Photograph of Indonesian undead? The walking corpse of Toraja.

Its not witchcraft, paranormal and the woman in the pic is not death, yet. She is poisoned by a person, probably a medicine man in the village.

Porcupine fish, puffers, filefish, trunkfishes: all these families of marine reeffish contains tetratoxine.
People who survived have said that they recalled the whole incident and where afraid to be buried alive.

Its the same trick as the zombies of Haiti. All it takes is fish poison, a evil person and the victim.

reply to post by infinite


I don't think it's a disease nor an undead, just a bizarre culture like many others devoted to "ancient ways". They are completely different from us and that's what makes us confused.

I am still not sure of anything but still bet on their cultural aspect.

reply to post by ahamarlin


Look at her nose and fingers. She is either dead or has some form of rotting disease.

REAL OR NOT THAT PICTURE GAVE ME CHILLS!!!!

I tend to agree with those who believe it's an exhumed corpse. Through the dress, you can make out the bony breastplate where her fatty tissue has long since decayed away. Between that and her arms, she's clearly skeletal. The body's being held up by the guy to the left and the woman behind and has no chance whatsoever of 'walking.'

The one other alternative that makes more sense...movie prop? Could be the set of a horror flick. That'd go further to explain the image and how the figure is rigidly upright. I'm aware of rigor mortis, but isn't that a condition that vanishes after 2 to 3 days? I'll check in the basement where the latest Mormon caller is waiting for disposal lol

ETA: has the recession begun to hit flags? The OP and image totally deserve a SnF. He's just made me stare at a *possible* corpse for 5 minutes when I'd usually last a split-second and get all grossed-out.

It could very well be a corpse. Interesting.
Maybe it's not theres no way to know without further documentation etc.

But honestly I see no reason why this wouldn't be possible. Technically speaking, the corpse of a deceased could actually be made to walk in some fashion. It is just merely a decayed husk, with it's electrical wiring and ligaments remaining. They are merely decayed, but not completely. So there might still be a little juice left in a dead body, I don't see why not.

This is just speculation of course.

It reminds me of the old 'voodoo zombie' tales, but with a slightly different twist.
en.wikipedia.org...


Also it brings to mind the ancient practices of "Necromancy".

Please have a look.
en.wikipedia.org...

Point is, I am not sure if this particular case is true or not.
But there is enough information around, and theories about, the subject to take a second look at the least.

There is no actual physical law that would prevent this from being true.

Although it is quite bizarre by our standards and exceptionally rare in our media.

The 'modern world' has different types of zombie ideas, mostly based on apocalyptic situation X scenarios popularized in our culture.

A thought I just had, you know most people even skeptics are subconsciously seeing some sort of "life" in the corpse, as I naturally do too.

Saying it's photo shop, diseases, totally out of context, etc, most of us tend to subconsciously be siding with a natural appearance of "life" in the corpse.

So if it is a corpse, it is that of a real person. It's a very odd thing to ponder.

If it's true, I wouldn't even know what types of conclusions to draw from it scientifically.

But also, on the other hand, what does this tell us about our own human psychology when such images and information is relayed to us.

If such a strange thing is possible, than I wonder what kinds of deeds were done with this capability in the past. Also there may be many facets of this old knowledge of the body that is totally inexplicable.

Is there any thing that lists chemicals as their method of accomplishing this? Like the 'necromancer' is using a chemical concoction to pull off this task?

FINALLY! A date for my Undead Warrior! Is she single?

------------------------

I hope a scientific explanation comes up soon because I think most people prefer it when Zombies are restricted to the silver screen, not their lounge rooms...

reply to post by Kandinsky


ETA: has the recession begun to hit flags? The OP and image totally deserve a SnF. He's just made me stare at a *possible* corpse for 5 minutes when I'd usually last a split-second and get all grossed-out.

Thank you for that reminder!

I have now remedied my oversight!

Not sure what to make of this,but if this were a dead person removed from their coffin,surely the body would simply collapse?
How is it managing to remain so upright with just one person supporting it?

I agree this is simply a corpse being supported by someone. I googled the image “mayat+berjalan" and found a thread that shows similar images. Notice all are being supported.

Soure: Link

reply to post by One Step Beyond...


I've got a feeling that this relates to the Malagasy tradition of Famadihana, or The Turning of the Bones. Supposedly unique to the Island of Madagascar. Can't say it is something I thought was still going on just remember reading about it somewhere many years ago, but even then thought it was something that occurred way back in history. Managed to find this info with a quick google search.

"For many outsiders the practice, which involves exhuming dead
relatives, rewrapping them in fresh grave clothes and dancing with them
around the tomb, can seem almost impossibly strange, ghoulish even."

More info here just scroll down cultures.wordpress.com...

reply to post by QuickStudy


I'm with you on this one. Good work finding the pictures.
What counts as "walking" for some, would just be holding something stiff (mummified) and walking it. Like people do with babies, before they are actually able to walk. Sorry about the image of a baby combined with this, but at least there is no picture.
The second thing that makes me thinking it's folklore is that it is a single picture. Surely someone who wanted to show a case of real "walking dead" would have taken and posted many more pictures. Most still digital cameras can even do video. Really, if you saw this wouldn't you be snapping pix as fast as you can? And snapping more detail?
I vote "hoax" for the modern unfamiliar and folklore in practice for that society.

Originally posted by defcon5

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

I would guess that is a real photo of a real corpse, but based on the inclination of the head, it was stood up out of the coffin after rigger mortis had set in. The head appears as though it had been resting on pillow, and stiffened that way.

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

Ding Ding Ding!!!

They are cleaning the corpse. Look down to the right there is the coffin in the picture.

It's a corpse, her head is bent in front, she has been resting in her coffin with her head on the pillow.

reply to post by defcon5

Yes and the arms are crossed, as they would be in a coffin.

Quite a poignant photograph really.

Originally posted by defcon5

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

I would guess that is a real photo of a real corpse, but based on the inclination of the head, it was stood up out of the coffin after rigger mortis had set in. The head appears as though it had been resting on pillow, and stiffened that way.

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

Rigor doesn't work like that.

Rigor comes on within a certain time frame but it is also apparent only for a time frame.

Sorry, that's very badly written. Basically, Rigor Mortis doesn't last forever. After 24 hours, or so, the body is once again floppy and supple. The stiffness leaves the body.

Originally posted by QuickStudy
I agree this is simply a corpse being supported by someone. I googled the image “mayat+berjalan" and found a thread that shows similar images. Notice all are being supported.
Soure: Link

QuickStudy.....

Thanks for posting those photos.

It appears I was wrong when I made my original guess at this being a very bad case of leprosy or something along those lines.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by XXXN3O


They are not actually warts. It is a type of HPV, however, still sad.I do not know if that woman in the pic is really the walking dead, but who really knows right? I think if there is anyone who believes a Jewish carpenter can come back to life after three days then why not 'walking dead' zombies?

If this in other part of the world, I would say some guys cleaning/moving corpse, but since it in Indonesia, I'll say its djinn/spirits summoned by black magic to help. It did not exist in western, australian, japanese, chinese, european and african culture/region. Not sure about India. Range is about East Timor to around Egypt.

The djinn (I suspect) is summoned and asked to posses the body and walk it back to the proper grave. Its really unique anyway because I havent heard things like this, usually the djin/spirit is sent to perform black magic/posession/nasty stuff on living people, not dead ones.

Djin exist only in Islam religion, they maybe be muslim or non muslim (mostly), Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, some central asia, and middle east countries is where people usually have contact with this djinn species, mostly used for black magic - from possesion, torture and up to killing. Some have used djin for alternative traditional medication purposes. Walking corpse is a new usage for me, I never thought its possible.

Usual modus operandi of black magic shaman:
1.Send a djin/spirit to posess a body, then people will call the shaman to help, the shaman ask his djin/spirit to go away, patients cured - get paid. Basic way to get quick cash. Exorcism can cure this.
2.A spiritual booby trap is set (usually buried) when the person walkover it, a djin/spirit then triggered to insert "weird nasty stuff" eg "sarong clothes" inside target body (stomach usually) in different dimension, patient will be tortured in pain and die if not cured. Modern equipment might detect moving lumps/stone or might not detect anything. Spiritual surgery might and might not cure this. If the djinn/spirit too powerful, only the sending shaman can pull/call it back. Think stomach that looks like a balloon.
3.A random target is choosen and attack using wind and sometime through food, this method usually just to test the shaman power or his yearly payment to the devil/spirit. Patient/target usually cough up blood on the spot, while in medication "dangerous stuff" usually materialised (razor blades, glass shrapnels/dust, bamboo thorns, centipedes, sewage water, scorpions etc) Usually Koran citation can cure this if its early (like exorcism).
4.Love potion, once swipe youre into her/him. Potion is made from a virgin corspe chin fat. Among other usage is to hypnotise people, beat the job interview , makes people like you etc. The owner doesnt experience anything but those who live with him will be haunted. I dont know how they cure this.

A few more black magic, but walking corpse is truly new usage

Most of these activity reduced now while modernization take place, but I do believe its still practiced.
It might be shocking and unbelievable to you, but this is South East Asia and these things really happens, there are even clinics for these stuff!.