Burial Cliffs in Tana Toraja

     Hello readers! Here we come to the tenth entry of this blog. For now, I am intended to share to all of you about burial cliffs in Tana Toraja. Toraja is located in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is well-known of cheerful environment of the way to treat death and the burial ground of unique carved in sheer rock. Toraja is one of the most magnificent tourist destinations in Indonesia as it has green hills of South Sulawesi in it. It is the home for Toraja tribe. Most of the members in Toraja tribe is Christian and was converted during the Dutch Occupation in the previous days. Even they are already being converted, their beliefs still remain the same and can be seen clearly during the celebration of funeral and burial customs. Toraja is very obsessed with death, but not in the bad way. During the burial ceremony, it is like going-away celebration that will provide dozens of water buffalo and pigs for the feast to be enjoyed by the whole community in Toraja.  

The picture shows the unique burial cliffs in Tana Toraja -  courtesy of Google

     Every member of the Toraja tribe has to ensure that he raised enough money during his lifetime so that his family can afford to make the best party in town when he left this world soon. The dead body will be kept under the family home for years after his death. During this particular time, the rest of the family will see him not as "deceased" but as "sick" and raise adequate money for the actual funeral. This ceremony will be attended by hundred of guests. Furthermore, travelers are welcomed to attend the celebration with the condition of not wearing anything black or red. 

     Besides that, the Toraja tribe members will be buried in the ground. They also will be placed in tombs in the cliffs nearby or in wooden coffins hanging on the side of the mountains. One of the most popular burial sites in the area is Lemo. It looks like a piece of Swiss cheese boulder, with an additional corresponding hole carved coffins and a balcony for the "tau tau" which means sized wooden statue representing the deceased. In the old days, the statue only shows gender deceased, but now the sculptor is trying their best to make them look exactly like the actual people. Statue of the dead body will be placed together with the other deceased once the body is placed in a tomb stone so that his spirit can keep the offspring.   

The picture shows "tau tau", it looks like a piece of Swiss cheese boulder, with an additional
corresponding hole carved coffins and a balcony - courtesy of Google

The results when the sculptor tried the best effort to make the dead bodies look like
the actual people in the cliff - courtesy of Google 

     How do you view this tradition? It looks unique and interesting for sure right? In the other side, I can conclude that I can see the creativity of Toraja tribe members when it comes to make the dead bodies look exactly like the real people. Toraja tribe members are quite obsessed with the death and they will throw out the party to serve some food to the guests during the burial ceremony. So I guess that's all for this entry. Hope it will improve your knowledge in certain burial ceremony that is being conducted in Toraja. Happy reading!