Songs from the Thrice-Blooded Land presentsan immense
multidimensional and multimedia study of the ritual music of
the Toraja people living in the mountains of South Sulawesi,
Central Indonesia. The remarkably rich cultural heritage of the
Toraja, now on the brink of vanishing, belongs to the ancient
Austronesian cultural stratum established in Indonesia around
3000 BCE. Together with animal sacrifices, Toraja songs lie at
the heart of a complet ritual cycle that allows the deceased to
pass from the "side of the setting sun" (the realm of death) to
the "side of the rising sun" (the realm of life) through a series
of ritual actions, speeches, dances, and music.
