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‘Marlboro Boys’: Shocking images of Indonesia’s smoking children
04.18.2016
01:13 pm
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Five-year-old Ardian Azka Mubarok smokes at his home on March 27, 2015.

Perhaps you’ll recall that viral video a few years back of an obese Indonesian toddler chain-smoking cigarettes like a nicotine fiend. Some found it “funny” to see such a young kid puffing away like an old pro. Others were shocked and appalled. I mean, how could a toddler be a chainsmoker?! But the thing is, apparenlty seeing young children smoking is a very common sight in Indonesia and “public-health activists describe the country as a ‘playground’ for big tobacco companies like Philip Morris, which makes the country’s No. 2 cigarette.”

Young smokers begin the cycle of addiction but at a health cost for generations to come. The juxtaposition of young boys smoking like seasoned addicts is jarring yet this project is intended to not only shock and inform viewers but to demonstrate the lack of enforcement of national health regulations and to question the country’s dated relationship with tobacco.

Photographer Michelle Siu captured this dark phenomenon with photographs. The series is called “Marlboro Boys.”


Students on a public bus.
 

Five-year-old Ardian Azka Mubarok easily purchases a cigarette which he will smoke near his home.
 

Eman smokes while clutching a bag of juice.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.18.2016
01:13 pm
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The amazing mummies and infant tree burials of central Indonesia
10.13.2015
12:20 pm
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We’ve cycled through cultural periods where zombies were the big entertainment draw, and other times when it was all vampires… or pirates. Is it finally the mummies’ turn? After all, The Mummy from 1999 barely scratched the surface of a genre that was sparked by the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun‘s tomb. If so, perhaps history will trace the impending mummy craze to popular discussion of the burial rites of Tana Toraja because this is ripe for a horror film!

The Toraja are a people who live in mountainous South Sulawesi in Indonesia, and their society rests on a sturdy foundation of animism, the belief that a spiritual essence pervades all things, living and unliving, including animals, plants, trees, and rocks. Tana Toraja means “the land of Toraja.” One of the most noteworthy aspects of the Toraja are their funeral rites, which last several days and often occur many weeks after the star of the show has shuffled off his or her mortal coil. The rituals include tree burials for infants who died before teething as well as the parading of actual mummies.

Since funerals are such an elaborate affair for the Toraja, the bereaved family members very often lack the funds for the ritual at the appropriate time, so sometimes the funeral has to wait months or even years until the requisite capital is accrued. In the meantime, the deceased is embalmed and stored in the same house as his or her family. Here’s the amazing bit: Until the funeral ceremonies are completed, the person is not considered to be dead but merely suffering an illness.

Amusing Planet explains the astonishing rest:
 

Toraja tribe members are rarely buried in the ground. They are either placed in caves dug out in the rocky side of a mountain, or in wooden coffins that are hung on a cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, representing the deceased is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land.  The coffins are beautifully decorated, but over time the wood begins to rot and the bleached bones of the deceased often drop to the bottom of the suspended burial ground.

Babies are not buried in caves or hung from cliffs but buried inside the hollow of living trees. If a child dies before he has started teething, the baby is wrapped in cloth and placed inside a hollowed out space within the trunk of a growing tree, and covered over with a palm fibre door. The hole is then sealed and as the tree begins to heal, the child is believed to be absorbed. Dozens of babies may be interred within a single tree.

The burials are completed, the guests have feasted and returned to their homes, but the rituals are not over. Every few years, in August, a ritual called Ma’Nene takes place in which the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village like zombies.

 
Without further ado, here are several stunning pictures of infant tree graves, wooden effigies of the deceased, hanging coffins, and mummies taking part in a Ma’Nene celebration.
 

 

 
Many more mummies after the jump…

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.13.2015
12:20 pm
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60s and 70s Asian album covers


 
David Greenfield has amassed a collection of records from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Japan which are all available for purchase online. I liked going through his collections from the 60s and 70s. It’s a great resource for loopy graphic design inspiration!
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.01.2011
01:25 pm
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