New Philosopher – July 2019

NewPhilosopher

Zan Boag: Death is a topic you have

certainly focused on over the past eight

years in your ‘Dead and Alive’ documen-

tary project about death rituals and how

people relate to death around the world.

What prompted you to start the project? 

Klaus Bo: There was a series of

events, you could say. First of all, as a

kid I was always so afraid of death. I

came home from my grandparents one

day, I was six or seven years old, and

I realised that they were going to die,

that they were not going to be here

forever, and I was crying for days be-

cause suddenly I understood that this

was not forever. Another was my own

fear of death – since I can remember I

was really afraid of dying, and it was so

bad that I couldn’t sleep. Sleeping was

similar to what it would be like to be

dead, so I was really afraid of sleeping,

and that followed me for many years.

Another event was that I was docu-

menting an event, a Muslim funeral

ceremony. The Muslim ceremonies

are a public event so everyone is wel-

come. It was in a mosque in my own

neighbourhood here in Copenhagen

and thousands of people were coming

in to say goodbye to this old man. He

was going to be sent back home to Pa-

kistan to be buried in consecrated soil.

Suddenly in the huge mass of people I

Dead and alive

Photographer: Klaus Bo

Interviewer: Zan Boag

Dead and alive

Tana Toraja, Indonesia. At a very rare

ritual, family members have arranged

the body of the family elder in a chair

where she will sit for three days during

the wake. The ritual is called Dipatadon-

gkon and is only practised by the nobles

(the highest ‘caste’ in Tana Toraja).

Photo: Klaus Bo.