Baby Graves

According to old Torajan beliefs, if a baby died without teeth, it was considered a holy or pure baby. Unlike adults (where their bodies will be kept for months or even years before finally being buried), the child’s body is not preserved but is kept for only a few hours or a night before the burial ritual is conducted. The biological mother does the wrapping and preparation of the baby’s body for the burial. This marks the last involvement of the ibu sebernarnya or the biological mother as the burial tree is recognised as the baby’s new mother, with the tree sap symbolising a mother’s breast milk. 

Necessarily, while the real mother conducts the rituals, the father and grave makers prepare the burial site, by digging out the soft wood and collecting the fibres for the door. The grave’s interior and position is based on the baby’s size and social rank, respectively. A baby from an upper class family is positioned the highest on the tree bark; a middle class baby buried in the middle; and the bottom part of the tree is reserved for lower class babies. The child’s father and the rest of the family attend the burial ceremony, while the biological mother is not allowed to attend the burial as now the tree is considered as the babies’ new mother.