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Funerals in Celebes 1/2

En novembre 2014, nous sommes allés en Indonésie. J'ai choisi de vous faire partager quelques photos et informations concernant : Les ancestrales cérémonies funéraires aux Célèbes (1/2).  La leçon porte sur la compréhension et le vocabulaire du texte.

Just a few pieces of  information before starting our trip :

In 1909, when protestant missionaries arrived  in Sulawesi (les Célèbes) and the Tan Toraja region with Dutch colonists, the native Animist faith of the population changed.

Nowadays, most of the Bugenese people (an Ethnic group in this Tan Taraja region) are Christians, and others are Muslims. However, they keep their ancestral, local beliefs called: the ancestors' way. These practises include some animal sacrifices, funeral rites and feasts.

For Animists, souls and spirits exist in animals, plants and geographic elements. There is no separation between what is spiritual and what is physical. Even the material world such as the mountains, the rivers, the wind and the sun, are included in this definition.

From Makassar, the largest city in Sulawesi, (Les Célèbes), we took mountain roads which reached the Tana Toraja region where the Buginese ethnic group live.

All along the road, the spectacular view of rice terraces was breathtaking.

 We always drove through magnificent sceneries. 

Before arriving at Ke'te Kesu located on the road of Rantepao, the capital of the Torajan region.

Ke'te Kesu is a four-hundred-year old traditional village with its six houses called Tongkonan houses and twelve granaries. Nowadays this village is considered  a museum.

The traditional houses are called Tongkonan. They are famous for their curved-shaped boat, their decorated front-gable (Bufallo's horns) and their paintings on the wall.

 (The information dealing with these ornamentations might be another subject)

It has a nice black colour, fully-grown horns curved upward in a spiral. It is heavy-bodied, stockily built, large bellied, brown-eyed. However it should have blue eyes to be perfect!
It has never been suitable for tilling rice field. Water-buffalos are considered  sacred animals and their role during the funeral feast is essential.

This funeral feast unfolds in this way:

When a Tarajan person dies, he or she is not buried like a Christian, but is embalmed and mummified with a substance made of vinegar and other products. The deceased person remains in the Tongkonan traditional house under the same roof as the family.

The person is not considered to be dead but only very sick or intensely sound asleep.

The relatives are pretending to feed the defunct person like a normal one and it is said that the soul of the deceased is lingering around the village during this whole period. This situation can take months and sometimes a year, because during this period the family takes time to raise money for the very expensive funeral ceremony. They must buy as many buffalos as possible, pigs, chickens in great quantity to pay a tribute to the deceased person and show their wealth.

Then, the first part of the funeral begins. Normally only the richest and the most powerful inhabitants can afford to pay for such an expensive feast.
Besides, the family welcome the whole village, the surrounding neighbours and even the tourists to pay a tribute to the deceased.

On this occasion they erect a large sheltered platform or barn (grange) on a ceremonial site called Rante, located in a grassy-field (champ herbeux). Then songs, dances, poems and cries are employed to express grief. Then, the choice of the few best buffalos that will be sacrificed is made. The sacrifices of these buffalos are necessary because people believe that the sacrifice of buffalos makes the decedent's journey quicker to PUYA (The after-lifeworld).

TO BE CONTINUED...1/2

VOCABULAIRE DU TEXTE/ TRADUCTION/ SYNONYMES

Mots et RELIGIONS

Adjectifs et EMOTION

Mots et NATURE

Mots et MORT

Mots DIVERS dans le TEXTE

Les mots COMPOSES

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1. Most Bugenese people in the Tan Tarajan region are ChristiansMuslimsChristians with ancestral beliefsI don't know.

2. True or False? The Animistic people adore the material world. TrueFalseI don't know

3. What is the capital of the Tan Toraja region? RantepaoKe”te kesuMakassarI don't know

4. Tongkonan in the Torajan region means: A common houseA granaryAn ancestral houseI don't know.

5. How is a deceased person considered? She/he is considered to be a healthy persona sleepy persona sick personI don't know.

6. Why is the buffalo necessary for the deceased? to shorten their delay to the afterlife in PUYAto adore their godsI don't know

7. This man is deadhas been deaddiedI don't know for six months.

8. In the vocabulary, tilling a field is synonymous with diggingwateringploughingI don't know.

9. If you are reluctant to leave a place, you are lingeringyou are willing to leaveI don't know.

10. A stocky man is frailsickshort with a strong bodyI don't know.