A festive celebration of death - India, Tamil Nadu

On the road from Pondichery to Tanjore, many Indians walk together and go into a field. Some of them carry a construction made out of bamboo, covered with flowers. Others play the drum and the trumpet and deliver a joyful music. The head of the procession advances rapidly. A few feet ahead, the people have stopped. The men who were holding the construction made out of bamboo parade it, they lower it gradually. A woman is lying on it covered with flowers. The music stops. The atmosphere becomes more solemn. The guide explains: "they are the Lingayat, the only Hindus that bury the dead. They don't burn them out of environmental concern so as not to waste the wood, usually used to burn the stake". © Photography: Virginie Lebrun