EPISODE 4

A VILLAGE WITHOUT SMOKE

TANA TORAJA, INDONESIA

Death doesn’t symbolize the end in Tana Toraja, but rather, the beginning of an on-going process that consumes many aspects of life. This Christian society still practices the traditions of an ancient, animistic religion called Aluk To Dolo or “the way of the ancestors.” In some regions of Toraja, the wayteaches that families must return to the tombs of their deceased loved ones for a ritual called Ma’nene.

Lo’Ko’Mata village holds a triennial Ma’nene at a three story stone tomb that’s as old as time itself. Their village leader, Pong Sobon, oversees thousands of visitors from all over Indonesia who have come to clean the resting place and bodies of their ancestors—or to bear witness to the reality of death, as so many outsiders do. In Ba’ton village, the elder Mr. Karaeng—a lifelong rice farmer—welcomes his close family for their annual Ma’nene. In a quaint afternoon, the family convenes to feel each other’s presence in life as well as in death. Their deceased relatives are exhumed and given new clothes before they part ways for another year.

Pong Sobon imagines his death and traditional burial in Lo’Ko’mata. One year later, he dies of a heart attack. His body is preserved and left laying in his family’s home for years to come and the cycle of Aluk to Dolo continues. A Village Without Smoke explores how Ma’nene takes on the character of those who perform it, and reveals the relationship that Torajans have with the experience of death.