Tampang Allo

Our second stop was Tampang Allo, which had a cave with “hanging graves”. Hanging graves are coffins that are placed on platforms inside caves. This isn’t practiced anymore. The graves we saw were in various stages of decay, and bones and skulls were visible.

Our next stop, also in the same village, was probably the saddest of all. Infants who die before their teeth come out are still considered pure, so they are buried inside a tree. A hole is carved into the sacred tree, and the baby’s corpse is brought out there in the middle of the night so it does not find its way back easily to its mother. This particular tree is selected because it has white sap that resembles mother’s milk. The baby is buried in the tree and then it becomes part of the tree.

Along the way, Anto provided me with various snippets of information on Torajan culture. Key highlights included:

1. Spaces for the dead and spaces for the living are kept strictly separated. Nothing from the deceased persons’ spaces may be brought into the living persons’ spaces. I saw a papaya tree next to some graves, and I asked if the fruit could be consumed. Anto replied to the affirmative, but they had to be consumed at the grave area. The people who chisel tombs cannot wear the same clothes when they leave the tombs to go home.

2. The west is associated with the dead and the east with the living. Funerals typically don’t start before noon because the sun is in the west after noon.

3. People now tend to bury their dead in little concrete houses.

4. The cliff graves must be chiseled by hand. Lots of scuff marks were visible in those graves.

5. Torajan society is stratified and rituals vary by social class.

6. The Torajans are very much connected with their past and their lineage. They visit their deceased in their graves, and every few years they take them out, change their clothes, and perform other acts of care.

7. Traditions aren’t typically written down; they’re passed down by word of mouth. This, of course, leads to confusion.

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