THE CULTURE THAT LIVES TO DIE

 

 

House detail of Tanah Toraja

There are four things that Tanah Toraja, located high in the hills of Sulawesi, is known for:

Its elaborate funeral rituals. All of the resources of the community go into preparation for funerals, which is why the culture is nicknamed "The Culture That Lives to Die." At funeral celebrations, we've seen several hundred water buffalo slaughtered, not to mention two or three times that many pigs, so that the village grounds ran with blood.

Its burial customs. After an adult dies, his body is often kept in in his house for a year or more, embalmed, sewn into a red funeral casing, and conspicuously positioned. Adults are subsequently "buried" in cliffside caves, guarded by effigies of themselves. Infants are sewn into the hollow trunks of trees.

Its architecture. Its houses are shaped rather like overturned boats and decorated with intricate geometric carvings.

Its religious beliefs. Unlike most of Indonesia, which is Moslem, and unlike Bali, which is its own blend of Hinduism and animism, Tanah Toraja is Christian.

Whatever the sights, there's no doubt that the highlight of a trip to Tana Toraja, the area of central Sulawesi whose capital is Rantepao, is to visit a funeral. This is easier than it sounds: because the funeral celebrations take a lot of preparation, not to mention expense, the Torajans have two funerals for each death, much like the Balinese; the first one is a private affair straight away after the death, and the body is preserved in the house where it died until the necessary cash has been saved up for the second one, a much bigger, more public affair. Because the second funeral is effectively a huge party and can be held at any time, it tends to be organised for between July and October when the relatives can come to visit more easily, during the school holidays. This leads to the strange concept of the Funeral Season.

Torajan funerals are, by English standards, badly named: 'funeral', at least in English, is a word that conjures up images of black-clad mourners, weeping by a graveside on a cold winter's day, the priest's mournful words forming frostily in the air. In Tana Toraja they wear black, but that's where the mourning ends: the second funeral is a celebration of the person's life, of him or her making the step into the next world, where those left on earth make sure they send all the help they can to the person's spirit.

The theory goes something like this. When a Torajan dies, the spirit journeys to a netherworld. Here it is judged, and one of the ways it is judged is on how successful it was in its previous life, and this is influenced by looking at the number of animal spirits that have been sent along with the person... in other words, the larger the number of animals that get slaughtered at the funeral, the better the spirit's chance of getting to the Torajan version of heaven. And of course the best animal to get sent along for your journey to the netherworld is the water buffalo, the mostexpensive animal around. Is it any wonder that throwing a funeral can, literally, bankrupt a family? Still, it's a hell a way to blow the family

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