Caitlin Doughty, in her book From Here to Eternity, wrote about death practices around the world, and there was one place in particular where embalming played a large role. In Tana Toraja, Indonesia, families periodically take the dead out of their tombs to wash and dress them, offer them presents, light their cigarettes. In the period between death and the funeral, a body can be kept at home – sometimes for years.
