TORAJAN FUNERALS: RITUALS, BELIEFS, COSTS, EVENTS

TORAJAN FUNERALS

funeral procession in Tana Toraja

Torajan people are well known for its elaborate funeral ceremonies that can take days and involve entire villages. These are not only moments for mourning but are moreover events to renew family ties and to ensure continued unity among villages and communities. Funerals have increased in relative importance in modern times and there is more money to pay for them.

Torajan funerals take place in three phases: 1) care of the body, 2) the funeral itself, and 3) the burial. The funerals usually take months to prepare and have traditionally been held after the rice harvest, from September to December, when people have money to pay for the expensive events. Small funerals are held year round. The date of the funeral is difficult to ascertain. Scheduled funerals are often canceled suddenly even if they had been planned months in advance. The date is never fixed and is often determined at the last minute using criteria that only the Torajans know. A couple of National Geographic writers went to cover a funeral but had to return to the U.S. before anything happened. Christians incorporate some elements of the traditional funerals into their own funerals.

The Torajan people believe that they must follow proper customs to secure the good fortune of their family in the future. During the first phase of the funeral, stone slabs of past nobles who lived in their village surround the people. They place the dead on a tower at the end of the field as the family and guest watch from bamboo pavilions made specifically for their seating. The second phase of the funeral consists of a feast of water buffalo and pig. The water buffalo and pig act as the transportation of the soul onto Puya, the afterworld. The guests typically bring water buffalo and pigs to the second funeral. Once the water buffalo and pigs have been killed, the people dance to the Mabadong song. The Mabadong song is a sendoff tradition that shows the dead person’s life cycle and their life story. For generations, the villagers in Torajaland have carved out stone graves into the cliffs. They create wooden effigies called “tau tau” and place them in the cliffs to protect the tomb of the deceased and to watch for trespassers. [Source: Cultural Comparisons]

Dead people that go to puya must show their social status when they are alive. So the funeral ceremony for a person who had a high position in the community may look like a festival. The dead person is accepted as dead when a complete funeral has been held. Before that, the corpse is considered to be a sick body, kept in a traditional house called 'Tongkonan.' He is dressed and offered food.

Torajan Beliefs About Funerals

priest at a funeral in Tana Toraja

Death rituals lie at the heart of Torajan culture and are organized according to a strict hierarchy that mirrors the social rank of the deceased. Torajan society is highly stratified, and funerals function as major public expressions of wealth, status, and familial devotion. Through the efforts of relatives and the costly sacrifices involved—especially water buffalo, along with feasting, entertainment, and ritual services—the soul of a person of high status is believed to reach Puya, the land of the dead. After being judged by Pong Lalondong, the soul ascends a mountain to the upper world, where it becomes one of the deified ancestors. These ancestors are thought to form a protective constellation that watches over humanity and the rice crops. In this way, rituals of death and rituals of life, though outwardly opposed, are ultimately united within a single cosmic order.[Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009 ^^]

Torajans believe that the vitality of the land and its people must be sustained through rituals that honor both life and death, closely tied to the agricultural cycle. Ceremonies celebrating life are strictly separated from death rites. Funerals are held only after the final rice harvest has been completed—typically between July and September—while life-affirming rituals coincide with the planting season, which begins in October. This timing is possible because the dead are not buried immediately; instead, bodies may be kept for months or even years in the ancestral house until sufficient time and resources are available for a proper funeral. If a person dies at sea or far from home, the family is still required to perform the funeral rites, using a length of bamboo as a symbolic substitute for the body.

Funerals for low-status individuals are simple, while children who die before cutting their teeth are traditionally buried in a tree, a practice believed to ensure strength and health for future children. It is common for many years to pass between death and burial. As Paul Watson observed in the Los Angeles Times, “The unhurried passage from this world to the next is central to the culture of Torajans. The dead wait months, even years, for their last rites while relatives negotiate funeral arrangements, everything from the right timing to allow mourners to travel long distances, to where they will stay and who will feed them.” In the past, bodies were preserved using herbal mixtures and slow-burning fires, but these methods have largely been replaced by embalming fluids containing formaldehyde. Preparation for death begins early in life, with individuals saving for burial clothes, guest shelters, and funeral contributions to other families, while also raising and fattening water buffalo for sacrifice. As one Torajan, Sambolinggi, remarked, “Torajans live to die.” [Source: Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2008 ==]

Toraja water buffalo sacrifice

Although Christianity and modern influences have weakened some traditions, the ancient belief system known as aluk to dolo (“the way of the ancestors”) continues to shape Torajan attitudes toward death. According to tradition, the design of the ancestral house, or tongkonan, originated in heaven. These wooden structures face north, toward the realm of the creator, while the dead are placed in a rear room so they face south, the direction associated with the ancestors. The curved bamboo roofs resemble boats, which are believed to honor the vessels used by the ancestors to reach Sulawesi. Central pillars of the houses are often decorated with rows of water buffalo horns, marking the number sacrificed at family funerals. A fine buffalo is a key symbol of status, and many Torajans take comfort in knowing their funerals will not be rushed, allowing time for relatives to gather the resources needed for appropriate sacrifices—especially in the case of high-ranking or “royal” funerals.

Funerals for High-Status Torajans

High-status individuals receive elaborate funerals conducted in two main stages. The first stage, Dipalamabiʾi, takes place immediately after death. At this time, the deceased is treated as merely “ill” rather than dead. The body is fed, spoken to, and seated facing east–west. Family members mourn by fasting and wearing black clothing, an effigy of the deceased is made—of bamboo or wood depending on wealth—and pigs and water buffalo are sacrificed. After a period of time, the person is officially recognized as dead, the body is repositioned north–south, wrapped in cloth traditionally made from pineapple fiber, and ritual banners are hung outside the tongkonan, the ancestral ceremonial house. [Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009 ^^]

The second stage, Diripaʾi, occurs only after the family has gathered sufficient resources and ensured the attendance of even distant relatives. This preparation can take months or years, and today formalin is commonly used to preserve the body, which remains in the tongkonan. The funeral proper begins with the sound of a gong and drum, formally announcing the death. The surviving spouse fasts for several days. Throughout the night, men perform maʾbadong, circular chants that recount the deceased’s life, express grief, describe funeral events, and narrate the soul’s journey to Puya and its future existence. Women chant separately in a ritual known as maʾlonde.

The main funeral celebration lasts several days or even weeks and takes place in a rante, a large ceremonial field marked by standing stones. A grand procession carries the coffin to the rante, where it is lifted and installed on a tall tower called a lakkean. Singing, dancing, water buffalo fights, and cockfights follow—the latter officially banned but still practiced. Water buffalo and pigs are presented and sacrificed as symbols of social obligation and debt repayment, with buffalo killed by a single machete stroke to the neck. A ritual specialist, the to mentaa, distributes the meat according to social rank and the family’s obligations to guests.

Images of the deceased are also created. Simple, temporary figures may be made from bamboo and cloth, while high-status individuals in some areas are represented by carved wooden statues known as tau-tau, made from jackfruit wood. These figures depict men in European-style shirts and batik sarongs and women in kebaya blouses and sarongs, and are traditionally displayed in cliff-side galleries. Widespread theft for the international art market, however, has led many families to lock away their original tau-tau, replacing them with crude concrete replicas for display.

In the final phase, the body is rewrapped amid further pig sacrifices and ritual dancing, placed in an ornate coffin, and temporarily stored beneath the family rice barn. A final procession then carries it to the burial site, which may be a cave tomb at the base or side of a cliff or a boat-shaped coffin suspended from a rock overhang. The spirits of the dead are believed to become constellations that guide the agricultural cycle.

High Costs of Torajan Funerals

Because Torajans take their obligations to the dead so seriously, families that cannot afford to sacrifice even a pig—let alone a water buffalo—at a funeral often incur ritual debts. These obligations function as a form of IOU that must later be repaid by their children in order to preserve family honor. Since the funeral season runs from June to October, during the driest months of the year, such sacrificial debts can accumulate quickly. [Source: Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2008 ==]

An ordinary black water buffalo costs at least US$5,500, a substantial expense for families whose livelihoods depend largely on rice farming. Scarcity of the highly prized spotted buffaloes has driven prices even higher, rising by about 25 percent in a single year to nearly US$14,000 by 2008. In addition, families must pay taxes on every animal sacrificed—about US$16 for each buffalo and US$9 for each pig. Custom requires a minimum of six buffaloes at a funeral, but competition for prestige often pushes the number far beyond that.

The escalating cost of funerals has led many young Torajans to migrate to cities or abroad, including to Malaysia, in search of higher-paying jobs so they can meet these obligations as relatives die. Even funerals for people of modest status can be extraordinarily expensive. At a three-day ceremony held six months after her death, more than 7,000 mourners attended the funeral of Augustina Tambing, the wife of a primary school principal. The rites included the sacrifice of eight water buffaloes and over 150 pigs.

At the entrance to the ceremony, Yohanes Rumeri, head of Buntu Masakke village, recorded each donor’s name, the animal contributed, and the tax paid. The collected funds were later divided among the regional government, the local church, and the village administration. Despite the heavy financial burden, many Torajans view these rituals as essential to maintaining family unity. As Tambing’s daughter, Yatti Parassa, explained, “Honestly, it is a burden. But this is our family. We stay close because we have attended funerals together for generations. Even though our families live far apart, for this event, everyone comes together.”

Rituals Before a Torajan Funeral

Months before the funeral the deceased is wrapped in blankets and taken to his her home. In the old days the body was preserved with embalming herbs now it is preserved with an injection of chemicals The dead person is almost treated as guest; none of the other people living in the house move out. Torajan dead are kept in special houses for several years until they are buried during a special ceremony. Houses sometimes have several deceased relatives in them, guests who visit are formally introduced to them, and living relatives sometimes stay by the dead around the clock for several years. The Blair brothers visited an 8-by-12-foot room with a dead king, his queen and two "lesser widows." The bodies were draped in velvet carpets and a bamboo pipe drained body fluids into a Ming vase. There was also a small tray where offerings of tobacco, betel nut and palm wine were left for the dead soul. [Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York ♢]

During the first several months the deceased's family attends the body almost around the clock. Often family members gather together and weep, moan and wail together. Offering are made to the body and sometimes jewelry is placed around the body. A portrait of the dead person is fastened to the front of the house and an effigy is placed in the room where the body is. A special tepee is constructed in the house if the deceased is a man. Until the man is buried it is the duty of his wife to stay in the tepee. This period is usually more than a year, often two or three years and sometimes four or five. [Source: Pamela Meyer, National Geographic June 1972]

A month or so before a major Torajan funeral the Blair brothers witnessed the "calling forth of the sacred eels" in a pool of water about five miles from the place of the funeral. While they were swimming a chanting shaman appeared at a ledge over looking the pool and threw some "sacred rice" in pool. Within a few minutes six long black eels emerged from their lairs and ate a few bites of rice and returned to where they came. The fact that the eels appeared was a good omen, meaning the funeral could proceed. Lorne Blair on several occasions afterwards tried chanting and throwing rice in the water but no eels appeared. A month later a delegation of shaman announced that the funeral could formerly proceed. ♢

Torajan Funeral Ceremony

The funeral ceremonies usually take place in two parts. The Rambu Solo (the funeral ceremony) and the Rambu Tuka (the procession and burial. The Rambu Solo is a grisly affair in which dozens, sometimes hundreds, of buffalos and pigs are slaughtered in the belief that the spirit of the dead will be accepted by God. The funeral can be held in front of the village tongkonan. Sometimes it takes place in a field, where bamboo platforms have been set up for people to sit with the deceased presiding over the event from a high-roofed tower. Some are held in special funeral sites marked by megaliths.

A typical middle-class funeral involves four buffalo and many pigs and lasts for three days. A funeral for an aristocrat can last for two weeks. Before a funeral it seems like every single Torajan shows up with a fighting cock, a pig on a stick or a buffalo. The people form long lines. Animal sacrifices are a key component of Torajan funerals. Torajans believe that sacrificed animals will accompany the dead to the afterlife and help transport to them to heaven. Buffalos are signs of wealth. The number of buffalos sacrificed is an indication of how important the deceased was. The throat of the buffalos are slit to release the spirit. Horns are removed to be mounted on a house. The sacrificed animals are carved up and roasted, and the meat is eaten on palm-leaf-plates. Extra meat is divided among guests to take home.

Paul Watson wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Tambing, 68, died Jan. 13 after 49 years of marriage to her husband, Izak Rigu Parassa. She bore him seven children, who watched along with 20 grandchildren and a great-grandchild as butchers led buffaloes by their tethers into the funeral, and with a theatrical slash of a long knife, slit each animal's throat. Just across from the skinned carcasses lying in coagulating pools of blood, Tambing's family formed a choir. As a gentle rain fell, they wept and sang, "Jesus comes into the world, Jesus comes to help the sick." Her 71-year-old husband sat nearby, pinching the bridge of his nose in silent prayer, exhausted after a long goodbye to the love of his life. He took comfort in the thought that she was still with him, watching her own funeral. "I think she is pleased," he said, with a broad, toothless smile. [Source: Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2008 ==]

In the past hundreds, even thousands, of buffalo were dispatched, but the Dutch brought an end to these practices because it was considered wasteful. In recent decades the practice has returned. The Indonesian government has tried to stem the practice by placing a tax on sacrificed buffalo. The funerals are getting bigger, "Twenty-four buffalos used to be a big feast," a guide told Marvine Howe of the New York Times in the 1990s, "now a 100 buffalos is good, people are richer." It is not unusual for a family to go broke in an effort to but on grand show.

Torajan Funeral Procession and Dances

During the Rambu Tuka, the coffin of the deceased is taken from his house and placed in a huge ceremonial palanquin that is used to carry the body to its grave which is dug out of a cliff side. The body is carried in a huge procession with men in colored shirts with pigs tightly trussed on bamboo plots, women in black and gold gowns with large straw hats and a receiving line in front of beautifully carved coffin often decorated with animal heads. The palanquin is the size of a small house and it is carried by many people. As it is carried people try to touch the coffin and in the mad scramble the coffin gets heaved back and forth. Sometimes the body even falls out of the palanquin.

During this part of the festival bullfights, kick fights, cockfights, chanting and dancing are held and along with the five days of feasting that accompanies the procession. Offerings of clove cigarettes are made. Ma'badong epic song and dance are performed for the deceased. The Ma'badong is a recreation of the cycle of human life and is pefomed to help the soul of the deceased reach its destination. It is a slow-moving dance performed by chanting men in black sarongs.

Funeral ceremonies involve a sequence of dances and rituals. Ma’badong consists of all-night chanting by a circle of men and is considered central to the funeral. Ma’randing is a warrior dance honoring the courage of the deceased, while Ma’katia is performed by women and emphasizes generosity and loyalty. Ma’dondan is a celebratory dance performed by youths following the sacrifices of buffalo and pigs. [Source: Wikipedia]

Torajan Royal Funeral

The Torajan king, Lasso Rinding Paung Sangalla, died in 1968. His funeral didn't take place until 1983 a time that was determined auspicious by astrologers, government officials who witnessed the ceremony and Torajan princes who had to raise money to pay for it. The king was the last of an 800-year dynasty. For his funeral 60 three-story "space arc" houses were erected around a ceremonial courtyard, called a “Rante”, with huge Stonehedge-like megaliths, one for every king and queen that preceeded him. The last one was erected with a crane borrowed from local department of road construction. {Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York ♢]

After the king died his body was left untouched for six months to make sure he wasn't just "astral-traveling." Then his family formally was informed of his death and the body was oriented towards the southwest, the land of the souls, in the living room of the royal widow who didn't leave her dead husband's side for four years. On the day of his funeral procession, the king’s body was placed in a decorated miniaturized "space arc" and transported to a ceremonial site by his widows. The widows and the other members of the procession, who were all drunk from large amounts of rice wine, shouted obscene remarks and punched and tugged on the sarcophagus. ♢

"The days and nights that followed this process," the Blair brothers wrote, " filled with the ghostly rhythms of the Ma'badong dance—a cumulative mantric tone intended to induce altered states...It begins with a human circle linked by their little fingers, swaying and chanting themselves into deep trance with the eyes closed. The circle expands, ruptures and spawns new circles—which eventually fill the entire Rante with wheeling vortexes of hypnotic sound. In the Ma'badong, we were told, they could feel all the past and future generations of their tribe resonating through them as one...Added to the Ma'badong there were also the spontaneous explosions of Pa'gellu dancers. They, too, chanted a trance-inducing song—and their swaying arm movements sought to still the 'invisible waters of space' which the dead king must cross." ♢

Later ceremonial cockfights were held and a granddaughter of the deceased occasionally went into a trance in which she tore off her clothes and beat up people with a bamboo cane. The funeral climaxed when the body of the king was taken to a cliff and the entire group of 60 "space arc houses" was destroyed in one quick conflagration. Afterwards people ambled home. Hundreds of chickens, pigs and water buffalo were sacrificed. most of which were dispatched with blow to the jugular vein and later boiled in bamboo tubes and eaten by the people occupying the arc houses around the Rante. Among the animals sacrificed were rare white and pink water buffalos and one with blue eyes worth 20 times a normal grey one. ♢

Torajan Royal Funeral of Mrs. Bubun Datu Tandungan Andilolo at Bamba Batupapan Makale Tana Toraja

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; National Geographic; New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books and other publications.

Last Updated January 2026