Funeral Tana Toraja Style

The funeral was held on the top of the hill in Rantepao. As we ascended, we could hear strange grunting sounds. They turned out to be the sounds of miserable squealing pigs lying on the ground bound to bamboo poles. Their  eyes were nearly shut and they struggled and kicked in their ligatures. When we reached the summit, we could see a central plaza surrounded by black and red ornamented bamboo grandstands. Hundreds of mourners dressed in black sat in the shade talking, eating, and passing time.  Drawing a rope that was strung through the animal’s nostrils, a man lead a water buffalo to the center. in his other hand he held a machete up to the sky. Then ‘whap’, he tapped the blade to the buffalo’s neck and stepped away. The  buffalo was shocked as light red gushed out of its neck. It kicked and then collapsed to the crimson ground. The blood continued to squirt out of its artery for moments. Then with its wide eyes, it gazed listlessly for the  last disjointed moments of its life. Mounds of wet undigested grass taken from the stomachs of all the other water buffalo previously sacrificed dotted the ground.  Various buffalo parts neatly placed on palm leaves ready to be parceled out to people according to the rank in the village.... men shuttling back-and-forth from the grandstands delivering the meat to certain families... the smoke of roasting pigs rising behind the stands. Men busily gutted lines of dead pigs. A trail of dried blood stretched from a pig’s armpit to the ground. A young man used a machete to delicately cut away the fat and pull out intestines like a magician pulling a never ending  handkerchief out of a hat. They pulled the slimy intestines out, then with their hands, they reached in and took out a bladder full of urine careful not to burst it within the pig.

Back at the plaza, women stood up to drumming. A young man and women wearing clogs meticulously lead a circular procession of women in hats,  men in  sarong,  and men bearing severely overweight pigs in cages. One pig escaped and spent the last few moments of his life eating and scavenging and sniffing the ground around all the carcasses strewn over the plaza. 

The Torajan Christians believe the souls of the animals they sacrifice will carry the soul of the deceased to heaven. Sometimes a family keeps a corpse for five years to save up enough money to finance a funeral.  Next year there will be a funeral sacrifice of 200 water buffalo for a man who died three years ago.