Although festivals have been largely stripped of their religious meaning to become social events, witnessing a traditional ceremony is what draws most visitors to Tanah Toraja, particularly during the "peak festival season" in the agriculturally quiet period from June to September. Take a gift for your hosts - a carton of cigarettes, or a jerry can of balok (palm wine) - and hand it over when they invite you to sit down with them. Gift-giving is an integral part of Torajan ceremonies, an expression of the reciprocal obligations binding families and friends. Do not sit down uninvited, or take photos without asking; dress modestly, and wear dark clothing for funerals - a black T-shirt with blue jeans is perfectly acceptable, as are thong sandals. Most importantly, spend time at any ceremony you attend, drinking coffee and balok with your hosts, as too many tourists just breeze in and out.

Ceremonies are divided into rambu tuka, or smoke ascending (associated with the east and life), and rambu solo, smoke descending (west and death); all rambu tuka events begin in the morning, while the sun is rising, and rambu solo start after noon, when the sun is falling westwards. A typical rambu tuka ceremony is the dedication of a new tongkonan . Tongkonan design is credited to Puang Matua, the upcurving roof symbolizing the shape of the sky. They face north, so the front door is a gate between human and divine worlds, and are aligned north-south, defining a borderline between life and death.

The biggest of all Torajan ceremonies are funerals , the epitome of a rambu solo occasion. The ceremony is held over several days in a special field and starts with the parading of the oval coffin. At the end of the first afternoon you'll see buffalo fights . The following day - or days, if it's a big funeral - is spent welcoming guests, who troop village by village into the ceremonial field, led by a noblewoman dressed in orange and gold, bearing gifts of balok, pigs trussed on poles, and buffalo. The day after all the guests have arrived, the major sacrifice takes place: the nobility must sacrifice at least 24 buffalo, with 100 needed to see a high-ranking chieftain on his way. Horns decorated with gold braid and ribbons, the buffalo are tied one by one to a post and their throats slit, the blood caught in bamboo tubes and used in cooking. Finally, the coffin is laid to rest in a west-oriented house-grave or rockface mausoleum, with a tau-tau , a life-sized wooden effigy of the deceased, positioned in a nearby gallery facing outwards, and - for the highest-ranking nobles only - a megalith raised in the village rante ground.