Beware if you're squeamish! Buffalo Carnage!

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The second day of a Torajan funeral ceremony.

As we drove to the site of the funeral our guide explained to us that the site would have taken several weeks to prepare. It consisted of bamboo structures erected on stilts with colourful roofs over them, decorated with equally colourful drapes. They were arranged around a square area of rough earth. One structure was smaller and higher than the rest; this was where the coffin was displayed throughout the ceremony. All of this would be taken down after the funeral and used for firewood.

When we arrived there were already lots of people there looking down from a pathway to the square area in the middle, they seemed to be enjoying what they were watching.

We looked over and saw one buffalo on the floor taking it's last few laboured breaths, four more buffalos were stood close by waiting to be sacrificed.
Suddenly another one was dragged into the centre and a scythe thrust at it's throat, blood began pouring out, the poor beast stumbled about, urinated, then fell to the floor panting, blood began to fill the area!
In quick succession the other three buffalos experienced the same fate, one staggered around for ages refusing to die. Tanya, the French girl, and I clung to each other in horror! We hadn't expected to see this.

We all moved away from this vantage point and mingled with the crowd. A procession of people wearing black paraded past the dead buffalo and onto two of the bamboo structures followed by a line of ladies carrying food and drink to serve to them.

During this time the buffalo had been covered over with huge palm leaves. Now the leaves were taken off and men proceeded to firstly skin the buffalo then cut them up into small pieces to distribute as meat for guests to take away with them. Now I was beginning to understand why it's called 'Buffalo Carnage'. I noticed a guest pick up a tail and walk towards me, it was dripping with blood. 'What was he going to do?' I thought in horror. Luckily he went past me (too close for comfort I might add) and hid it under a reed mat on one of the bamboo structures. I made a mental note not to sit there!

At this point I was ready to go but the rest of the group wanted to stay longer. The grandson of the deceased man asked us to come and see the coffin; it felt impolite to refuse so we followed him up to it. Up until this point everyone had seemed in a jovial mood and our guide had explained that this was normal as it was a celebration of life. The wife of the dead man, however, was not happy as she sat by the coffin but she seemed genuinely pleased to see us. Apparently it's quite normal for tourists to attend the funerals and the Torajan people welcome them.

By now it was becoming impossible to leave the area without wading through blood and gore - not a nice prospect when you're only wearing flip flops on your feet! I thought I could see a way out round the back of the coffin structure but was greeted with the sight of a pig being sacrificed. It was stabbed through the heart and as it took each last breath a spout of blood shot up and was caught in bamboo pole, to be drunk later (we think!) After this the pig was placed on a fire and the smell of burning hair was terrible! We left the area as quickly as we could but not before climbing over three more pigs trussed up on bamboo poles waiting to be sacrificed. It was sickening; they squirmed around and grunted as if they knew their fate.

We found the rest of our group taking tea and cake with a relative just feet away from the buffalo carnage. Tanya, by now, was quite happy to be seeing the 'meat' produced and was looking forward to eating some! Typical French!
We told them we'd wait by the car. As we left more truckloads of people were arriving with more pigs to be sacrificed and apparently one hundred had already been sacrificed the day before! Tomorrow would be a repeat of today!

The day before while looking around at the traditional houses we had seen buffalo horns fastened to the front post and our guide had said it was to do with the wealth of the family. Now I was beginning to understand it all, the wealthier the person the more buffalo were sacrificed at the funeral and the horns displayed on the Torajan house.

From the ceremony we went onto the grave rocks. After the funeral the bodies are put into a hole made in the rock face, high up to prevent being attacked by animals or thieves. The bones are removed every August whilst the grave is cleared out of other debris then the bones are put back in. This is to allow more room for bodies to be put in later from the same family. Effigies of the dead person are displayed outside.

We were also taken to some cave graves, years ago bodies were placed here in wooden coffins. All around human bones were scattered about and remains of the old coffins.



On a slightly brighter note the last place we visited was an orphanage. One man has taken in about thirty children of all ages who have lost their parents. The older ones look after the younger ones. Tourists are encouraged to visit and are treated to a music and dance performance. The children themselves made all the instruments from bamboo. In exchange for this of course, tourists are expected to make a donation which we did, gladly.
Despite it raining, most of the children performed in bare feet splashing up puddle water as they danced and sang. At the end of the performance each of us was dragged up to join in the dancing and we managed to raise a smile from the children.
After the performance the children showed us round where they lived. It was very dark, basic and run down but they seemed very proud so we told them what a wonderful place we thought they lived in.

Today has been a very strange day and we really feel we have seen a completely different culture to our own, indeed a culture that you would not expect to see in this day and age.

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Photos

Children dressed in funeral costume.
From an early age the children get used to seeing this carnage.