Abstract
The kerbau (Bos bubalus var. sondaica) is the most important animal in the culture of the Sa’dan-Toraja. People are preoccupied with water buffaloes. In daily conversation the word tedong (‘kerbau’)1 crops up again and again. People talk about buffaloes with the fervor of Europeans discussing pedigree dogs. The kerbau of the Sa’dan-Toraja are colossuses among the buffaloes. The sound which the megataurus makes comes as something of a surprise: it is not the bellowing of a steer, but rather the gentle bleating of a goat. Tedong is the word commonly used for ‘kerbau’, karambau is a more solemn term which appears in ritual songs.
“These are buffalo people.”
(Kennedy, Field Notes on Indonesia: South Celebes, 1940–1950)
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Tedong is also used in Buginese for kerbau. In Sa’dan-Toraja there is no specific word for a bull except in the territories of Ulusalu, Bittuang and Mamasa: aa’ and in Ma’kale: aya. A large adult sacrificial bull, however, is called penamile or pinamile (penule in the district of Dende’).
A concentration of flecks, dots, etc. is associated with the stars in heaven and with an abundance of grains of rice.
These verses follow a passage from the Passomba Tedong discussed in III.1.
For the story of a white buffalo who cured a princess of Luwu’ from her skin disease by licking her, see Noorduyn 1955:32 and 33.
In addition to the notion that the first male buffalo came from heaven, the first female from earth, there is also a belief that a buffalo trail wends through the Kingdom of the Dead and that there is a cave full of kerbau who trample the souls of criminals.
A descent line of the kerbau is also presented in the Passomba Tedong (see Merok: 120–133, verses 439, 653ff.) Cf. also ibid. 90f, and 1976:427, verse 11.
This happens, too, whenever the pa’karu’dusan is sacrificed during a mortuary ritual of high order. For further information about the role of the sacrificial kerbau cf. Vol. II on the merok, the bua’ kasalle-feasts.
According to informant B. Sarungallo it is wrong to call this motif pa’tedong, for the name should really be pa’ulu tingke’, ‘the head of the spinning-wheel’.
Other information indicates that the ma’tenten is danced at the bua’ kasalle-feast.
In other areas, for example in Sangalla’, this was not customary.
Sumbung penaa is sometimes translated as ‘that which follows the breath’.
Indonesian for a thick variety of bamboo: Dendrocalamus flagellifer.
For the association of the parts of the kerbau with the possessions of the ramage, see section VII.1.4.
H. van der Veen could not find a translation for this word; it is not clear what part of the buffalo is meant.
Sarita, sacred cloth from India.
A big, glazed pot of Indian origin; these jars were exported from Martaban (Burma).
Na = possessive pronoun, 3rd person (sing.).
Sometimes a person is contracted to tend a pig; eventual profit is divided evenly between owner and caretaker.
The crow, however, is not associated with the upperworld.
The government banned this practice some time around 1975.
See Traditions reported by Ne’ Mani’ (Van der Veen 1976).
The cat serre’ that is treated as a datu (lord); who, just as the Buginese prince of Luwu’, never leaves his house (Woordenboek).
Woordenboek: serre’ datu are black, grey or speckled and can have a stumpy tail. Usually they have such a tail, despite Wilcox’s observation.
The tail of these rodents is compared to (the stem of) a betel leaf.
Pa’pong: a kind of ficus. Another tree, the kapok-tree, is also cited; cf. Kruyt 1923/24:138.
Another symbol of the growth of the ramage is the tallang-bamboo. It develops many shoots which all grow closely together in a dense cluster. Cf. Merok: 164–165.
For this shrine see VIII.7.
The bate manurun discussed here should not be confused with the bate manurun which is one of the pusaka of the puang of Sangalla’.
Another name for this ubi (yam) is dua’.
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© 1979 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Nooy-Palm, H. (1979). Animals and Plants in Ritual and Myth. In: The Sa’dan-Toraja. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7150-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7150-4_7
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