In Madagascar, the deceased is treated and wrapped in traditional shrouds that are periodically replaced every few years with great fanfare. This festive ceremony is called a famadihana and involves removing the bones of the ancestor from the family mausoleum, wrapping them in new shrouds or lambas, drinking, dancing and remembering the deceased relative before placing him or her again in the tomb. Interestingly, similar to what is done in the Jewish culture, the Malagasy place a small stone, or other objects such as coins or small pouches of tobacco, when they visit the tombstone. They have two separate places, though, for the tombstone and the actual body of the deceased. In the south of Madagascar, it is the custom of the Tandroy tribe to sacrifice all of a man's cattle when he dies to send him off to the next world. The Tandroy may sacrifice hundreds of heads of cattle for the festivities, which makes the ritual quite controversial even with Malagasy in different parts of the island. The tiny stick huts of the Tandroy pale in comparison to their intricately decorated final resting places. The horns of the cattle are used to help decorate the elaborate tomb, often with colorful paintings and carvings. When I asked a friend from the tribe why they didn't use some of the cattle to perhaps improve their living conditions or build a better house, he taught me a proverb that summed it all up: "Life is short, death is forever."
Madagascar RPCV Joshua Poole writes: The most challenging aspect of living roughly 10,000 miles away from Canton - 400 miles off the east coast of Africa - was just that, the distance from my family
From Madagascar to Canton: How the living honor the dead
By Joshua Poole
For CantonRep.com
Posted Oct 03, 2009 @ 09:31 PM
Caption: The Tandroy tribe in Madagascar builds intricately decorated tombs that make their small huts pale by comparison.
The most challenging aspect of living roughly 10,000 miles away from Canton - 400 miles off the east coast of Africa - was just that, the distance from my family.
It was an incredible sacrifice to work that far away, but one that was at least balanced by the belief that each day, I was helping the people of Madagascar to improve their lives.
Still, I missed out on countless family get-togethers - as well as the inevitable bad news a family faces.
When I received word my dad had suffered a heart attack, and earlier when my grandfather passed away during my first Peace Corps service, I had to question why I was choosing to live so far away.
But one thing I brought home from my life in Madagascar was a deeper understanding of how other cultures face death.
HOME, FOR GOOD AND BAD
Being home has allowed me to again be a part of special family times, both good and bad. The 10th anniversary of my cousin's death occurred this summer. I grew up with him, and he was only one year younger than me, which made his death tough to take.
I remember getting the news in my tiny cubicle in Washington, D.C., and how much I thought about him during a five-month trek I made on the Appalachian Trail.
To honor his memory on the anniversary, we chose to take the family to his grave in a Jewish cemetery where many of our other relatives and family friends have been buried.
In the Jewish religion, mourners commemorate the anniversary of a death with a ceremony called a yahrzeit, the date of which is calculated using the Hebrew lunar calendar.
The day is intended to honor the deceased and help the mourners experience the pain of loss. It can involve a visit to the cemetery, the lighting of a special candle that burns for 24 hours, and even fasting for the day.
NO EXPENSE SPARED
In Madagascar, the deceased is treated and wrapped in traditional shrouds that are periodically replaced every few years with great fanfare.
This festive ceremony is called a famadihana and involves removing the bones of the ancestor from the family mausoleum, wrapping them in new shrouds or lambas, drinking, dancing and remembering the deceased relative before placing him or her again in the tomb.
Interestingly, similar to what is done in the Jewish culture, the Malagasy place a small stone, or other objects such as coins or small pouches of tobacco, when they visit the tombstone. They have two separate places, though, for the tombstone and the actual body of the deceased.
In the south of Madagascar, it is the custom of the Tandroy tribe to sacrifice all of a man's cattle when he dies to send him off to the next world. The Tandroy may sacrifice hundreds of heads of cattle for the festivities, which makes the ritual quite controversial even with Malagasy in different parts of the island.
The tiny stick huts of the Tandroy pale in comparison to their intricately decorated final resting places. The horns of the cattle are used to help decorate the elaborate tomb, often with colorful paintings and carvings.
When I asked a friend from the tribe why they didn't use some of the cattle to perhaps improve their living conditions or build a better house, he taught me a proverb that summed it all up:
"Life is short, death is forever."
