On the Traditional Dance and Costume in the Toraja

초록

The Torajan people who started to receive increased attention from the 1990 are one of the manyethnic groups of Indonesia. This paper intends to examine Torajan Ceremonies practied today in themodern world, driven by the Torajan people's age-old perspective of life and death (and the world after)that comes from their background on traditional lifestyle and (animated) folk religion/belief. It focuses onthe ceremonial Dances, which is one of the most important element in Torajan Ceremonies, and gaindeeper insight through its costumes and ornaments which traditionally revealed the social status of hostsand performers. In ceremony, the most important division is the classification of ritual into Aluk rampematallo(life facing ritual ) and Aluk rampe matampu? death ritual). So Traditional Toraja dances may beclassified into two genres: life related ritual dances and death ritual dances. Especially the funeralceremonies in Toraja has been rather more famous on its spectacle aspect to outsiders however itsrelationships to the broader theme of Torajan Ceremonies and ceremonial dances are very less knownand sources on this topic are also very scarce. Fortunately, I was able to witness one of such an ritualevent. I did see one kind of the funeral rituals which is the most dramatic and symbolically richperformances in Toraja. Here, a brief account of its will highlight some dimension of ceremony,personfood, and potency in Torajan thought and action.

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