Sulawesi (Indonesia) Toraja Land

[chris dees]

In September/October we traveled thru Sulawesi. One of the large Islands of Indonesia.
We had a car with chauffeur, it's too dangerous to drive yourself.
One of the cultural highlights of our trip was Toraja Land. The people are Christian but still have a lot of animistic traditions.

These are images of (young) ladies in their traditional dress at a funeral.
A funeral is a big event and is very costly. Sometimes the people have to save a lot and it can take a few years before the deceased can be buried.
The body wil be preserved and stays in the house. The federal takes about 3 days

[Jakov Minić]

Beautiful portraits, Chris!
Eager to see more. The girls look happy for a funeral, I hope they didn't have to wait for 3 years and now feel relieved...

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Great portraits. Why is it too dangerous to drive there?

[chris dees]

Great portraits. Why is it too dangerous to drive there?

Thanks Jørgen.

Bad, small roads with a lots of very unpredictable moped drivers.
The biggest vehicle is guilty when an accident occurs.

We drove 2300km with an average of 33km/hrs

[chris dees]

Beautiful portraits, Chris!
Eager to see more. The girls look happy for a funeral, I hope they didn't have to wait for 3 years and now feel relieved...

A funeral is a very important social event. Family is coming from all over Indonesia and beyond.
Families are brought in to a special place and there's a tea ceremony to pay them respect. It's very official and status is the most importance.

In this case the deceased died over a year ago.

[chris dees]

Every family takes pigs with them as a present for the family of the deceased.
There's a kind of ringmaster who announces how many and how well fed they are.

[John Geerts]

Impressive photo's and story, Chris.  That's a ceremony with no hurry.

[Anthony]

I suppose things did not work out too well for the pigs.

[Hugh_3170]

Ah well Anthony, it was obviously a multiple funeral!      

I suppose things did not work out too well for the pigs.

[elsa hoffmann]

Great colourful series  - I believe you captured it so well

[chris dees]

I suppose things did not work out too well for the pigs.

This was a relatively small funeral with 500/600 people. The family need to feed all those people, so you can guess what happened to the pigs.
In the few hours we were present they got about 40 pigs.
There were 6 butchers present. It's a quick death for the pigs as they put a knife direct into the heart. After this the skin was burnt off.
The intestines were put in bamboo sticks and it was cooked later (it's a delicacy).
At the end they distribute what's left to the other families and poor people, nothing is wasted.