Aluk

Aluk, from Aluk Todolo, the Way of the Ancestors, is the traditional religion of the Toraja of the highlands of South Sulawesi. They believed that people, buffalo, rice, iron and rain were sent down from the sky.

The creator is Puang Matua, who made eight beings from a jar and gave the first of them, Datu' Laukku, the rules called aluk. His descendant Pong Mula Tau, the first man, came down a ladder to the earth.

The funeral rite Rambu Solo' was central. A dead person who had not yet had the rites was treated as sick, fed and cared for like the living, and the funeral sacrifices to the gods and spirits, of buffalo above all, were made in expectation of a greater gift in return.