July 9th a Toraja Funeral

Today we saw a Toraja Funeral for a high class man who had passed away over a year ago. We saw four activities related to the first day of this 5 day funeral, the procession of the coffin, the procession of the family to the reception area and welcoming of guests, the slaughtering of a buffalo, and buffalo fights. As Torajan funerals start only when the sun is moving downward (basically after noon) we spent the morning visiting the unique village of Ke'te Kesu and the graves at Londa, before going to the funeral.

Monday Map of where we went

Ke'te Kesu has rice fields, tongkonan, rice barns and graves in the cliff side just behind the village, which makes it a complete village all in one place. The roofs also use the traditional bamboo instead of the more modern metal. The guide said the village is a World Heritage Site so some funding helps with replacing the roofs with new bamboo when needed.

Ke'te Kesu

Ke'te Kesu drying rice

Traditionall Toraja ladies hat made of rattan

construction detail of temporary funeral pavillions

There are preparations for a very large funeral happening on July 23rd, so many guest pavilions are being built with bamboo and wooden planks. The bamboo and planks are kept by each village for reuse at future funerals, but all the decorated pieces of bamboo, the printed cloths of red and Torajan motifs are all new for each funeral.

Coffin Maker

 The funeral coffin carrier is also freshly ordered and a special pavilion made for it to rest in during the funeral days, prior to being put in either a cave or in a family mausoleum. We went inside a traditional tongkonan which always contain 3 rooms, a sleeping quarters at at the back, kitchen in the middle and living area in the front. They are very narrow so not much room.
The village is known for its wood carving and we saw a lady demonstrating how they paint the tiles for the rice barn. The black color actually comes from the sap of a banana tree, while the red is from clay, as is the yellow/ochre color.

Next went went to Londa, where there are graves in a cave, as well as coffins attached up the cliff on wooden beams. We could have gone underground with a guide who had a light.....very narrow opening so we passed on that.

Coffin waiting to be carried

We arrived at the funeral just before noon, in time for the Christian funeral service, but we did not recognize the hymn that was being sung. First came the ladies beating on the large, boatlike wooden rice threshing container to a certain rhythm. The warriors, hired by the family, lead the procession, followed by a sample of each type of buffalo to be sacrificed (8 types for this funeral), followed by men carrying tall banners, then women under a red cloth that is attached to the coffin carrier.

The coffin carrier is on bamboo and in this case was carried by about 30 dancers hired by the family. They paraded the coffin around the village (about a kilometer) and then left the top of the coffin carrier at the entrance to the area having the funeral. While the coffin was doing its route, we went to one of the pavilions and were given a nice ginger tea and some cookies and cakes. As an aid to memory, we had written on our hands "kurey samanga" so that we would be able to say "thank you" in Torajan. When the coffin procession was coming back, we thanked our host and hostess with some cigarettes that were the traditional gift. Do you know, the equivalent of the Torajan "IRS" sits outside the funeral entrance and collects taxes on the gifts including buffalo, pigs, chickens, cigarettes, etc. - it must be their equivalent of the estate tax!

Male family in procession carry banners after buffalo

Once the coffin was placed in its special position, which required much effort on the part of at least 15 men, a 45 minute eulogy of the deceased blasted from loud speakers. We were unfortunately graciously given seating right near the main family pavilion from which activities from there on were being directly loudly over several speakers, one unfortunately being right beside us. After the eulogy was the buffalo slaughter, which was actually done extremely quickly with a sharp knife like a machete, and by an experienced man. We later saw the buffalo hide being carried on a motorcycle to a place where it would be dried.

Hired "warriors" lead all processions

Women at head of coffin during procession

After the buffalo sacrifice, the family then procedes to the reception area to greet guests. At this point it was around 2:30 so we made a mad dash back into town for an Indonesian lunch at Cafe Arkas. A little over an hour later we were back at the funeral site to watch the buffalo fighting. It reminded me of the bulls running in Pamplona, which I have seen on TV. As you can see from the pictures, the place around the ring is full of people and only 1 area really has a short bamboo fence. The rest of the area the buffaloes just run towards bystanders, and people rush to get out of the way. David and I stopped to stand in a particular place good for taking pictures and the guide told us not a good place as it was "too low". After the first competition of which the there was no fighting only bulls running away through that low spot! We stayed to watch probably 5 more fights and in one case the buffaloes ran up the higher side scaring people out of their path as one bull was in a panic to escape from the victorious opponent....that made me even go stand on higher ground.

Family procession to reception pavilion

As you can see from the pictures, the efforts that go into the funerals with building all of these temporary pavilions for guests to eat and visit is a sight to see, and an expensive proposition. The higher the caste the more buffalo need to be slaughtered for the funeral, the most expensive buffalo type is like an albino with large parts of his body white and blue eyes ($35,000) and the costs go on down from there. The aim is to have more than the maximum types of buffalo for the funeral, so you can imagine that a lot of money just becomes buffalo meat, regardless of the type and cost of the buffalo, very quickly in one day. We understand that for this noble's funeral about 40 buffalo and several hundred pigs will be slaughtered. Our guide said that this is one way that the noble class distributes some wealth to the poorer castes and villages, through the allocation of funeral meat.

Women provide rythum for the procession with rice pounders

It was a very interesting but long day so we we both tired. In order to find a dark shirt to wear for the funeral I had borrowed David's black long underwear shirt so I was roasting in the sun. We were so tired that we just snacked on apples and peanut butter for supper, and crashed early.

Stay out of the way of the Buffalo - notice the phographer on lower ground