Indonesia: Over 100 ethnicities and languages populate Sulawesi. One group, the Toraja, places tremendous importance on rites for the dying and the dead; while Western cultures largely view death as final and private, Torajans see it as a communal and ongoing process requiring honor, care and celebration. In the south of the island, the Bugis culture centers on the bissu — revered priests thought to embody multiple genders and act as conduits between the human and spirit realms. Across Sulawesi’s modern inhabitants is a deep understanding of life as an unbroken line linking the ancient past with the present day.