Burial and Rituals of Tana Toraja

Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous of South Sulawesi Indonesia. In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most expensive event . The richer the decease is the more expensive the funeral is. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death funeral and feast. The death feast of a rich and noble is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site called rante is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences and mourners, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Funeral chants, flute music, poems and songs  , and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young kids and poor or low-status adults.

Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (land of souls or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed after which it begins its journey to Puya.

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Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of buffalo. The more powerful the person who died the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast.  Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as gifts, which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased family. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the last stage of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys and girls who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes.

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There are three methods of burial; the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The noble or rich are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes few months to complete. In some instances a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy called Tau tau is usually placed in the cave looking out over the vast land.

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The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for year or more until the ropes rot and the coffin falls.

Below  image shows a photograph of the deceased together with her Tau Tau effigy, which will be placed among the others on the cliff.

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Some more pics.

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