AMONG the islands of Indonesia, in the steamy mountains of central Sulawesi, live the Toraja people. History has little to say about them, since few outsiders knew they were there until a century ago. For the most part, they live their lives in a way that resembles others in the region, but they are different in one way: the way they die.
Some Torajans are Christian and Muslim, but most still practice the ancient faith, which holds that non-human entities such as plants, animals and even the earth itself, possess a spiritual essence.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, among the Torajans death is the most important moment in a person’s life. Funerals take precedence over every other milestone. When someone dies, they are cared for until the funeral can be held, being continually bathed, dressed, talked to and even fed for weeks or months. One Torajan commented, “We do this because we love him and respect [father] so much.”
Eventually, the corpse is mummified and when enough money has been raised a funeral is held which is the social event of the season. As with many other cultures, a person’s status is reflected in their funeral, so families go to great lengths to boost attendance and pageantry. A modest Torajan funeral can cost $50,000 and can go as high as half million dollars.
The funeral lasts from several days to several weeks and includes prayers, dancing, feasting and the sacrifice of one or more water buffalo. Considering the cost of such beasts in this part of the world, it can be the single largest expense of the whole process, and the most important. The slaughter is a bloody and violent affair where the buffalo fight each other, the animals’ throats are slit, the heads removed, and the meat portioned out among the family. It is not for the faint-hearted.
After the celebration, the body is taken to the family tomb, which is often a cave or a raised crypt. Even then, the deceased have not left the realm of the living, for every few years the corpse is taken out and washed, cleaned of bugs and decay, and given a fresh set of clothes. The body will remain out for some time, giving family members a chance to reconnect with ancestors. Conversations are had, meals are shared, young ones are introduced, some even share a smoke, alternating the cigarette between the lips of living and dead.
Do Torajan beliefs surrounding death indicate that they understand it better than others do, or does it indicate that they are in denial about what death actually is? Many religions believe that death is not the end of life. They believe something, a soul or spirit, survives into another type of existence. Very few religions, however, assign any meaning to the physical body, which decays and is discarded after the moment of death. In Toraja, the body carries as much meaning as it did in life. It is not simply a vessel that carries the person, it is the person. To a greater extent than we may understand, in Toraja the dead inhabit the world of the living.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for 20 years. He currently resides on the mainland U.S.
