I had the most wonderful time in the days I spend in the highlands of South Sulewesi. The trip was an anthropology class brought to life, I actually studied the Torajans when I took anthropology classes in college.
Our very first day in Toraja we arrived by night bus and went straight to a tourist information center. We found out (such good luck!) that there would be a funeral happening that day, and we would be welcome to attend.
Funerals in Toraja are an interesting business. Long before the Dutch, before Christianity, the Torajans were an animist people that traditionally celebrated life and death with elaborate rituals. After ignoring the area for a long time, missionaries arrived in the early 20th century and brought Christianity to the area (a response to the fact that the Dutch had become concerned by the spread of Islam in other parts of Sulewesi). Toraja will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity next year. Most of the Torajans I met identify themselves as Christians, but they still participate in many of their earlier traditions.
Today, funerals are the big event in Torajan society. They are expensive elaborate rituals that can last for days. We showed up on the first day of what would be a 5 day ceremony. The man who had died was a high-ranking member of a well to do family. He had actually died three years ago, and the family had spend the intervening years saving and planning for the event.
The site of the ceremony was outside of the family's house (the tongkonan - more on the architecture later). Large shelters were erected for the guests to sit. We showed up with our guide and gave one of the family members a gift (a carton of cigarettes, a pittance compared to the gifts the real guests were bringing) then watched as family groups from as far away as Papua arrived. The guests all brought water buffalo and pigs as offerings to the deceased - it is a reciprocal exchange, so men walked around spray painting each animal and announcing who it came from. Later this family will have to bring an equal or greater offering to the next funeral. Turns out the water buffalo at these funerals can be enormously expensive. A normal buffalo might cost $7,000 of $8,000 USD, but some of them are rare albino buffalo that can cost up to $30,000 (the whiter they are, the more they cost). I thought the albino buffalo were actually pretty weird looking (they have blue eyes) but being a genetic freak apparently makes you worth a lot of uang.
After everyone arrived, the slaughtering began. Most of it was hidden from my immediate view, but I did still hear the squeals and see the blood spurting into the air. The slaughtering would continue for the next couple days, but they got enough of it done that we could eat boiled water buffalo for lunch (not as bad as you might expect it would be).
The experience of the funeral was incredible. I was fascinated to see such an elaborate and traditional ritual come to life. I'd worried before we got there that we'd be out of place or unwanted, but in a way that felt like the weddings I go to, people seemed to think the more the merrier. Everyone was friendly to us, they took lots of pictures of us (but this time I too pictures of them too!), and I had a few conversations with sweet old Bapaks who appreciated my limited Bahasa skills.
the main courtyard - pigs are tied up, squealing occasionally
young family members, dressed up and waiting to greet arriving guests
guests arrive! wearing cool hats!
the courtyard. note the kerbau head in the foreground
the water buffalo are offered to the deceased
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