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The Ma’nene Festival: An Odd Tradition Practiced in Indonesia Every Three Years

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8 years ago

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Nov 14, 2015 10:30pm EST

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Ann Moises

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Photo credit: Agung Parameswara

However, family arguments arise whenever they discuss the final resting place of the deceased.

Photo credit: Sijori Images/ Barcroft Media

Torajans think that the dead should be buried in the place where they died or in the area where they’ve spent most of their lives. According to Michaela Budiman, author of Contemporary Funeral Rituals of Sa’dan Toraja, conflicts among families occur when they deviate from this tradition.

Budiman wrote:

“There are cases when a husband and wife wish to be buried together, a request which is nonetheless interpreted as a breach of loyalty to one’s own family, for such an individual puts the love for his or her partner above the bonds to their own family.

“It is remarkable that in some cases the families will quarrel where the departed should be buried. A person buried in the “wrong place” is known as a topusa [lost person].

“Opening the door to the liang [tomb where they are buried], which would enable the transfer of the departed, could only be performed during the Ma’nene ritual, which paid homage to the ancestors.”

Photo credit: Sijori Images/ Barcroft Media

Torajans firmly believe that a person’s soul must return to their homes. If a person died while on a long journey, the family must travel to the place where the person died, and accompany his or her soul back to the village.

Photo credit: Agung Parameswara

If a child dies before teething, the baby is wrapped in a cloth and placed in “Baby Trees.” These are small, hollowed out spaces in the trunks of growing trees. They believe that the child’s soul will become one with the tree as it heals.