Cultural information
RAMBO SOLO - THE CEREMONY OF THE DEAD
I had heard a rumour that there was a funeral planned for a high-ranking lady in Tanah Toraja – the first one in many years.
I had planned to go to Tanah Toraja to see the tau-tau (statues of the dead) but this rumour hastened my departure date from Makassar.
The tau-tau is an effigy of the dead with as much detail as possible to depict them as they were in life. The body is then placed in a grave chiselled by hand out of the cliff behind the effigies of the family members.
The photo above shows the family effigies. The bodies are buried in the cliff behind the effigies. The small effigy is a dwarf. The Rambo Solo (the death ceremony) ceremony is the most lavish in the Torajan culture. The sacrifices of bulls, pigs and horses at this funeral indicated the respect the woman was held in her community. Although the majority of Torajans are Christian, the animistic aspects of the funeral ceremony takes precedence over the Christian beliefs. The Torajans maintain that Christianity and their traditional, cultural beliefs compliment one another. The slide show of the Rambo Solo ceremony. This ceremony was a very large affair with many buffaloes, pigs, etc sacrificed on the day.
The funeral was in the village of Sangalla. The preparation for her funeral took 1 year.; the grave chiselled out of the granite cliffs, the tau-tau, the elaborate temporary accommodation to house the relavtives who return for this very important event (the accommodation is pulled down the next day).
In the meantime, her body has been embalmed (in her case the traditional method such as used by the Egyptians) and the family continue to treat her as a living member of the family until the day of her entombment. She is visited by members of the family. Her food, drinks are left daily and a cigarette is placed in her mouth.
Usually the Rambo Solo ceremony does not have a tau-tau, but the embalmment and entombment are the same. Depending on the family’s economic ability, the body can be embalmed for as long as ten years until the family is financial enough to put on the ceremony and all of the preparations are completed.
The effigy (tau-tau) of the woman which will be placed in the cliff along with her ancestor.
RAMBO SOLO - THE CEREMONY OF THE DEAD
I had heard a rumour that there was a funeral planned for a high-ranking lady in Tanah Toraja – the first one in many years.
I had planned to go to Tanah Toraja to see the tau-tau (statues of the dead) but this rumour hastened my departure date from Makassar.
The tau-tau is an effigy of the dead with as much detail as possible to depict them as they were in life. The body is then placed in a grave chiselled by hand out of the cliff behind the effigies of the family members.
The Rambo Solo (the death ceremony) ceremony is the most lavish in the Torajan culture. The sacrifices of bulls, pigs and horses at this funeral indicated the respect the woman was held in her community. Although the majority of Torajans are Christian, the animistic aspects of the funeral ceremony takes precedence over the Christian beliefs. The Torajans maintain that Christianity and their traditional, cultural beliefs compliment one another.
The slide show of the Rambo Solo ceremony. This ceremony was a very large affair with many buffaloes, pigs, etc sacrificed on the day.
The funeral was in the village of Sangalla. The preparation for her funeral took 1 year.; the grave chiselled out of the granite cliffs, the tau-tau, the elaborate temporary accommodation to house the relavtives who return for this very important event (the accommodation is pulled down the next day).
In the meantime, her body has been embalmed (in her case the traditional method such as used by the Egyptians) and the family continue to treat her as a living member of the family until the day of her entombment. She is visited by members of the family. Her food, drinks are left daily and a cigarette is placed in her mouth.
Usually the Rambo Solo ceremony does not have a tau-tau, but the embalmment and entombment are the same. Depending on the family’s economic ability, the body can be embalmed for as long as ten years until the family is financial enough to put on the ceremony and all of the preparations are completed.