Leopard cool

Manila, January 2016.

now finally well tasting moon cakes?

Moon cake with better... French...ingredients. 

Beijing, August 2014.

Chinese Valentine's Day

Beijing, August 2014.

Lantern Festival

Beijing, February 2013.

Nail protector

San Fernando, Pampanga (Barangay San Pedro Cutud), April 2012.

Bloody Good Friday

Flagellants on Good Friday 2012 in San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines (Barangay San Pedro Cutud)

2011 恭喜發財

Congratulations and be prosperous,

and Happy Chinese New Year.

May the year of the rabbit fulfill your wishes.

Makati, Metro Manila, 3 March 2011.

P.S. The building on the right side is One Roxas Triangle, 51 stories above ground and 174 meters high.

Boracay Halloween

Boracay, Halloween 2010.

Kitsch o'pop: Guilin at night

Guilin, Guangxi, May 2010.

Celebrating iron day in a car

Pagerwesi or 'iron fence' day is celebrated every 210 days (ie lunar year) and everything made of iron is decorated and offerings are being provided to keep the universe in balance. Further, iron is seen as a barrier against evil. Our car, naturally an iron car, had its offerings on the bonnet. As shown above you may spot the banana in the basket.

Below the banana is learning to fly. Not shown is that the banana landed on a biker. Unfortunately her month wasn't open.

Sanur, Bail, August 2009.

21st century fashion

Solo, Central Java, April 2009.

Funeral reception in Tana Toraja

Buffalos and pigs donated by guests are brought to the reception site, registered and will be slaughtered later on to feed the numerous guests.

Dancers in traditional attire lead guests to the reception hall.

The funeral party representing a family, part of a family or a village, is led by a couple in traditional dress. The mourners wear black.

Guests find their way to the main reception hall,...

... where they will be presented with betel, cigarettes, tea, coffee, and food by the family of the deceased.

Once these guests will have paid their respects, they will be led out of the main reception hall to make space for the next group of guests. This coming and going can take up to two days for a big funeral.

The deceased in his/per person is placed in a higher hall across the main reception hall and watches the ceremony.

As said before, no sudden death in Tana Toraja.

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, May 2009.

Buffalo sacrifice Tana Toraja

The higher the status of a dead person, the more buffalo are slaughtered at a Torajan funeral. The ritualized Torajan way of slaughtering a buffalo may remind of an ancient but unequal fight between humans and animals. I know that most of us don't like to see such pictures but we somehow have to realize that modern society industrialized such processes, taking them away from our eyes. Anyway, we continue to eat meat...

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, May 2009.

No sudden death in Tana Toraja

It is often said that for Torajans, life is only a preparation to death. This is true, and untrue.

Torajan people have, or had, plenty of ceremonies also celebrating life, and especially fertility. Many of them were deemed not compatible with Christianity, and are no more carried out.

Ceremonies related to death were considered compatible with Christianity, and the Torajans still conduct very elaborate (and costly) funeral rites. Even if funeral rites according to the ‘old’ (animist) religion are much more expensive and time-consuming than a Christian, mostly Protestant funeral, they are still carried out by most families when a relative dies.

A person is not considered dead as long as the funeral rites have not been carried out. The person is only sick and referred to other people as sick. The sick person is kept in the house, food will be placed in front of the corpse, betel will be offered betel, and people will talk with the person.

The relatives will gather in the tongkonan to discuss the funeral. Should Torajan funeral rites be chosen, then it will be very costly. So much so that the funeral might have to wait a couple of years. Relatives and friends have to bring offerings in the form of pig and buffalo sacrifices, and feed and entertain large numbers of guests. Rice paddies or houses might have to be sold. Loans might have to be contracted.

Provisional buildings need to be built for the ceremony, pigs and buffaloes, food, coffee, palm wine to be bought. Once everything is ready, the sick person will be rewrapped in new cloths, and on the last day before the ceremony, the person will be put on the platform of the rice granary facing the tongkonan.

For the first reception day, the sick person will be put on the lakkean, on higher ground so she can watch the festivities given in her honor.

Hundreds, sometimes thousands of guests will then gather along family or relationship lines. After a gong is sounded, warriors will pick up the first group to lead them to the ceremonial ground dancing. Offerings are brought, buffaloes first, then pigs, followed by the rice wine carriers, men, and women (see reception blog). Once all offerings are thoroughly registered (for the family to know exactly what debts have been settled though the offerings and what new debts have emerged, and for the authorities to collect taxes on sacrificed animals, an unsuccessful way of trying to limit the slaughtering), the procession is led to the reception hall. Once the guests are seated, another procession starts, this time mourning relatives of the sick person, all wearing black, and bringing the guests betel, cigarettes, tea and coffee. Once the guests have eaten, they will leave the procession hall, to make place for the next procession. Two reception days may be necessary for a big funeral.

In between, pigs will have been slaughtered at the back of the provisional building, to feed the numerous guests (who themselves will have to bring food for the carriers of the pigs).

Unlike buffaloes, black pigs are more valuable than those of two colors. The pigs are killed with a small knife, their blood is recovered in bamboo pipes, the entrails taken apart for sausages. They are then grilled on the open fire, cut in pieces and distributed.

The slaughtering of the buffaloes will take place on the third or fourth day of the funeral. The buffaloes are standing, and their throat is cut with one sharp cut. Still on the middle of the ceremonial ground, their fur and skin is taken off, and will later be sold for the leather industry in Makassar or Surabaya.

For Tana Toraja's burial grounds follow me....

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, May 2009.

Graduates in cultural diversity

Makassar, South Sulawesi, May 2009.

Asmat welcome

Dugout canoe welcome in Beriten, Asmat.

Beriten, Asmat, Papua, April 2009.