How to get there and what to see in Tana Toraja. Creepy Religious Rituals: The Toraja People Practicing Animism Resurrection of a Man in a Toraja Village
The picturesque mountainous region of South Sulawesi in Indonesia is home to an ethnic group called the Toraja. These simple people, who practice animism (the belief that all beings, including animals, plants, and even inanimate objects or phenomena, have a spiritual essence), practice some of the strangest funeral rituals in the world. This includes the ritual of burying babies in trees, as well as displaying mummies of people who died a long time ago. Torajani funeral rituals are an important social event that brings together numerous relatives. Such events last for several days.
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Source: amusingplanet.com
1. When a Toraja dies, his relatives must perform a series of funeral ceremonies called Rambu Solok, which lasts several days. But ceremonies do not take place immediately after death because the Toraja family usually does not have enough funds to cover all the funeral expenses. As a result, they wait - weeks, months, and sometimes years, slowly collecting money. At this time, the deceased is not buried, but is embalmed and kept in a house under the same roof with living relatives. Until the funeral, this person is not considered dead; everyone pretends that he is suffering from an illness.
2. When enough funds have been collected, ceremonies begin during which buffaloes and pigs are slaughtered. The sacrifice is accompanied by dancing and music, and young boys must catch the streams of blood in long bamboo tubes. The more important the deceased, the more buffaloes are slaughtered. Often dozens of buffaloes and hundreds of pigs are sacrificed. After this, the meat is distributed to the guests who came to the funeral.
3. Then comes the burial ceremony itself, but Toraja people are rarely buried in the ground. The deceased are placed either in caves in the rocky mountain or in wooden coffins that hang from cliffs. Conventional burial is too expensive, and it takes several months to prepare everything. A wooden figurine of Tau-tau, which represents the deceased, is placed in the cave with the coffin. She is placed facing out of the cave. In the photo: graves carved into a rocky mountain and decorated with wooden Tau-tau idols.
4. Coffins are very beautifully decorated, but over time the wood begins to rot and the white bones often fall onto the patch of ground over which the coffin is hung.
5. Children are not buried in caves, nor are they hung from cliffs. They are buried... in empty trunks of living trees. If the child dies before teething, he is wrapped in cloth and placed in an empty space in the trunk of a growing tree, and then closed with a door made of palm fiber. After this, the hole is sealed. It is believed that when the tree begins to heal, it absorbs the child. There can be dozens of children in one tree. In the photo: a tree of children's graves in the village of Tana Toraja.
6. The funeral is over, the guests are fed and return home, but the rituals are not finished yet. Every few years, in August, the Ma'Nene ritual takes place, during which the deceased is exhumed, washed, combed and dressed in new clothes. These mummies are then paraded around the village like zombies.
7. The unusual funeral rituals of Tana Toraja attract thousands of tourists and anthropologists every year.
8. Indeed, since 1984, Tana Toraja has been called the second most important tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali.
Zombies frighten people with their invulnerability and persistence in searching for flesh. At the same time, everyone is calm, since the walking dead do not exist. But that's not true. In the remote village of Tana Toraja, the dead are being raised from the ground. Should we start being afraid?
Not at all. Local zombies do not eat brains and do not hunt the living. An Indonesian village is raising the friendliest, most peaceful zombies imaginable. The Torajians can force any deceased person to walk and breathe again, resorting to the services of dark forces and black magic.
In fact, the dead are not allowed to rot in peace in the ground not by the whim of relatives, but by the funeral traditions of Tan Toraja.
The first belief is to bury the dead in the region where they were born. Therefore, if the deceased at one time came to the village from another place, then you need to force him to go to his native land on his own.
The second reason for creating zombies is financial necessity. Often families did not have enough money to bury a relative, so he could not rest in peace until he earned money for a coffin and rite.
The photograph clearly shows that the shaman is leading by the hand the remains of a woman buried six months ago. One would think that this is skillful makeup, but where does it come from in a remote village?
Eyewitnesses claim that the dead smell like decomposed flesh. The zombie woman could not speak, she only hissed.
Residents of Tan Toraja claim that the ability to raise corpses from graves was inherited from their great-grandfathers, the strongest shamans in the world. For a substantial sum, anyone can see the ritual with their own eyes and “enjoy” communication with the living dead for a while.
Funeral rites in Indonesia vary and depend on what religion the residents of a particular part of the country adhere to. Indonesia is home to Muslims, Christians (Protestants and Catholics), Buddhists, Confucians and representatives of ancient tribal animism. Most often, these people bury their dead according to the traditions of the confession of which they are representatives.
However, there are exceptions, and they are most interesting for lovers of exoticism and researchers of ancient ethnic customs
The most unusual and attracting many tourists are considered
funeral customs of the area of Tana Toraja on the island of Sulawesi
The Toraja people still practice animism, although officially the majority of their representatives are Christians, and some are adherents of Islam. But animist traditions remain in the lives of both Protestants and Muslims of Tana Toraja. They are closely intertwined with both later religions and manifest themselves most clearly in the extremely complex and unique ritual of funerals.
The Torajans believe that after the death of any person, his the soul will definitely go to heaven. According to traditional beliefs, the concept of hell does not exist at all among them. Even Torajian Christians and Muslims do not really believe in the posthumous division of souls into sinners and righteous ones.
But even in paradise, according to the ancient ideas of our ancestors, the deceased will be truly well only if he is buried correctly, having carried out all the necessary ceremonies without exception.
Therefore, the bodies of Toraja relatives are brought to their home villages even if they have died in other places.
Funerals cost a lot of money, since the ceremony itself, the traditional grave, and its decoration are quite expensive even for wealthy families. Therefore, quite often a lot of time passes from the moment of a person’s death to the day of his burial.
After the death of a relative, the family immediately begins to prepare for the funeral
At the beginning the body is embalmed and is placed in a temporary coffin, which is placed in one of the rooms of an ordinary residential building.
There it can stay from several months to a year until loved ones collect enough money for a decent funeral and prepare everything in the best possible way.
During this time burial site is being prepared and a tau-tau is carved - a wooden figure depicting the deceased. Usually these statues are made to the full height of a person.
Wealthy families order from the master mannequin with portrait likeness.
This one is made within 1.5 - 2 months, and it costs about 500 US dollars. Most Torajans cannot afford such luxury, and the dolls ordered by the poor are almost nothing like their prototypes. In addition, a new coffin is being made. It can have any shape, but must be topped with a structure that imitates the roof of a traditional Toraja house - a tongkonan. All this time, the deceased is considered not dead, but sick.
They bring him food, cigarettes, betel nut and various other things needed by the living. When the necessary amount for a decent funeral has been collected and everything is ready for it, a time is set for farewell to the deceased.
Funeral ceremony at Tana Toraja
lasts from 3 to 12 days, depending on the wealth of the family
They usually arrive there all relatives and friends and many fellow villagers who come from different parts of the country, and even from abroad. Sometimes up to several hundred people arrive, and temporary houses have to be built to accommodate them.
The mourners, as usual, bring different offerings- sometimes money, but most often sacrificial animals: buffalos, pigs, chickens. A lot of them are required for a funeral, especially if the deceased was a respected person.
It is believed that the blood of killed animals will be donated to the gods, of which the Sulawesi aborigines have a lot.
On the first day, the body of the deceased is placed in a new coffin, painted in ritual colors: red (symbolizing life and blood), yellow (sign of power), white (purity) and black (death). The coffin is carried throughout the village so that the deceased can say goodbye to his native place.
On this day, relatives and friends of the family come to the village.
On the 2nd day mass sacrifices take place. Buffaloes, pigs and chickens are killed with machetes, leaving everything stained with their blood. According to legends, killed animals should serve the deceased in the next world. Buffaloes are especially valued, without which it is believed that the soul will not be able to reach the blissful land of the dead and will be very angry with relatives for this.
In the following days, the meat of the animals is eaten by all those who arrive in honor of the soul of the deceased. She herself, as the Torajans believe, temporarily moves into the tau-tau and observes the funeral feasts in her honor. The crowded celebration lasts until the food runs out. After this, the coffin with the body is placed on a stretcher and sent to the burial place.
Graves in North Sulawesi
are made in ordinary cemeteries in the ground.
Europeans are buried in the same way.
Islanders over burials they put up small houses- fairly accurate copies of those in which the deceased lived before their death.
The graves of Europeans are most often marked with traditional monuments - stone crosses or steles with tombstones.
In the south of the island they practice ancient burials in the mountains(if there is no money for a family or individual concrete crypt, which is very expensive). There, niches are cut into the limestone for coffins and balconies for wooden sculptures of tau-tau. The closer to the top of the rock such a grave is located, the easier it will be for the soul to ascend to heaven.
Poor families bury their dead in natural caves, and sometimes new bodies are placed in old coffins that already contain the remains of other ancestors. Christian crosses are often placed in the rocks near the coffins, and the niches themselves, after the coffin is installed, are covered with shields.
There are a huge number of stories in which dead people are the main characters. Each culture has its own way of burying the dead, seemingly reliably laying the boundary between the real and the other world.
There are countless beliefs about how our soul is transformed after inevitable death, and people have developed a long tradition of funerals, special rites and rituals.
Regardless of culture, burial practices and beliefs, in most cases the deceased corpse remains dead for all time to come.
Indonesia, The Walking Dead.
In our history we will have to remember the attitude towards everything mystical, since in Indonesia, the dead can easily come to visit. Now I'm not talking about these terrible zombies, or vampires, crawling out of the grave and chattering their teeth in search of a victim. Many may not believe it, but in the Toraja culture there is a term “Walking Dead”. Moreover, this is not a metaphorical term, but, most likely, real reality, without any mysticism with living corpses.
Toraja, an ethnic group of people representing the indigenous population of the mountains of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Local residents build houses with huge pointed roofs that look like boats (tongokonan). The locals have also long been famous for their exquisite wood carvings and unique traditions. The Toraja are well known for their complex and extremely bizarre funeral rites, as well as the choice of resting place for the dead.
This macabre fascination with death can be seen throughout the tribal villages. The impression is enhanced by the intricate burial sites, carved directly into the rocky cliffs in the traditional style of the local people. Unique houses, tongokonan - immaculately decorated with buffalo horns, a symbol of wealth, are not only lived in, but also used as resting places for the corpses of recently deceased relatives.
In the funeral rites of the Toraja, one can see all their long-standing attitude towards death, or rather a strong belief in the afterlife, and the transition process from death to burial is long. When a person dies, his corpse is not always buried; as a rule, it is washed and kept in the house. To avoid the effects of decomposition, the body of the deceased is covered with traditional ingredients, betel leaves and banana juice. Such accommodation in some cases may last for a long time.
In poorer families, the deceased may be kept in the next room of their own house. Because a funeral ceremony in Torajo is usually an extravagant affair and requires the presence of all relatives, no matter how far away they may be. It is quite natural that waiting for the arrival of all the relatives of the deceased takes a very long time, plus, you need to raise money for an expensive funeral service and the burial itself.
For us this will seem something strange and unusual; not everyone is able to sleep next to a dead person, although this is not particularly unpleasant for the rural inhabitants of Torajo. In local society it is believed that the process of death is long, the soul slowly and gradually leads its way into “Puya”.
During this waiting period, the corpse is still treated as if it were still alive. The soul is believed to remain nearby, awaiting its journey to Puya. The body is dressed and regularly cared for, even to the point of being offered dinner as if it were a still living family member. And only when all the agreements are met, the relatives gather, and the funeral ceremony begins.
Depending on the level of wealth of the deceased, funerals can be incredibly lavish and extravagant, including large celebrations for several days. During the ceremony, hundreds of family members gather at the solemn place Rante, where they express their grief through music and singing.
A common feature of such events, especially among wealthy tribal people, is the sacrifice of buffaloes and pigs. It is believed that buffaloes and pigs are necessary for the soul of the deceased to move on to, and the more animals sacrificed, the faster the journey will go. To do this, depending on the wealth of the family, I can slaughter up to a dozen buffaloes and hundreds of pigs, accompanying the event with a fanfare of revelers who dance and try to catch the flying blood with bamboo straws.
The shedding of blood on the ground is considered an important moment for the passage of the soul into Puya, and in some cases, special cockfights are held, known as "bulangan londong" as if the blood of all those buffaloes and pigs was not enough.
When the celebrations are over and the body is ready for burial, the corpse is placed in a wooden box, after which it will be laid in a cave specially carved for burial (thought it would be buried in the ground?). Of course, this is a specially prepared cave that meets the requirements necessary for the ritual.
In the case of infants or small children, the coffin is suspended from the rock with thick ropes until they rot and the coffin falls to the ground, after which it is re-hung. The ritual of such a burial with hanging coffins echoes the tradition of the Indians who lived in an anomalous place known as "".
The Toraja try to place their dead higher, because being placed between Heaven and Earth will make it easier for the soul to find its way to the afterlife. The burial cave houses many of the tools and equipment needed by the soul in the afterlife, including money and, oddly enough, piles of cigarettes.
Walking with a mummified corpse.
Funeral caves may have only one coffin, and are complex mausoleums for the rich, there may be rich decoration, and the place itself is a place to await the death of relatives. Simply put, this is a type of family crypt.
Some of the graves date back more than 1,000 years, with coffins containing rotted bones and skulls. However, after the actual burial, in the Toraja tribe this does not mean that the deceased will no longer be seen.
Photograph of a supposed corpse walking
Here there is a most unusual ritual regarding the dead, giving rise to tales of the living dead or zombies. Once a year, in August, residents come to the caves to visit the dead, they not only repair the broken coffin if necessary, but also look after the dead: they wash and bathe the deceased!
The ritual is known as "Ma'nene", a ceremony for caring for corpses. Moreover, the care procedure is carried out regardless of how long they have been dead or how old they were. Some of the corpses spent so long in the caves that they became quite well mummified.
At the end of the procedure for refreshing the dead, residents hold them in an upright position and “walk” with them around the village to the place of their death and back. After this strange walk, the inhabitant of the afterlife is sent back to the coffin, and left until next year, when the whole process is repeated again.
This may all seem quite creepy and strange to some, but even stranger ceremonies are said to take place in some remote areas of Indonesia: here the dead can walk on their own!
It is also true that funeral rites and rituals in Toraja are extremely demanding, because in order for the spirit of the deceased to be able to pass on to the afterlife, certain conditions must be strictly observed.Firstly, absolutely all relatives of the deceased’s family must attend the funeral. Secondly, the deceased must be interred in the village of his birth. If these conditions are not met, the soul will forever linger near the body in limbo, and will not be able to travel to the afterlife. Such assurance led to the fact that people did not want to leave their native villages, fearing to die far from their place of birth, thereby depriving the soul of the opportunity to go to the afterlife.
The walking dead are coming home.
All this created some problems in the past when the Dutch arrived here with colonization. The Toraja lived in remote, self-contained villages that were completely isolated from each other and from the outside world, with no roads connecting them.
When someone died far from their place of birth, it was difficult for the family to get the body to the right place.
Rough and mountainous terrain, long distances, presented quite a serious problem. The solution found to the problem was unique, and boiled down to the fact that the corpses should go home themselves!
In order for the deceased to independently reach the village where he was born, and thereby relieve a lot of troubles from loved ones, the shamans began to look for a person who had the power to temporarily bring the dead back to life. Perhaps this is from the field of black magic, used by shamans to return the dead to temporary life.
The Walking Dead are said to be largely unaware of their condition and are often unresponsive. Without the ability to express thoughts or emotions, reanimated corpses are able to perform only the most basic tasks such as walking.
When the deceased is brought back to life, it is for only one purpose, to drag his feet to the place of his birth, guided by the instructions of the shaman or family members. Although legends are told, in some cases the walking dead walk on their own.
Have you now imagined how you met a walking corpse on the road? Don’t be alarmed, in fact, special people always walked ahead of the group of wandering dead; they showed the way and warned about the dead man going to the grave.
By the way, black magic is certainly a powerful thing, but the journey to the place of birth had to take place in silence, and it was forbidden to contact someone who was alive. As soon as one called him by name, all the power of magic was destroyed, and the dead man finally died.
The Walking Dead, the danger of a zombie invasion?
It is not even known whether a bullet can achieve such a dramatic effect and knock down a living dead man, but the broken spell knocks him down in one fell swoop. However, if someone is panicking and starting to prepare for the inevitable zombie outbreak, then I note that this process is only a temporary effect. This is the need to transport the corpse to the place of birth, although depending on the distances this can take several days or even weeks.
At the same time, there is no word on what happens if a resident dies abroad. Although it is known that, being in a “zombie” state, the dead did not growl or attack a person with the intention of biting; it is a completely passive creature to its surroundings. After reaching his homeland, he again becomes a simple corpse, awaiting his funeral in the usual manner. It’s interesting, but as they say, the body can be revived to life again so that the deceased reaches the coffin.
Nowadays, with the increasing number of roads and availability of transportation, the ritual of the walking dead is seen as an unnecessary practice, in modern times, bringing the dead back to life is extremely rare to see in Toraja culture.
Needless to say, the modern generation has little faith in the stories of grandmothers, considering the walking dead to be an old fiction.However, some remote villages allegedly still practice ancient rites of reviving the dead. There is an isolated village in these parts called “Mamasa”, especially famous for the practice of this terrible rite.
Here they still use the power of black magic to talk with the dead and tell them about the achievements of their descendants. Often such moments are captured by cameras and become publicly available.
Despite the fact that the corpses in the attached photographs look very real, they are considered nothing more than a hoax. It is also suspected that the photographs show people suffering from some kind of disfiguring disease that gives the body the illusion of death.
It is difficult to say what is more present here, folklore or deception. Or maybe in the Toraja tribe shamans really have enormous power, temporarily raising the dead and giving them the opportunity to walk? In any case, eerie and nightmarish traditions exist in South Sulawesi, where some residents believe that what happens to the dead is real.
Tana Toraja is an amazing region in the mountains of South Sulawesi, where the pagan faith of Aluk Todolo is still perfectly preserved, according to which mortal life is worth living and ending in such a way that it is possible to return to the first ancestors who live in heaven in the world of Puya (a kind of Christian paradise). And for this you don’t feel sorry for anything: neither money, nor animals, nor your loved one... The faith of Aluk Todolo is complex, multifaceted and confused, much has already been forgotten and erased under the dust of centuries, something has gone as unnecessary, but the Toraja strictly keep their funeral tradition.
Why not keep it, because everyone wants to find eternal life in the heavenly Puya... The soul of the deceased can get there only with the help of sacrificed buffaloes, the number of which depends on the caste of the deceased. The price for a buffalo starts from 15 million rupees ($1,100) and goes up to 1 billion (the price of a decent jeep). Therefore, the deceased is almost never buried immediately; it happens that a year, or even years, pass from the moment of death to the funeral ceremony - the family saves money. Naturally, no morgue will keep a body for so long, and the Torajas don’t have any morgues, but there are special “conservators” who embalm bodies. Now formaldehyde + some local drugs are used for these purposes.
The Tana Toraja region is extremely interesting, beautiful and sincere, I was happy to stay here for a couple of weeks instead of going further to Sulawesi. When Alexander came to me as part of the Nature of Java and Sulawesi program, we were lucky to see the funeral ceremony of a Toraja grandmother in the village of Tagari, closest to the city of Rantepao. The daughter of the owners of the guesthouse, the best in the city, leaked information about her to us completely free of charge.
The Toraja funeral ceremony, called Rambu Solo, takes place over several days and varies somewhat depending on the caste of the deceased. I will not go into this jungle and load you with unnecessary information, but will focus on my observations, feelings, as well as the most interesting and useful facts.
We arrived on the second day of the festival, which included a ceremony of farewell to the body and the sacrifice of pigs. There were not many guests, a couple of hundred; most likely, the deceased grandmother belonged to the wooden or iron caste. The guests tried to dress in all black, but they did a bad job.
The relatives of the deceased are wearing traditional clothes.
Each guest family brings some kind of gift to the family in which the person died: some a pig, some balok (an alcoholic drink), some cigarettes and betel (a nut with a narcotic effect), and some a buffalo. However, if a guest comes without a gift, this is also normal and no one will sacrifice it. Sasha and I took several packs of cigarettes, but we didn’t know who to give them to and no one asked us anything. By the way, the family of the deceased will then have to give equivalent gifts to the guests when someone in their family dies. Such a whirlwind of gifts in nature! The cost of one pig is from 150 to 500 dollars, and a whole dozen of them can be given as a gift - just do the math...
The coffin with the body of the late grandmother is located in a special two-story building called Lakian.
And to the left and right of it, special platforms are built where guests and relatives sit.
The pigs had already been slaughtered before us, so we only saw the process of cutting them up.
The pieces are distributed among the guests fairly. Someone may well lose half the carcass, probably a large family.
A little to the side, a Toraja was scorching pig bristles with a homemade flamethrower. It looks scary, and what does it smell like...
Nothing else interesting happened that day. But the next day, the third, the most interesting thing happened - the sacrifice of buffaloes.
All Torajans are Christians of different denominations, but this does not in any way prevent them from honoring their religion; we watched as the priest himself brought a buffalo to the funeral ceremony as a gift. This cannot but rejoice: there are few places left in the world where the local religion would not bend to the official one. Apparently Puy in the tradition of Aluk Todolo is sweeter than Christian paradise, and even based on everyday logic, it is better to return to your ancestors than to some foreign paradise planted by Dutch and German missionaries.
It all started quite nicely: a large square, traditional tongkanan houses and buffaloes tied to trees. As they say, nothing foreshadowed trouble...
The atmosphere is not mournful at all, adults are talking animatedly, laughing, smoking and drinking coffee.
Children play with soap bubbles.
It all started completely unexpectedly with a bull fight: everyone jumped off their platforms and ran to the cliff to watch two bulls fight below. They fought not for long, but brutally, until there was blood.
Then the bulls began to be brought one by one to the square in front of Lakian.
Grandmother was preparing to return to the world of her ancestors and demanded blood, a lot of blood... After all, the more this vital elixir is shed, the easier the road to heaven will be, it will go without a hitch. And if you skimp, you can get stuck somewhere halfway, and what the dangers of this are - only the elders know...
I had already seen the killing of large animals, took part in an elk hunt, slaughtered goats in the village with my own hands and thought that I no longer needed anything. I thought I’d take some cool photos in the National Geographic style... Yeah, right now! It all started so powerfully, unexpectedly, simply and ordinaryly that from the killing of the first bull I experienced a real shock: I forgot about the camera, my intention to make a cool report, and generally lost touch with reality. It seemed that some kind of string had broken in the air, which should not break, should always sound, but in this world there is nothing eternal - the string broke, it could not help but break... And the buffaloes began to fall one after another. It was very simple and ordinary, without any loud words, strange gestures or other tinsel. Just once with a knife to the throat and that’s it - the string broke.
Once - and a thick and thick stream of blood flows from the open throat, like oil. It pours onto the dusty ground and mixes with it to form a viscous liquid sparkling with fresh paint.
The bull bends his head, trying to pinch the wound, but in vain - the giant's strength leaves...
Straightening his legs, he sways back and forth and, emitting a stream of shit, falls to the ground.
Agony wracks his body. But, in the end, death takes him into its icy embrace. He won't move again. Never.
At such moments you realize that death is inevitable.
AND death is forever.
Buffalo RD-3 is a funeral hero who fought for life with his throat cut for several minutes.
In the first minute, a huge amount of blood poured out of him.
The bull moved very actively around the area as far as the rope tied to his leg allowed.
Then he decided to run away from death: he tore off the rope and rushed away, it looked something like this:
I wasn’t filming at that moment, as I was busy with something completely different - I was fleeing with the rest.
But you can't escape from death... The owner caught him by the rope threaded through his nostrils and took him to the killer to finish him off.
The killer dragged the knife across the throat, but it did not have any effect accelerating the arrival of the lady in black - the throat was cut professionally and no upgrade was required. RD-3 just really wanted to live. The owner began to lead him in circles, in the hope that the bull would lose his strength. But he was a real warrior and, despite the fact that almost all the blood had already flowed out of his powerful body, he continued to fight. The people, seeing such a rare sight, began to laugh and joke: “what if the bull is immortal and the soul of our grandmother remains on the sinful earth?”
But finally RD-3 fell... How is it, great warrior, that death took you too?
But no - he got up and was back in action. After all, there is a cure for death, it exists! The owner again began to lead him in circles by the rope threaded through his nostrils.
What's happened? The bull fell again - this time dead. Death spares no one - not even heroes! Everyone will die!
Everything was mixed up in a bloody carousel.
The Germans are in shock: they thought about the greatness of death.
And the kids don’t care! It’s all a game, everything will pass and why worry about anything at all?
After all the buffaloes were killed, their butchering began.
The meat was finely chopped and stuffed into bamboo stalks, which were then baked over the fire. This is a purely Torajian dish called papiong - all guests are treated to it. But Alexander and I dared to leave Tagari, after all, the funeral of a Toraja is a difficult sight and our nerves needed rest. Besides, we don't eat meat.
You can read about what the burials of this people are like.
How to get there
There are a huge number of buses from Makassar to the Tana Toraja region from Daya terminal in the morning and evening at 7 and 9 o'clock. Drive, respectively, all day or all night. Buses, even the cheapest ones, are very comfortable: with fully reclining wide seats and footrests, like in Malaysia. Price 130-190 thousand rupees.
1. Contrary to the assurances of local guides, funerals are held all year round, but most often in July-August and around Christmas. In August, you may also be lucky enough to see the ceremony of dressing the deceased: during this period, graves are opened, the dead are taken out, the remains are changed, or bones are washed, and items that the deceased asked from relatives in a dream are added to the coffin.
2. In order to attend a funeral, it is not at all necessary to hire a local guide; you can just come, sit, watch, and take pictures. In the vicinity of Rantepao, no one will care about you, but in the outback you will be the center of attention and surrounded by all kinds of care.
3. Guides can be hired at any guest house, the minimum price is 150,000 rupees per day ($12), plus gasoline if he takes you on his motorbike.
4. There are several guesthouses in Rantepao, I recommend them. If you need a large decent hotel, you can look on the Hotellook search engine