Grisly Passage: Tana Toraja and the Cost of Dying

Certain practices in Sulawesi may stretch the imagination. But their impact reaches places many cannot see. The same is true in Tana Toraja.

Head for the central highlands of southern Sulawesi to discover Tana Toraja’s animist tendencies. There, the traveller will find ancient death rituals. The lucky ones will also learn more of the afterlife. They will stand astride colossal hills. And they will look across a pretty mass of rice fields to the valley below. They will see bones and skeletons and evidence of animal slaughter. And then they will know. In Sulawesi, some things exist at a half-pace out of sync with other places.

Here in Rantepao, Indonesia’s unseen things hold sway. Many visitors may never fully understand them.

Witness the process of death itself to see this unique culture. Ritual dances. Buffalo fights. Week-long ceremonies. People honour the departed with such things. They make animal sacrifices and offer gifts to smooth the passage beyond. Things follow a simple formula. The greater the volume of slaughter, the grander the journey beyond.

Read More: The uneasy frequencies of Java’s Ijen Crater.

The festival leaves great rivers of blood and piles of animal wreckage in its wake. Of even greater interest is the subject of the ritual. In some cases, the deceased may remain unburied. Some may even be left exposed to the elements in a hollow tree or bamboo frame. Tradition and the symbolism of magic and mysticism act as cornerstones of life and death in Tana Toraja