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Jean-Marc MICHEL | profile | all galleries >> Indonesia >> Sulawesi >> Londa, Kambira, Karuya, Bebo and Tadongkon tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Londa, Kambira, Karuya, Bebo and Tadongkon

From Rantepao, we have been invited in many villages to different ceremonies to honor the death.

There are four types of Torajan graves:
1) The first, the grave dug out of a cliff, is used when there is a convenient cliff in the vicinity.
2) The second, the cave grave, is used if there is a handy naturally formed cave around.
3) The third, the hanging grave, is when the coffin is hung from a suitably high spot, like an overhanging cliff that's too dangerous to dig a cave into and up which nobody will climb to steal the body.
4) The fourth is the house grave, used when none of the other three can be built: here a hollow is dug in the ground, the body placed there, and a miniature tongkonan house is built over the grave.

Londa is a naturally occurring cave that's full of coffins, some extremely recently occupied, with a large collection of tau-tau guarding the entrance.

Kambira is a other grave with baby in a tree. According to the animist Toraja belief Aluk To Dolo ("the way of the ancestors") the deceased rides into puya, the "life hereafter" on the back of a water buffalo slaughtered at the funeral ceremony. Babies are too young to ride an animal, so when an infant dies before teething the body is brought to the forest and buried in a liang pia, a grave in the tarra tree. This tree has white sap, representative of mother's milk. A hole is carved into the trunk and the baby is placed inside standing up. A matting of palm fibre is fixed over the hole and the tree will continue to grow normally around the baby until it would have been sixteen years old. At that point, a ceremony is held and the baby's spirit leaves the tree for puya.

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