DEATH RITUAL: Another Way in The Tradition of Bathing The Body

Abstract

The procedure of bathing the body that contextually applies in the Takalar community is explicitly discussed in this paper. This research was carried out on the group of Sayyid Al-Aidid descendants living in Cikoang-Laikang-Takalar-South Sulawesi, preserving local practices that have been passed down from generation to generation on an ongoing basis. The results showed that it turns out that the practice of bathing the body in the Sayyid culture is linked to the cosmological origin of their lives, beginning from the process of preparation, execution, to the end. In the process of bathing the body, the life of the Anrong Guru has a significant and strategic function. The role of Anrong Guru in connecting the world above (God) and below (congregation) as an intermediary. Anrong Guru does not teach the terms and actions of the ritual practice of bathing the body, but more about the principles and teachings of nature and ma'rifat about life and death, which notes that the bond between the dead and the living is never separated. This paper suggests that further research is required, especially in the parts of the readings recited in the bathing practice of the body.