General conception of the after-life.... tohiny.

dadasy | 30 Septambra, 2006 19:45

Indro indray ary fa aroso eto ny tohin'ilay fanadihadiana. Misaotra ireo zay efa nanao tsikera t@ tapany voalohany. Mbola ampirisihina ny rehetra handray anjara satria de ny hevitry ny maro hono mahataka-davitra. Mety hanampy ahy handalina kokoa ny tsikera ataonareo toy izao. Misaotra e!

The tomb

The Merina are really worried about their tomb. They take care of it and spend a lot of money for that. The tomb in Imerina (where the Merina live) is made by big stones and a big hole commonly, with a house of stones upon it. A description is made by John Mack in his book “Madagascar: island of the ancestors” and he says:

Merina tombs are substantial rectangular structures made of uncut dry stone which rise to perhaps 3m or so above the surface of the ground and may cover an area of 50 sq m. large slabs of stone form the door and the roof, which was, in the highest ranked demes, sometimes topped by a small model house known as “tranomanara” (cold house). The external surrounds of the door are frequently decorated with a mixture of floral or geometrical designs in relief… these tombs are also subterranean so that, descending into the sepulcher, an underground chamber is entered which has stone shelving, arranged in tiers to receive the shrouded corpses.[1]

Most of the time, the Merina tombs are situated near of or not far from the ancestral house or the big family house. Sometimes they are seen in the same compound. An investigation made by Maurice Bloch shows that the Merina spend more money to build a tomb than a house.[2] In my case, I have four family tombs: two from my mother and two from my father. But which is supposed to be my family tomb is the one from the father of my father. And all the members of my family should be buried there. Three of these tombs are near our ancestral house, and the one is a bit far, near the former village (which nowadays is already abandoned).

The relationship of the tomb and the after-life

-The Merina build a strong tomb to show the permanence of the life after the earthly life. They believe that we “live” longer than our earthly life after we die. Therefore, we have to build a permanent house for this long life. The Merina, as far as I know, do not define clearly what kind of life they have after the earthly life. They simply say that there is another life, a long one. One of the beliefs also says that people go to “Ambondrombe” when they die. “Ambondrombe” is the pick of a high mountain in the southern of Imerina.

-They spend a lot of money to build a tomb because they think that it is worth to spend more to a long lasting life that to the passing one. We do all things we can do to earn money not only to sustain our life but also to prepare our future life, the life after this earthly life.

-They build their tombs just near their ancestral house, or the big family house to show that life begins in the house and is continuing in the tomb. The Merina should be always together therefore, as the proverb says “Velona iray trano, maty iray fasana” which means “alive in the same house, died in the same tomb”. Life does not finish in the house but continues in the tomb. The Merina, like all Malagasy people, has this strong way of living together, bound by the spirit of “fihavanana” (translated broadly by togetherness and relationship). This strong link between each members of the family still continues even if the Merina has died. We have to be buried in the family tomb, and during the “famadihana” or exhumation, those who can be put together are wrapped in a same cloth.

[1] John Mack, Madagascar: the Island of the Ancestors (London: British Museum Society, 1986) p. 78-79.

[2]Cf. Maurice Bloch, Placing the Dead. p. 113.