Let's go back to Toraja because in fact I have not said anything of the amazing funeral. Let
Lemo we head into the car to the place where the funeral ceremony is held Luter, our guide, has promised to show us. This is a great ceremony, the ceremony of a wealthy family, so we expect something great. Along the way, Luther tells us how we should behave. To the family of the deceased must bring a gift. He thought he buys us a pack of cigarettes. When we arrived we present him to the head of the family and then go into a hut that will be shown. We can not get out of there, until a family member there will welcome you. Then we go where we want and shoot all the photos.
The car climbs painfully up the slope of a mountain. Leaving the road take the path through the rice fields and then to the forest. Around us there are plants of cocoa and coffee. the road becomes increasingly difficult. It seems not to be no: only the forest and a few houses scattered here and there. Luther seems sure where we're going, but we are a little less does not seem to get anywhere. At one point, a broken machine there blocking the entrance. It 'a machine that could not get ... and we must try to go on foot. I feel like a hair in despair: we're really in anything! But then the road is clear and our powerful means reaches us.
We still carries on for quite a while and then we stopped wing end of a path in the woods. A few feet away you open a circular clearing, surrounded by piles. At the center is a tower with three floors, decorated with red drapes. Atop the tower there is the coffin of the deceased, it is a woman died about 13 years ago. The coffin is wrapped in a red cloth. Below are some older women and girls. At the base of the tower there are family members. They are dressed in their traditional costumes. The Umin are dressed in black, the women wear the traditional ornaments of colored beads, especially orange, typical of these places.
Until now, the spirit of the deceased has been cn the family as if she were not dead yet. For this reason, the relatives brought food and clothes. The funeral service will be free spirit and she will truly be dead. It 's time that the children cry and to make the ritual to cleanse the spirit and allow it to start a new life.
as Luther told us, just got a family to us. We offer him cigarettes and he makes us sit under one of the piles. Meanwhile, we wait and friendship with the children who remained there to play. Finally, the relative of the deceased back and offer us tea and cakes. It 's the sign that we were welcomed and that after having eaten and drunk, we will be free to move around.
These ceremonies last for 3-4 days and is attended by many people who came from nearby villages and all their relatives and relatives of the bereaved. When they arrive in the clearing, processions are held around the tower, in which all men, dressed in black, bringing the gifts to the family, often pigs, still alive and screaming, tied by the legs to bamboo poles.
Outside the circle of piles, the pigs will be slaughtered, gutted and cooked in long pezi bamboo together with rice. This will provide lunch for all the guests. The meat remained, however, will be distributed among the clans of all participants. This is
we attend the second day of the ceremony. In the first, the body was carried from the house to the tower. It is an intimate moment which does not participate other than the family.
the second day, the family receives aspiti. On the third day are slaughtered buffaloes that were offered to the family or bought from the same family for the occasion. According to Luther, were slaughtered for the ceremony about 60 buffalos. Not all there, though. Some were sent directly to the villages of relatives and there would have been killed. The meat was dried and was distributed to the village. On the fourth day, the coffin was closed in the grave, like those seen in Lemo.
At some point, many pigs are brought to the center of the clearing.
All around people form a very wide circle and start singing. Holding hands and the rhythm of their voices move in sync. They are called the dancers for the celebration. From within the circle distribute some guys cigarettes.
Meanwhile, the long bamboo canes are roasted on the fire and gradually women take them, break them and extract the pork and rice. In the shade of tents, food is distributed to all guests. We will do without: the pork semi does not look very appetizing ...
At this point we depart. The day we still have a great experience: we will participate in the burial of the corpse on top of a high rock.
