “My mother died suddenly, so we aren’t ready yet to let her go. I can’t accept burying her too quickly.”

Even after they are buried, Torajans will still stay close to their dead, digging them up again every one to three years to be washed, redressed and remembered, in a ritual known as Ma’nene, or 'care for ancestors'.

Hanging coffins

For many, being buried in a coffin beneath the earth is a disquieting thought, and they may therefore prefer the hanging coffin traditions practised in the secluded village of Sagada, in a mountainous region of the Philippines.

As detailed by Atlas Obscura, elders of the Kankanaey people of Sagada - part of a collective group known as the Igorot tribe - will carve out their own coffins, in what must surely be a confronting experience. Loved ones will take over this important task if their elderly family members don't possess the health or strength to do so.

Following a period of mourning, during which the body is prepared, the deceased is taken to a cave or cliff and lowered into their casket, which is then suspended in the air, sometimes at great heights. This practice, which dates back some 2,000 years, is rooted in the belief that spirits have a greater chance of reaching a higher nature in the afterlife if their body is hung in a higher place.

This rite is a source of great fascination to tourists, who will often make the journey to Sagada’s Echo Valley to see the suspended coffins, many of which date back generations.

'Boil in a bag' cremation

'Boil in a bag' could soon be available across the UK, offering an yet controversial way to say your final goodbyes.

, also known as alkaline hydrolysis, is already available across 30 US states, as well as and South Africa. The first European water cremation facility, or resomation, opened its doors in early 2023 in Navan, Co Meath, Ireland.

In a very different process from traditional cremations, the body is loaded into an alkaline hydrolysis machine, which calculates the amount of water and potassium hydroxide required. The machine then locks, and an alkaline solution fills the pressurised tank, which is gently heated to 152°C (305°F).

The remains are broken into their chemical components — amino acids, peptides, sugars and salt — leaving behind a liquid that is then cooled in another tank until sterile and free from any remaining tissue or DNA.

Around 330 gallons of brown-coloured liquid will be washed down the drain, while the softened bones are ground to powder and presented in an urn to the grieving family.

In 2017, Wired journalist Hayley Campbell described the process in vivid detail after seeing a resomator in action at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Hayley wrote: "Over the course of up to four hours, the strong alkaline base causes everything but the skeleton to break down to the original components that built it: sugar, salt, peptides and amino acids; DNA unzips into its nucleobases, cytosine, guanine, adenine, thymine.

"The body becomes fertiliser and soap, a sterile watery liquid that looks like weak tea. The liquid shoots through a pipe into a holding tank in the opposite corner of the room, where it will cool down, be brought down to an acceptable pH for the water treatment plant, and be released down the drain."

Smoked bodies

While many people believe their loved ones are watching over them and keeping them safe, members of the Anga tribe in Papua New Guinea have a much more visual reminder of this.

Keeping to an ancient tradition, the Anga, a tribe of approximately 45,000 people, mummify their dead and position them on rock ledges close to their villages

In this unique mummification process, the Anga mummify the deceased in a seated position, before smoking them over a consistently roaring fire for a three-month period. As explained by National Geographic, it's vital that no part of the body touches the ground, an error which is believed to invite bad fortune. It's also important that the face is kept intact.

German photographer and environmental scientist, Ulla Lohmann, who observed this practice in person, said: "We have pictures, they have mummies. The Anga believe that the spirits roam free during the day and return to their mummified bodies at night. Without seeing the face, the spirits cannot find their own body and would wander eternally."

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