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Tana Toraja - The funeral.

3 - How the pig sees it.

The preparation to a funeral for the guests starts days before when they go to the market to purchase the animals. The spectacle is stunning - hundreds of pigs laying down on the floor, crying and screaming while costumers check them out and bargain. When the choice is made the bamboos, which the pig is secured to, are being attached to a pole and carried away by shoulders. What amazed me the most was the nearly perfect order in which the pigs were arranged. One after the others in straight line they would have looked more like at a beauty contest rather then at a market - put aside the tightening and the screaming bit.

The pigs will be killed on the same day of the offering. Still tighten up on bamboo they will be taken to the arena to be showed to the family and as soon as they make it back to the backstage they will be stabbed with a sharp wood through the ribs under the front left leg into the heart. The pig will be opened up on the belly, emptied of the interiors and the blood will be collected by hand and saved in bamboo cane. Soon after the body will be burned on a bone fire to clean it and eventually the meat will be cut in small chops, mixed with grass, squeezed inside a bamboo cane and cooked on fire. The outcome is a very traditional meal of the region. They call it Pat Piong, the taste is very strong and you might not like it but it's definitely one of a kind and if you are accepted guest at a funeral you will be offered plenty together with the ubiquitous palm wine so be ready - or leave early.

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--------------The cerimonycc- ------c---------------cThe buffalo's point of view --

Feel sorry for the poor pigs and buffalos? Fine, be a chicken, a dog or a bat for just one day.

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Dogs and bats of North Sulawesicc--------- ----Merry Christmas Mr.Chicken

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