Note: Some photos in this post may not be for everyone. For me it was a tough, emotional event and yet a profoundly meaningful experience. The families of the departed who financed the funeral service were welcoming and kind and were there to celebrate their loved one’s life.
Sulawesi is one of largest islands in the Indonesian archipelago. The Torajan people of Southern Sulawesi are known for their elaborate death and funeral rituals. Many Torajan people today identify as Christian or Muslim. Fused into these faiths is animism—a belief that all things—animals, plants, wind, water, and air—possess a conscious life force or spiritual essence. Many hold the belief that their earliest ancestors were heavenly beings who came to Earth using a celestial stairway.
Death, for Torajans, is the most important event in life. When family members die, they are thought of, not as dead, but sick, and cared for out of love and respect for their deceased family members. The care may extend for months, sometimes years, and continues until and after the funeral service. In the time between an individual’s death and their internment, verses from the Bible or Koran are read daily, while the body is preserved — and ultimately mummified — with a mixture of formaldehyde and water.
Families maintain their deceased in separate rooms in their homes until they can save enough for the funeral. The services may last for a week with the sacrifice of many buffaloes and pigs. The higher the family status, the more animals sacrificed. After the service, the dead will be continually visited and cleaned and sometimes redressed in a ritual known as Ma’nene.
Torajans live in small, quiet villages off rustic dirt roads in the Sulawesi highlands. Their distinctive homes are known as Tongkonan. 
The buildings are erected on stilts of wood and bamboo and have long, narrow sweeping roofs resembling a saddle. Ornately carved window coverings and doors make the homes very beautiful.On posts in front of the homes are water buffalo horns. The more horns on display, the more prominent the family. These unique homes are an important part of Torajan life and culture. Weddings and religious ceremonies are conducted there.
After the funeral the dead are placed in spaces carved into cliffsides. Some in mass ancestral funeral towers Babies are put into hollowed out trees with the belief that as the tree regrows the spirit of the baby will inhabit the tree.
Another key element of Torajan funerals are wooden or bamboo carvings of loved ones called “tau tau.” These figures may be placed on a balcony in front of the tomb. Detailed tau tau are very expensive and may be kept in the home out of fear of it being stolen.
It is not unusual for tourists to be invited to the sacrifice of the animals at the funeral. It is believed to improve the family’s status. Our guide asked us to bring a gift of sugar and a pack of cigarettes as gifts. We arrived after the slaughter of the buffalo, but saw pigs being carried off and sadly heard their squeals.
It is important to note that all of the meat is shared with family members and those that attend the ritual and the Torajans believe that the spirits of animals sacrificed accompany their loved ones into the afterlife.