Hey everyone!
So I wasn’t able to get any ideas about this weeks topic from you since none of you read my last post! This means I have to fend for myself. What did I find? After soul searching (Googling options), I decided to look into some rituals. The one I found is pretty in depth. There are a lot of parts to the ritual, so let’s get into it!
Overview:
The culture this ritual stems from is Tana Toraja. This group is indigenous to the mountains in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Because I know I wasn’t familiar with where this was, I’ll add a map.
http://www.id.emb-japan.go.jp/oda/en/provinces/odaprojects_map_sulsel.htm
The ceremony we’re going to be looking at is called Rambu Solo, it is a long winded funeral ceremony. The Toraja people divide the ritual into two aspects: the funeral procession and an art show. The funeral procession is very intricate. Every aspect is celebrated and illustrated for others to see. They start with the process of corpse wrapping, then they decorate the coffin. The next part is parading the body a barn to be buried. The final stage is to move the coffin to Lakkian, to cemetary complex. With these, the first part is completed.
In addition, they have an art show that contains various interesting activities. First, they have a buffalo sacrifice. Which is like…much different than what I would have expected for an art show. To show respect, the bulls are paraded around the village.
That’s not even the most interesting part either. Apparently the amount of buffalos that you sacrifice depends on your social status. A middle status family will sacrifice 8-10 buffalos and up to 50 more pigs, too. That is in and of itself a lot more than I expected. Now, a royal class family will sacrifice 30-150!!! And I didn’t even tell you how expensive the bulls are….20,000-50,000….EACH! Which is why a full ceremony can cost range from 400,000-500,000 USD. And we thought funerals in the U.S. were expensive. But it all makes sense because bulls are sacred animals to the Tojara people. They use a special breed called Tedong Bonga Belang AKA a mud buffalo. They’re pretty cute actually. Have a look.
http://sylvhauntad.blogspot.com/2011/07/kerbau-belang-tedong-bonga-hewan-khas.html
It’s like a pig, cow, hairless cat mix, if you think about it. The whole purpose of sacrificing the bulls is because they believe the dead spirits will go to Puya. Another part of the tradition is the coffin decorating, which I mentioned above. They use various clothes, ropes, silver and gold for the outside, in addition to adding special gifts inside the coffin. They also provide sentiment belongings of the deceased to travel with them in the afterlife. I actually think this seems similar to ancient Egyptian methods, which is fascinating.
After all of this, the body is carried to the cemetary. The family of course is present for this, but so is the whole village. It is beautiful that everyone is involved in the ceremony. The ritual, actually, can continue for months, or even years because of how expensive it is.
http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/indian-culture/
This weeks blog is pretty short, but full of intriguing concepts and celebrations. I hope you all found it interesting! If you actually end up reading this tomorrow, please leave comments on some ideas you may have for next week!
Until next time friends.
gocelebes.com/toraja-special-funeral-rambu-solo-ceremony/