TORAJAN DEATH RITUALS (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
TORAJAN DEATH RITUALS (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Yeow Chin Kiong
An eight-hour journey heading south, south east by flight, ferry and road from Tawau, Sabah in Malaysia will take you to Sulawesi Selatan on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. The lush equatorial island has the strangest shape, resembling the alphabet "k". Its 21 million population is mixed religiously, with strong Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Hindu presence and animist rituals being practised by some sub-groups. One such community is the Torajan who populate South Sulawesi, especially Tana Toraja Regency. One religious practice of the Torajan people which continues (even though many are now adherents of the major world religions) challenge us to reflect deeply on death and our hope for an afterlife as well as all that these considerations entail.
The Torajans keep the bodies of their deceased relatives,- preserved in modern times with the injection of formaldehyde but in the past with the application of exotic herbs,- in their homes sometimes for years to be tended to as if alive but merely sleeping. During the period of preservation, the embalmed deceased is often brought out to "join" the activities of the living, who use the period collecting money to spend on elaborate (and thus costly) funeral and burial events after sufficient funds have been amassed.
The preservation of the corpse also "softens" the pain of loss when a member of the family dies; the deceased is considered not to be dead but merely "sick" or "sleeping" and can be communicated with, honored and loved directly.
Even after its eventual burial, after some years, the corpse is exhumed to be cleaned and adorned with new clothing before being reburied.
Upon reflection, the death rituals of the Torajan testify to the fact that humans have the God-given intuitive awareness of eternity in our hearts even though we are unsure of how our Maker and Sustainer will work it out for us (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We who are alive desire to exist forever even though we accept that our fleshly existence is full of trouble, is transcient and temporary (Job 14:1-17). As our only experience of life is in a fleshly body, our only recourse to have a semblance of continuing life is to preserve the fleshly body by embalming the corpse whose spirit has left the body (James 2:26; Ecclesiates 3:20-21; 12:6-7; Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59-60).
Many civilizations have resorted to embalming the dead. Other man-made preservation methods include mummification, cryonics or vitrification and plastination. Various degrees of preventing the corruption of the flesh are available but, without doubt, the true intention is the preservation of human LIFE as a whole. That desire can only be accomplished by the joining back of the spirit of man to a new body. In the language of the Bible, there must be,- and will be,- a resurrection of all the dead, both the good and the evil (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15). For this to be brought about, there must be a Giver of life, He whose power it is to resurrect (John 11:25-27). For the dead, there simply has to be the joining of the spirit previously disembodied at fleshly death with a new body and for the living at Christ's return their physical selves needs to be changed (1 Corinthians 15:35-57).
The noble desire of the Torajans is to be with their departed loved ones forever, never to suffer physical death (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). We want the same, too. The gospel of Jesus Christ, when believed (1 Corinthians 15:1-8) and obeyed (2 Thessalonians 1:8-10; 1 Peter 4:17), provides for it.
For more about the Torajans' death rituals, please refer to (a) "PHOTOS: The Dead Live With Their Loved Ones On This Indonesian Island" by Tommy Trenchard and Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville (September 29, 2019) at npr.org
and (b) "Cleaning the dead: the afterlife rituals of the Torajan people" by Claudio Sieber (October 13, 2017) at theguardian.com