Burial Sites

Our final full day in Toraja was the most interesting one, from my perspective. We visited three different types of burial sites and learnt all kinds of interesting information form Yulius about the different Torajan traditions, including what the family does with the bodies before having the funeral. Yulius explained that the deceased is embalmed shortly after dying and the placed inside the home on the family bed. It is said that during this time, the deceased is 'just sleeping'. The real kicker is that the deceased does not sleep alone! Other family members will continue to sleep in the same bed the deceased is occupying! Yulius offered multiple times to take us into a house containing a deceased person, but none of us wanted anything to do with that. It seemed much to personal and I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that they sleep with the dead person! Mind blown!

The first burial site we visited, was a village that had grave sites carved into the side of the mountain with huge wooden effigies standing on platforms surrounding the graves. The village was that of a wealthy Torajan class and explained the large number of effigies we saw. The effigies were dressed in bright yellows and reds.

We learnt that there are three different class systems in the Torajan culture and that family lines follow the mother's side. If a male marries outside his class, he moves to his wife's village and their children follow that class system. Also, if the husband dies before the wife, his family will try to get the body back to bury him in their family burial site. However, if the wife dies first, the husband follows where she is buried and the family does not try to get the body back. (This is how I understood what Yulius was telling us about the complicated burial procedures.)

Our second stop was at the Living Tree. This is where babies that have not cut any teeth are buried. A special tree is identified by the Torajans, containing qualities I cannot recall, and this becomes the burial site for the babies. Just like the cliff graves, multiple babies will be buried in one tree. However, unlike the cliff graves, only one baby is placed inside each tomb. A small rectangle is hallowed out and the baby is placed inside with it's head towards the sky. The hole is the covered by a bamboo weaving to keep people and animals out. Over time, the bark of the tree grows over the opening and replaces the bamboo with a permanent covering. The Torajans believe that these babies will be reincarnated and born again, potentially to a different mother. If a Living Tree does happen to fall down, it is left exactly where it fell. The Torajans will only check that the coverings have not come off.

The last burial site of the day was the hanging graves cave. This was also very cool, but a tad eerie as well. For these sites, actual caskets are made from one large tree.The deceased is placed inside the hallowed out tree and then placed quite high up in the cave, either literally hanging from the ceiling or along a natural shelf wall. Placing the caskets this high, helps prevent looting. If a casket happens to fall, the bones that are left are moved off the walking path into a pile of other bones or placed along the cave wall. It is estimated that some of the skulls are over 300 years old! As I said, it was a little eerie because it seemed like it should be a scene from a horror film.

That afternoon, we ended up getting caught in a rain storm on our walk through a different set of rice paddies. Yulius led us to another funeral that was winding down because of the rain and the time of day. The funeral ended up being at the village his father was from, which I found interesting. Again, the generosity was unbelievable! The five of us were invited into another family hut even though we were pretty soaked. We were then given palm wine and freshly grilled buffalo. Even though the butchering was over for the day at this funeral, it was a bit more graphic because of the smells. The hut we were invited into had a huge hunk of buffalo sitting in the corner. Yulius also explained that there had been a funeral just a few weeks before, so not all of the smells had dispersed from that one. Even with all of this, it was still incredibly interesting to watch the family interactions.

In all, I think Tana Toraja is my favorite place here in Indonesia. It is so different from everywhere else and the people are incredibly generous and friendly.