Frenchman buried with tribal rite

Frenchman buried with tribal rite

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A 31-year-old Frenchman, Christophe Payonne, who died on Monday from malaria, was buried according to a tribal rite in the Kampung Gumum tribal village in the interiors of Malaysia's central Pahang state.

It was Payonne's last wish that he be laid to rest according to the tradition of orang asli -- as Malaysian tribesmen are called -- said his Dutch friend Peter Arnold Vender Helm, who claimed Payonne's body on Wednesday.

"It was his last wish to be buried in orang asli tradition," Bernama news agency quoted Helm as saying in Kuantan, the Pahang state capital.

Helm, who is married to a Kampung Gumum tribeswoman, said he met Payonne four years ago when the Frenchman was then on a brief visit to Kampung Gumum.

Payonne's family in France had contacted the French embassy in Kuala Lumpur, consenting to the burial, said Pahang's deputy medical and health director Praphapa Senan.