Marapu

In the Marapu faith of Sumba, the word marapu means the inhabitants of the eternal heaven, Prai Marapu, who are the ancestors of the Sumbanese, and also the spirits of the ancestors and of the universe. The balance of the world is symbolised by the Great Mother Ina Kalada and the Great Father Ama Kalada, the moon and the sun, who bore the first ancestors. The Sumbanese believe seven pairs of men and women came down on a ladder of buffalo horns, and that after death they too climb the ladder.

Wooden figures with human faces, the marapu, stand on stone altars where betel and sacrificial cattle are offered. Funerals can be delayed for years, and when they take place hundreds of men haul stone slabs in the tarik batu rite.