The Giarai Tomb

The Giarai tomb is a communal family tomb. According to Giarai customs, "a dead man must be buried at his mother's grave. Coffins are arranged one on the top of the other across, and then down alternatively. The most prominent decorations on the tomb are large wooden sculptures carved from tree trunks using adzes, cutlasses and knives. Large wooden figures and animals encircling the tomb are intended to accompany the dead into the afterlife. Sexually explicit carvings and those of pregnant women are symbols of fertility. Other carvings (often placed at the four corners) of animals and everyday people are the ‘servants’ of the dead in the afterlife.

Broken or inverted serving dishes, bottles, cups, trays and wooden models of tools are placed inside the tomb to provide the deceased with the necessities they will need in the other world.  Tomb’s wooden roof is covered with tightly plaited bamboo matting. Men join together to embellish this with delicate curvilinear, designs painted with natural red pigments. Crowning the roof is an intricately carved openwork panel depicting the rituals that accompany the construction of the tomb. Once the ceremony is concluded, the tomb will be abandoned to fall to pieces.