Importance Of Funeral Rituals

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Funeral Rituals of a village, Tana Toraja, Indonesia The Toraja’s people pertain to ethnic groups and reside in the mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Torajans have certain series of unique rites, which they perform on some one’s funeral. They have pledged allegiance to their ethnological rituals and ceremonies and they feel that it’s their prestigious pride to complete ceremonials with their heart and soul. Torajans have quite astonishing and surprising customs so that people come to attend death feast from around its neighbor villages, and even tourists also prefer to visit. Torajans’ rituals are quite different from others, in a way that when someone dies they start preparation for ceremonial sites at some grassy land called Rante and arrange shelters and canopies for spectators and close relatives, flute music, cheering, and applause, to chant funeral songs and poems, crying and mourning all these indicate the customary …show more content…

Higher the status of a deceased person, larger the number of buffalos and pigs will be slaughtered. And mostly, the extent and organized way of death event reflect the level of deceased. Torajans believe that these slaughtered animals would help deceased’s soul in traveling to Puya. Larger the number of animals, sooner they will cover the journey. Each family is required to perform slaughter ceremony as they believe that the spirit of deceased will live peacefully thereafter. It is also believed that unless the very first buffalo is slaughtered, deceased’s soul will not travel toward heaven. When all animals are slaughtered then the meat is distributed among visitors and relatives. Distribution is carried out in accordance with visitors’ level and position in the

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