The Tale of Toraja!

Greetings from Indonesia!
After a very long flight & three transits, I was happy, thankful & excited to reach Toraja. The not so convenient flight was totally worth it as it’s my first time to set foot in Asia. I was looking forward to a nice relaxing time. Little did I know that this unforgettable day would add a new dimension to my understanding of human nature.
Next day, my guide (Rudy) surprised me with the plan: attending a funeral! I was in utter shock, could not imagine I was looking forward to attending a funeral of someone I haven’t even met before! I guess that was one of the things that could only happen in Toraja.
Rudy started sharing some insights about the village & its natives: according to Toraja mythology, Torajan’s ancestors were celestial beings who come down from heaven using stairs, which were used to communicate with the creator!
Torajans are famous for their sophisticated funeral ceremonies where they sing, dance & sacrifice buffaloes & pigs as an offering. In the ceremony, everyone is invited, not only the relatives of the deceased, that’s why it became a tourist attraction!
I was quite surprised to hear about the post death ritual where the deceased is wrapped in a cloth & kept in the house. This is due to a firm belief that the soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral finished, after which it begins its journey to Puya (afterlife).
Now that the funeral was about to start, we met the family of the deceased (a 95 year old man) & were seated in a wooden cubicle overlooking the stage where speeches, ritual dances, buffalo fights, slaughtering, meat distribution & cock fights happened. Then the family accompanied the coffin to a mausoleum (an alternative to the graves traditionally cut into rock & marked with wooden statues of the deceased).
This was a long day with lots of climbing, walking & tripping but it did not matter as I was overwhelmed with all what was going on around me. The festive mode helped me through watching the slaughtering which was a bit shocking & the cigarette smoke (all participants were given packs of cigarettes as a token gift!). But it was amazing how these people made peace with death & even more, faced it head on with celebration, turning it from an occasion of sorrow to a happy event! Seeing a funeral ceremony was an eye opening experience that gave me a totally different perspective towards life & death.
Indonesia: Thanks…???? …Terima kasih:)