Indonesia

Tana Toraja: Land of Funerals

Tana Toraja: Land of Funerals

The Torajan Valley is, in a single word, wild.  Some of the more remote village are several days’ walk from the nearest road.  Traditional funerals can involve the slaughter of hundreds of water buffalo, and similar numbers of pigs.  Traces of animism still exist within local religious practices.

Tana Toraja house

The most obvious difference, arriving in the area, is the local architecture.  Buffalo are somewhat revered by the Torajans, and so the houses are traditionally built with the roof in the shape of a buffalo’s horns.  Greg and I had both just read a book about how practical considerations effect cultural norms, and decided that this evolved as a way to dry rice effectively in a very wet place.

tana toraja market

Between drinking massive amounts of local coffee we managed to hike for two days, attend two funerals as tourists (yes, really), explore cliff-side and cave-buried grave sites, and eat quite a bit of buffalo.  Dark tourism at its best, complete with a bit of video action. They really put the ‘fun’ in ‘funeral’ here.

Tana Toraja Graves

Before we get to funereal customs, we’re first going to talk about burial.

tana toraja graves Before a funeral can be held for the recently deceased, family members and monetary support must be gathered.  A large buffalo can cost more than a small car in Tana Toraja, and some of the more fiscally prosperous families will slaughter up to 120 water buffalo for the departed’s funeral.

If a family cannot afford a funeral immediately after the death, or if the entire extended family cannot attend the funeral (with many Indonesians being immigrant workers and overseas students, this is sometimes a serious problem) then the dead family member is treated simply as if they were ill.  Chemicals are injected to prevent decay, and the body is placed in bed in the house as if they were still alive.  Our guide for hiking, Fa’Ri, said that when he was y0ung his dead grandmother had ‘lived’ with his family for almost two years.

tana toraja carvings

Before the funeral, a wooden likeness of the deceased is traditionally carved to sit over the burial site with the rest of the village’s ancestors.  I couldn’t get any very good close-up pictures, but some of the Tau-Tau statues are exceedingly lifelike.

Several days after the funeral, the coffin is carried to the burial site.  Though many Torajan villages are wedged into mountain valleys where most available open land is dedicated to farming, some have developed other means of laying the dead to rest.

tana toraja cave grave

In Londa village, coffins are carried into nearby caves and there deposited with offerings.  Once a year, families remove and clean the coffins, and then return them to the caves.

tana toraja hanging grave

In Ke’te Kesu, where the cave walkways are too narrow to negotiate with a coffin, graves are suspended from the cliffside overlooking the village.

Generally, though, one must die and have a funeral before one is buried.  More on that note below.

Tana Toraja Funeral Slaughter

This is about to get graphic and bloody.  Fair warning.

The traditional Torajan funeral involves a LOT of slaughter. Pigs and water buffalo must be sacrificed to send with the dead, to ease their transition into the afterlife and beyond.
The executioner: a local man with a machete holding a very short rope.
As might be expected, an animal that large bleeds profusely when its throat has been cut.
While the largest funerals can involve hundreds of water buffalo and stretch over several days, the one that Greg and I went to saw eight slaughtered.  Even that took all morning and lead on into the afternoon.
There is, of course, some practical reason to these ceremonies. Almost the entire buffalo is used.
The horns are taken as trophies to hang on the front of the family’s home.
The feet, otherwise useless, get tossed to the kids as toys.
Mostly, it seems, to the kids who are willing to lend a hand with the work.
And of course, at the end of the day, and scraps lying around will be carried off by the dogs.

A Tana Toraja Funeral, slaughter central, is one of those unique events you stumble across while traveling and never forget.

Tana Toraja Funeral Video

As the preceding post illustrates, this is pretty intense.  If you’re at work or around small children, I’d suggest watching it later.  That warning being said, here you go:

Though I didn’t capture the most epic buffalo as it was going down, this one gives a pretty good idea of what the vibe at the funeral was like. I particularly like when the crowd roars with approval as the blood sprays onto the executioner.

Hiking Tana Toraja

After a week of relative laziness on Togean-Kadidiri and a few days driving arounf Tana Toraja on motorcycles, we decided to do some hiking into less-visited villages in the area.
The first day saw a bit of lazy climbing and trails running past small settlements full of Torajan architecture and quite frightened Torajan dogs.
After a few hours of hiking and a delicious lunch carried in by our guide, we sighted our destination far off from the top of a hill.
Finally, after a full day of hiking and one treacherous river crossing…
…we arrived (stinky and tired)  to “our” village in the valley for the night.
A quick dip in the river got rid of the stinky problem, and delicious food and an 8 hour coma fixed the tiredness.
The next morning, after a look around the village to admire all the architecture and buffalo horns…
…and then, on the way out, were escorted a little ways by a couple of  children.
At trails’ end, waiting for a ride, small children see cameras and go in for the kill.

Finally, a bit of dancing at the second funeral Greg and I went to while in Sulawesi.  The video has a lot of ambient noise, but then so did the funeral. Aside from the constant slaughtering of water buffalo that goes on as the constantly present background of most of these funerals, you’ll often see a group of local guys dancing and singing together as well to celebrate the spirit of the deceased.

Yes, those dudes on the right are carving at a buffalo.  It is still a Torajan funeral, after all.

These funerals, and really the entireity of Torajan society, are a really fascinating look at the mixing of traditional animist practices with more recent additions of Christianity to the cultural fabric. To an outsider of this community raised in traditional Western christianity this is miles away, but of course thats part of the appeal!

One caveat, in case you weren’t already aware: these funerals can get gory. The first one I went to was accompanied by a British girl (who, admittedly, was a vegetarian) that couldn’t handle the blood and slaughter and left after no more than 5 or 10 minutes. If you’re going to trek all the way up to Tana Toraja for these funerals, make sure you have a clear idea what you’re getting yourself into.

 

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Want to visit a Torajan funeral, but uncomfortable doing it on your own? Check out GetYourGuide. They offer a number of tours through Indonesia, and sometimes having a guide around here can be a welcome way to understand more about the culture and make sure you don’t offer offense to locals at what can obviously be quite an emotional event. At the first least, make sure to pick up a travel guide or phrase book to at least learn what you can about the local culture and a few words to prepare yourself with. 

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We arranged our guides locally in Rantepao. If you’re in a hurry, though, check out the options available on GetYourGuide.

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Hoping to visit a Tana Toraja Funeral, but uncomfortable with the idea of just showing up on your own? Check out GetYourGuide.

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