HANGING CAVES AND TAU TAU
These caves were hollowed out by specialist cave builders who were traditionally paid in buffaloes- and since the building of a cave would cost several buffaloes, only the rich could afford it. Although the exterior of the cave looks small, the interior is large enough to entomb an entire family. The coffins would go deep inside the cave, and you can see, sitting in balconies on the rock face in front of the caves, the tau tau- life-size, carved wooden effigies of the dead.   Tau tau are carved only for the upper classes. Their expense alone rules out their use for poor people. Traditionally, the statues only showed the sex of the person, not the likeness, but now they attempt to imitate the lilkeness of the person's face. The making of a tau tau appears to have been a recent innovation, possibly originating in the late 19th century. The type of wood used reflects the status and wealth of the deceased, nangka (jackfruit) wood being the most expensive. After the deceased has been entombed and the tau tau placed in front of the grave, offerings are placed in the plam of the tau tau.   Apart from cave graves there are also house graves- houses made of wood in which the coffin is placed when there is no rocky outcrop or cliff face to cave a niche in. Sometimes the coffins may be placed at the foot of a mountain. Babies who dies before teething were placed in hollowed-out sections of living trees.   Most tau tau seem to be in a permanent state of disrepair, but in a ceremony after harvest time the bodies are re-wrapped in new material and the clothes of the tau tau replaced.