Funeral Rites of Toraja Land

The spirit houses of torajaland are a symbolic representation of the toraja peoples spiritual system. The roof of the spirit houses are a symbol of a boat. The houses are the symbols of a belief system. The water buffalo get sacrificed at funerals and the spirit of the buffalo will accompany the dead person to the after world. The villages team with people and is the high point of their lives. Death is the entry into another world. Everywhere there is death and sacrifice. The buffalo has his throat cut and the blood put into a pail. The meat is cut up in the village square. Pigs are brought into the village square and they stick a knife into the pigs heart. The pig is to go with the dead to give them status in the after life. They believe their ancestors came from the stars. There will be lots of pigs sacrificed.

The meat is given out to the villagers and relatives from all over the district. The spirit of the animals join with the dead person, and the flesh stays here to feed the living people. The funeral will go on for days and finally years after the death, the dead person is interred.

A tau tau is a puppet that represents the person that has died. They are effigies or images of the dead with a fixed gaze looking into eternity. They are like the dead in an opera box. There are offerings by the living to the ancestors. The coffins are laid in the burial cave.

The cliffs are occupied by the eerie sight of the tau tau. IN the burial caves it is the transition between this world and the next one. The skulls line the walls of the cave. These dead are not dead as far as the toraja are concerned. The living give offerings to the dead. They even leave cigarettes and drinks for the deceased. It is an eerie feeling inside the burial caves.

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