Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 287
February 28, 2019
February 27, 2019
February 26, 2019
How Did This Ram Skull Get Inside A Tree?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Among the many man-made artifacts and expressions of culture within the Ripley’s collection, natural oddities tend to stand out. Amidst the two-headed sheep, multi-limbed cows, and enormously long snakeskins, however, is a natural wonder beyond the others’ rarity. We own a dozen ram skulls decorated with jewels from the remote Himalayan mountains of Tibet and just as many sheep skulls exhibiting many more horns than just the usual two, but the most fascinating ram skull in our archives is fully encased in the trunk of a 200-year-old tree.
Found in the remote backcountry of the American West, Eugenia Shorrock added it to her collection of worldly wonders in 1930. Shorrock herself was a collector and explorer equal to Robert Ripley himself. Eschewing the Skinner Organ Company her father had started—musical organs, not people organs—Shorrock pursued the career of a naturalist. Entranced by reptiles, she helped run the Boston Aquarium Society in the 1920s before becoming a serious collector and outdoorswoman in the ’30s.
Eugenia Shorrock
While running her own reptile zoo and traveling to give lectures on zoology, Shorrock happened upon the tree-encased ram skull that now resides in the Ripley’s collection. After decades of sharing her passion for the natural world, Shorrock died in 1993. In efforts to ensure her collection remained available to the public, Ripley’s purchased many of her exhibits, including this seemingly one-of-a-kind ram skull.
Believe it or not, however, this is not the only ram skull in existence encased in a tree. Another, purported to be 300 years older than the Shorrock ram tree was found in the Utah wilderness. Hoping to solve the mystery as to how our ram skull might have ended up inside the trunk of a tree, we followed the Utah ram tree closely. While our skull is fully encased in wood, the Utah ram merely had part of one of its horns mired in tree growth. After scouring records, it seems that the Utah ram skull had been set in the crotch of a juniper tree by a Spanish explorer in order to mark the location of a long-forgotten treasure. our ram, however, has no such supporting documents, and was unlikely to have been set by human hands since the entirety of its skull is encased.
The answer to our mystery was much simpler than lost Spanish treasure. After consulting with wildlife experts across state and national parks, they all had identical guesses as to how it got there. Apparently, it’s fairly common for rams to get stuck in trees. Bighorn sheep will ram their heads together when fighting for a mate. Their heads strike together with so much force, that their battles can be heard across mountains. With long, spiraling horns its easy for them to become entangled, and park rangers have encountered stuck sheep on occasion, and the remains of stuck rams even more often.
What makes our example special, is that once the ram was caught, the tree grew entirely around its skull.
February 25, 2019
The Walking Dead Of Tana Toraja
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
For residents of Tana Toraja, the walking dead are more than just a phantasmic phenomenon—it’s a reality!
However, unlike those from the hit TV series and despite viral rumors to the contrary, these corpses do stay dead. Located in the mountainous island of South Sulawesi, deep in the heart of the lush jungles of eastern Indonesia, Tana Toraja is known as the “Land of the Heavenly Kings.” There, Torajans are renowned worldwide for their beautiful tropical climate, harvesting delicious arabica coffee and cocoa beans…and their bizarre funerary rites.
The people of Toraja adhere to cultural guidelines that see their lives constantly revolving around death. Following in the traditions of their ancestors, funerals supersede in both expense and extravagance their marriages, birthdays, and—in a way—are ongoing year-round holidays.
The Torajans see death not as an event to be mourned, but as a celebrated transition to their ancestral resting place, Puya. In fact, Torajans do not even view members of their community as being dead until their public funeral has been completed. Prior to this ceremony, once an individual’s sunga, or biological life, has ended, their body is mummified and kept in a special room within the tongkonan, the traditional Torajan home. There, the family continues to speak and interact with the decaying body, including symbolically feeding and caring for it.
Tongkonan
During this time, the deceased is considered to be to makala or to mama, sick or asleep. The funeral service, aluk to mate, can occur years after death as the family saves money for the funeral, sometimes even at the expense of living in poverty.
One of the most important aspects of the funeral is a painted bamboo or wooden effigy made in the exact likeness of the deceased, called a tau tau, which Torajans believe hosts part of the soul. The tau tau is carried alongside the body through the village in a colorful parade procession that can be upwards of a mile long and last for hours.
A collection of tau tau dolls.
All members of the community, up to thousands of people, may attend these joyous multi-day or even multi-week events. Rituals for those in attendance include joining hands in prayer, dancing and singing songs to celebrate the life of the deceased, and animal sacrifices—the meat of which is divided among the mourners. The most important sacrifice made during this ceremony is of the water buffalo, which the Torajan people believe transports the soul of the departed to the afterlife.
After the funeral has been completed, the body is rather interred within a mausoleum, a tomb built into the face of limestone cliff walls, carved into mammoth rocks, inside of a hollowed-out tree, or hanged from a mountain in a bamboo frame. Wherever it may be, the tau tau stands as a silent sentinel, watching over the final resting place and family of its subject. In exchange for its service, gifts, such as beer, candy, and money, are regularly left with the tau tau.
Arguably the strangest aspect of this culture is the ma’nene. During ma’nene, corpses are exhumed from the grave, cleaned, and dressed in new clothing. If needed, maintenance is conducted on their crypt, their casket repaired or replaced. The mummified remains, now freshened up, are paraded through town, where relatives can take pictures and videos with their family members who have passed. While some may see this practice as macabre or grotesque, the Torajans look at it as a powerfully devotional act of veneration and faith, a love which simply does not cease with death.
Credit: Muslianshah Masrie/Shutterstock
Pictures of this extraordinary spectacle first surfaced online in 2009 and caused an incredible stir—and it’s easy to see why. Online users were led to believe that, somehow, Torajan shamans possessed the power to bring the dead back to life as ro-lang, literally a “risen corpse.” Allegedly, these gaunt spectres would lead the funeral procession to their own grave as they walked a dirt path between the tongkonan houses on the beat of their “corpse road.” It was said that if these revenants were spoken to or interacted with by anyone other than their designated handler, they would crumble in a pillar of salt. Additionally, it was said that, after several years of internment, the dead would return on occasion to walk among the living. In the past, it was even alleged that there were civil wars in the area that were conducted entirely by armies of the undead!
Credit: Stefano Barzellotti/Shutterstock
These tales did not begin solely online, however. Torajan folklore holds myths of the walking dead as a part of their rich cultural fabric. They insist that the aforementioned phenomena can actually be performed with black magic rituals, knowledge of which is considered “not appropriate” for modern society.
The people of Toraja have developed a booming tourism industry surrounding these unusual funerary ceremonies. Be aware that if you want to be a part of a Torajan funeral, you should be prepared to bring gifts for the family of the deceased (such as cigarette cartons or bags of sugar) and can then expect to partake in coffee and sweets with them.
While some of the most fantastical elements of this story were the fabrication of hoaxers, no embellishment or sensationalism is needed for this incredible tale. Believe It or Not!
By Kris Levin, contributor for Ripleys.com
Kris Levin is a professional wrestling referee and everybody’s favorite nephew. He can be seen internationally on IMPACT Wrestling as their most junior official, #KidRef, and on social media at @RefKrisLevin.
Source: The Walking Dead Of Tana Toraja
February 24, 2019
February 23, 2019
February 22, 2019
Girl Scout Includes Shirtless Jason Momoa To Sell Her Samoas Cookies
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[February 17-23rd, 2019] A reptilian drug enforcer, a junior ranger is more senior than the Grand Canyon, a new way to sell Girl Scout cookies, and the rest of the week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Mamoa Samoas
Looking to up her cookie game, fifth-grade Girl Scout Charlotte Holmberg of Colorado is looking to outdo her 2,000-boxes-sold record from last year with the help of Jason Mamoa. Inspired by the Samoas—coveted caramel and coconut cookies—Charlotte decided to print out pictures of a shirtless Jason Momoa on the box. According to Charlotte, moms can’t get enough of the Aquaman actor.
El Chompo Imprisoned
A police raid in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, led to the capture of notorious drug enforcer El Chompo. Police were shocked to find the American alligator amongst a stash of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and heroin. The state’s attorney general dubbed the guard gator “El Chompo” after convicted cartel leader “El Chapo” Guzman. Police don’t blame the alligator, but have put an end to his drug trafficking days—along with his previous owners’. El Chompo is now in the custody of the Brandywine Zoo.
Junior Ranger Older Than Park
Proving you’re never too old to protect National Parks, 103-year-old Rose Trophy decided to become a junior ranger on her recent visit to the Grand Canyon. With the park celebrating its 100th anniversary this week, Trophy is actually older than Grand Canyon National Park itself! She hopes to inspire children of all ages to protect and appreciate the natural world around them.
Credit Cheri Stoneburner
Too Big For Lacrosse
Alex Chu, a freshman at Wheaton College in Illinois thought he’d get to live his dream playing lacrosse on his school’s team, but his large head may bar him from the sport. With a head measuring 25 inches around, he had played in high school by forging two helmets together, but this homemade protective gear doesn’t meet college safety certifications. With no manufacturer currently making a helmet that fits his head—and custom helmets costing thousands—he hopes to find a solution before his freshman season passes him by.
French Lightsaber Duels
France has officially recognized lightsaber duels as a sport. In an effort to help get kids to be more active, the Fencing Federation is training people to participate in three-minute lightsaber bouts. The rules have been slightly modified to require fencers to use long, flourishing swings instead of the less visually appealing stabs more common in other fencing sports.
Source: Girl Scout Includes Shirtless Jason Momoa To Sell Her Samoas Cookies
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