Cliff Cemetery at Marante
 
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Burial in Torajaland

All photos on this page
© 2013 John Holstein,
except where otherwise noted.
 
 
 
 
Marante is a traditional village (i.e., its houses are tongkonan) about 30 minutes' drive from Rantepao. Go to this page about Marante to see both the cemetery and the village.
 
 
 
 
 
Looks like this one got just about every pattern developed in Torajaland. From Wikipedia: "To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation. Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results. Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering.[21] Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations.[21] To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Coffins left to the elements
 
 
 
 
 
The cliff graves are to the right, and the village is to the left.
 
 
 
 
Marante from outside
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Grannie and her granddaughter were the only ones inside the village when we visited.
 
 
 
 
 
. . . except for these guys.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photo by Rio Paul, 2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
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