page_title: Tiwah
section_title: Tiwah feast
hierarchical_section_title: Tiwah / Tiwah feast
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Repronegatief. Een koppensneller met aan zijn gordel een schedel, die bij feesten gebruikt wordt om uit te drinken, een vrouw met een grote 'blangai' pot en achter hen palen voor het dodenfeest 'Tiwah', Borneo
context_page_description: Tiwah is the Festival of the Dead of the Ngaju people of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is basically a secondary mortuary ritual, 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  The main event of the Tiwah takes place at a ceremony where the reunited liau is escorted by the sangiang psychopomp named Rawing Tempun Telun, to Lewu Liau. During this ceremony, which lasts all night, a medium called a tukang hanteran or mahanteran ("adept at escorting (the dead)") allows the sangiang Rawing Tempun Telun to possess him. The mahanteran would sit above the gong and dress up like the Rawing Tempun Telun, wearing a certain headdress, feathers of a hornbill, shell tunic and boars teeth belt, and holding a mandau (heirloom sword). The words of the mahanteran during this period are considered those of the sangiang. The mahanteran would recite the entire creation myth of the Ngaju throughout the night. As the story commenced, it is deemed that in the spirit world, the liau would make their way to paradise in spirit boats, traveling along the rivers of the upperworld until they arrive at Lewu Liau in the seventh heaven. Lewu Liau is reached as the recitation of the creation myth finishes.
  The recital of the creation myth is believed to restore order to the chaos caused by the death of a person. Ngaju people believes that death creates disorder and destruction of the cosmos, which must be continually recreated if life is to continue. By allowing the sangiang to possess the tukang hanteran and recite the creation myth, the cosmos is being restored.
caption: The pole carved with a face in the background represents the Raja Entai Nyahu, which is thought to watches over the dead until the tiwah.
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