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MARTIN S. JAFFEE (2005)
TORAH SHEBEDAL PEH SEE ORAL TORAH
TORAJA RELIGION. The Sa’dan Toraja, a people
numbering about 325,000, live in Tana Toraja, the moun-
tainous northern part of the southwest peninsula of the Indo-
nesian island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes). The name
Sa’dan is derived from the Sa’dan River, the main stream in
the region. Toraja is a contraction of To-ri-aja (“men of the
mountains”), a name given the people by their Bugis neigh-
bors. Following local customs, we refer to these people as
Toraja.
The region of approximately 3,180 square kilometers,
originally heavily forested, has been changed by cultivation.
The few remaining forests cover slopes unsuitable for cultiva-
tion. The principal means of subsistence is agriculture. Rice,
cassava, and maize are the staples; coffee and cloves are the
principal cash crops. Animal husbandry is practiced on a
large scale, but only the breeding of pigs is of economic im-
portance. The buffalo, a status symbol, is rarely used for
work in the fields. The animal has primarily a ritual function,
for the superior type of death feast demands the sacrifice of
about a hundred buffalo.
Social change began with the introduction of coffee
growing and the coffee trade in the last quarter of the previ-
ous century. The subduing of the Toraja country by the
Dutch (1906), the period of the Japanese occupation (1942–
1945), and the independence of Indonesia (1945) accelerat-
ed this process. Tourism, a recent development, has brought
further change. The school system introduced by the Dutch
government and missionaries opened a new world for a peo-
ple who had known only an oral tradition. Tana Toraja be-
came the missionary field of the Reformed Alliance of the
Dutch Reformed Church and half of the population has
been converted to Christianity.
THE “BELIEF OF THE OLD.” The autochthonous religion of
the Toraja is called Aluk To Dolo (to dolo literally means
“people bygone”), that is, “belief of the old,” or “rituals of
the ancestors.” In this religion, ancestor cult, myth, and ritu-
al are intertwined. During the celebration of major rituals,
the to minaa, a priest well versed in tribal lore and history,
recites the lengthy litany of the tribe’s origins. He tells of how
the cosmos and the gods came into being, how man, his food
plants, and animals had originated in heaven and were
brought down when the first nobleman descended to earth,
landing on a mountain. The to manurun, that is, the person
of status who descended from heaven, brought with him the
entire social order and a complete heavenly household, in-
cluding a house, slaves, animals, and plants. With the to
manurun also came priests: the to minaa, the to burake (the
highest rank of religious functionary), the rice priest, and the
medicine man. The death priest, however, is not mentioned.
The descent of a nobleman was believed to have occurred
several times in Toraja history. With regional variations these
main themes are found throughout Tana Toraja.
THE TRIPARTITE COSMIC WORLD. In the Toraja view, the
cosmos is divided into three parts: the upper world, the
world of mankind (earth), and the underworld. In the begin-
ning, however, heaven and earth were one expanse of dark-
ness, united in marriage. With their separation came light.
Several gods sprang from this mythical marriage. Puang
Matua (“the old lord”) is the principal god and the deity of
heaven. Pong Banggai di Rante (“the master of the plains”)
is the god of the earth. Gaun ti Kembong (“the swollen
cloud”’) resides between heaven and earth. Indo’ Belo Tum-
bang (“the lady who dances beautifully”) is the goddess of
the medicine that cures the sick in the Maro ritual. Pong
Tulak Padang is the Toraja Atlas; he carries the earth, not
on his shoulders but in the palms of his hands. Together with
Puang Matua in the upper world he keeps earth, the world
of mankind, in equilibrium, separating night from day. His
bad-tempered spouse, Indo’ Ongon-ongon, however, upsets
the equilibrium by causing earthquakes when she is in a bad
mood. She is much feared, as is Pong Lalondong (“the lord
who is a cock”). Puya (“the land of souls”) lies in the south-
west under the earth’s surface. The underworld and upper
world have other deities, and there are also deata (deities,
ghosts) residing on earth and in rivers, canals, wells, trees,
and stones. Eels are revered as fertility symbols.
THE BIPARTITE DIVISION OF THE RITUALS. By observing
the rules of deities and ancestors, man observes his part in
maintaining the equilibrium between the upper worlds and
the underworlds. He does so by means of rites and rituals.
Rituals are divided into two spheres, one of the east, the Ris-
ing Sun or Smoke Ascending (Rambu Tuka), and the other
of the west, the Setting Sun or Smoke Descending (Rambu
Solo’). The north is associated with the east, the south withTORAJA RELIGION 9241