Tiwah

Tiwah is the dead festival of the Ngaju people of Central Kalimantan. It is basically a secondary mortuary rituals, where the bones of the deceased are taken from the cemeteries, purified and finally placed in an ossuary. The feast celebrates the final entry of the deceased into paradise where they would meet the ancestors.

The Ngaju practiced a syncretic religion known as the Kaharingan. To conform with the principle of the Indonesian state ideology of "One Supreme God" (Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa), in year 1980 the Kaharingan faithful of the Ngaju people agreed to establish themselves under the Hindu-Kaharingan faith to be recognized as an official religion of Indonesia.

The Ngaju people regard human as comprising the physical body, animated by a 'soul' or 'spirit' known as the hambaruan. Death means that the hambaruan leaves the body permanently and ceases to exist. The physical body is then replaced by something called liau, which can be described as the 'spirit' of the corpse. Liau is divided into three parts: the liau of the bones, the liau of the flesh and blood, and the liau of the "spirit of the intellect". The bone liau is deemed to have been derived from the deceased's father, associated with the upperworld and the upperworld's male deity. The flesh and blood liau is derived from the deceased's mother, and is associated with the underworld and the underworld's female deity. These first two liaus remain with the corpse, and until the tiwah is enacted, they remain in the underworld. The third "spirit of the intellect" liau remain in a place in the third heaven. This liau however is a potential threat as they can roam the human world, and so this liau must be dealth with. At a ritual called tantulak liau ("expelling the dead soul"), Ngaju priests (basir) would call upon one of the upperworld spirits (sangiang) to escort this liau to a heavenly village in the third heaven. This liau must remain there until the tiwah.

The feast of Tiwah concerns with the reunion of the three liaus on earth for the last time before being escorted away to Lewa Liau, the paradise. Tiwah feast is a large and lengthy feast consisting of many ceremonies, each with specific aims. One ceremony invites the various upperworld spirits to join in the celebrations, while other ensures that the living are kept safe during this potentially dangerous period. Each ceremonies requires sacrifice of livestock and so large numbers of livestock such as buffaloes and pigs are sacrificed during Tiwah. The animals are tied to a sapundu sacrificial pole, killed, its blood is used to purify multiple objects used during the tiwah. Offering is given to the dead and to the spirits invited to the ceremony. They take the essence of the offerings, while the human guests at the tiwah consume the physical part of the offering. Separate ceremonies are held to bring the bones from the cemetery, the bones are carried back to the village to be cleaned and anointed with oil and gold dust by their closest kin e.g. their children or their grandchildren; the anointed bones are then carefully wrapped in cloth and returned to the sandung where they will remain until the end of the tiwah. The sandung or bone houses are large house-like structures built to house the bones. Another ceremony bring the liau back from the third heaven where it has been residing.

...
Wikipedia