Tête d'une figure ancestrale "tau tau" ·  Indonésie - Sulawesi, Toraja · ID: 3051122

Description

wood, min. colour residues, base

The Toraja people carved lifesize images called “tau-tau” for use in funerary rituals held for high-ranking individuals. Unlike most other types of ancestor figures in Southeast Asia, the “tau-tau” functioned more as a portrait of the deceased than as a receptacle for the soul; it ensured that the dead person’s descendants would long remember his name and accomplishments and served as a means of communication between the deceased ancestors and their living families. The soul itself resided in the land of the ancestors “puya”, surrounded by the pigs and water buffalos that had been sacrificed at his funeral.

“Tau taus” for people of high social rank were made from the wood of the jackfruit tree and were dressed according to the status of the deceased. Each stage of the carving process was accompanied by ritual offerings, culminating in the slaughter of pigs when the sculpture was finished.

The corpse was placed in a burial cave “liang” on the cliff and the “tau tau” figure, along with many others, was placed on a kind of balcony nearby. The sculpture also served as a silent reminder that the requisite seven-day feast to commemorate the death of an important person, of which the creation of the “tau tau” was an integral part, had been held.

Littérature comparée

Capistrano-Baker, Florina, Art of Island Southeast Asia, New York 1994, p. 86 f. Feldman, Jerome, The eloquent dead, Los Angeles 1985, p. 135 Europalia Arts Festival (ed.), Ancestors & Rituals, Brussels 2017, p. 162 f.