Encyclopedia of Religion

(Darren Dugan) #1

the west. Rituals of the Rising Sun are those celebrating joy
and life. This category includes birth, marriage, rice ceremo-
nies, and feasts for the well-being of the family, the house,
and the community. Ceremonies for healing the sick are also
rituals of the Rising Sun; yet to the extent that sickness poses
a danger to the community the rituals of healing share some
traits with those of the Setting Sun. The Setting Sun ritual
is associated with darkness, night, and, of course, with death.
With the exception of the healing rituals, the ritual spheres
of east and west are kept quite distinct from one another.


The most important ritual of the eastern sphere is the
Bua’ feast, a ceremony for a whole territory, the Bua’ com-
munity. During this feast the burake—in some districts a
priestess, in others a priest who is considered a hermaphro-
dite—implores the gods of heaven to bestow their benevo-
lence on the community. Another feast of importance is the
Merok, held for the welfare of a large family. At the center
of the Merok is the tongkonan, the dwelling founded by the
family’s first ancestor. The most important of these houses
are the ones considered to have been founded by a to
manurun. These major rituals of the east have their ritual
counterparts in high-ranking death feasts. Ritualizing the
dead is a major focus of Toraja culture. A ranking order in
funerals exists that corresponds to the status of the deceased.
Toraja society is a stratified one, with much emphasis laid
on the display of wealth. By the efforts and the devotion of
the family, and through the expenditure lavished on buffalo,
entertainment, and care of the death priest, the deceased of
rank will reach Puya. After being judged by Pong Lalondong
he climbs a mountain and reaches heaven. There he will oc-
cupy a place among the deified ancestors, who form a con-
stellation that guards mankind and the rice. Thus the spheres
of death and life, notwithstanding an apparent opposition,
meet each other.


SEE ALSO Southeast Asian Religions, article on Insular Cul-
tures.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bigalke, Terance Williams. A Social History of Tana Toraja, 1875–
1965. Ann Arbor, 1981.


Jannel, Claude, and Frédéric Lontcho. Laissez venir ceux qui pleu-
rent: Fête pour un mort Toradja (Indonésie). Place and date
of publication not given. Includes translations of Toraja
poems by Jeannine Koubi.


Koubi, Jeannine. Rambu Solo’, la fumée descend. Paris, 1982.


Lanting, H. Th. “Nota van den Controleur van Makale/ Rante-
pao.” In Memorie van Overgave, Archives of the Netherlands
Ministry of Home Affairs. The Hague, 1926.


Nobele, E. A. J. “Memorie van Overgave betreffende de Onderaf-
deeling Makale.” Tijdschrift/Bataviaasch Genootschap van
Kunsten en Wetenschappen 60 (1926): 1–144.


Nooy-Palm, Hetty. The Sa’dan-Toraja: A Study of Their Social Life
and Religion. 2 vols. The Hague, 1986.


Veen, Hendrik van der. Tae’ (Zuid-Toradjasch) Nederlandsch
Woordenboek. The Hague, 1940.


Volkman, Toby, “The Riches of the Undertaker.” Indonesia 28
(1979): 1–16.
New Sources
Chambert-Loir, H., A. Reid, and Australian National University.
The Potent Dead: Ancestors, Saints and Heroes in Contempo-
rary Indonesia. Honolulu, 2002.
Klass, M., and M. K. Weisgrau. Across the Boundaries of Belief:
Contemporary Issues in the Anthropology of Religion. Boulder,
Colo., 1999.
Kobong, T. Evangelium und Tongkonan: Eine Untersuchung über
die Begegnung zwischen christlicher Botschaft und der Kultur
der Toraja. Hamburg, 1989.
Kotilainen, E. M. When the Bones are Left: A Study of the Material
Culture of Central Sulawesi. Helsinki, 1992.
Yampolsky, P., and Masyarakat Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia. Sula-
wesi Festivals, Funeral and Work. Washington, D.C., 1999.
HETTY NOOY-PALM (1987)
Revised Bibliography

TORQUEMADA, TOMÁS DE (1420–1498),
Spanish inquisitor. Tomás de Torquemada, nephew of Juan
de Torquemada (1388–1468), the celebrated Dominican
theologian, canonist, and cardinal, was born at Valladolid
and as a youth entered the Order of Preachers. For twenty-
two years he was prior of the Dominican convent of Santa
Cruz at Segovia. In 1474 he was appointed confessor to
Queen Isabella I of Castile, and later he performed the same
service, nominally at least, for King Ferdinand V of Aragon.
By a brief of February 11, 1482, Pope Sixtus IV named
Torquemada, along with ten other Dominicans, to replace
former officers of the Spanish Inquisition who had been
charged with corrupt practices. On August 2, 1483, Torque-
mada was appointed grand inquisitor for the kingdoms of
Castile and León; a few months later his authority was ex-
tended to Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and Majorca. He
forthwith established tribunals at Seville, Cordova, Jaén, and
Villarreal (later transferred to Toledo). Between 1484 and
1498 he set down the basic procedure of the Inquisition in
a series of instrucciónes—fifty-four articles in all—that guided
the activities of succeeding grand inquisitors. These were
published in 1576.
Torquemada, though himself descended from Jewish
forebears, was particularly harsh in carrying out the mandate
of the Inquisition against crypto-Jews (Marranos), Jews who
continued to practice Judaism in secret after their forced con-
version to Christianity. In 1492 he supported, and perhaps
promoted, the expulsion of the Jews from the newly united
Spain. Complaints about his severity moved Pope Alexander
VI in 1494 to add four colleagues to his judicial bench, but
as early as the next year they were accused of financial mis-
conduct, and there was no discernible change in the Inquisi-
tion’s practices after Torquemada’s retirement or even after
his death.
Torquemada became, and has remained, the personifi-
cation of religious intolerance at its worst. It is believed that

9242 TORQUEMADA, TOMÁS DE

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