Animal sacrifice as part of funeral in Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. A component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo.
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Photo credit: © Richard Avis / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: animal, animist, asia, blood, buffalo, cultural, culture, cutting, death, deceased, died, event, funeral, geographic, indonesia, killing, national, pagan, rights, rites, ritual, sacrifical, sacrifice, skinning, slaughter, slaughtered, society, sulawesi, sulewesi, tana, toraja, torajans
