The long drive from the low lands to the mountain stronghold of Tana Toraja opens up a breath-taking new world. The rugged mountains and verdant valley are home to a people whose love of religious spectacle is equaled only by their hospitality. With majestic panoramas,captivating villages and dramatic ceremonies, Tana Toraja is the undisputed highlight of any journey to Sulawesi. The essence of the Toraja beliefs and way of life can be experienced without undue effort,as many interesting sites are clustered around the town of Rantepao, easily accessible by road.

A few minutes from Rantepao,artisant at Ke’te Kesu a model Toraja settlement,produce bamboo carving and other traditional handicraft.The village itself has several well maintained tongkonan houses and rice barns. Visitors unsure about the propriety of tramping around someone’d village will be relieved to know that Ke’te Kesu has been converted into a living museum with the express purpose of displaying Toraja architecture and daily life. Other villages within sight of the roads, often sitting in an emerald sea of ricefields,display the Toraja penchant for baroque architectural adornment.

If the Toraja way of life is interesting, the way of death is a fascinating mix of ritual custom and spectacle. For the Toraja, the dead are as much a part of society as the living. At Lemo, cliffs rise precipitously from the ricefield like stonework condominiums. Crypts carved with prodigious manual labour high into the solid rock house the mortal remains of Toraja nobility. Set amongs the crypts, the tau-tau, wooden effigies representing the deceased, look impassively on the world below.

At Londa, a network of coffin-filled caves reaches deep into the limestone hills. Visitor expecting a solemn, well-kept grotto are often shocked and disturbed by skeleton tumbling out of rotten coffins, skulls and bones arranged, according to some gruesome aesthetic. But the Toraja feel that since their ancestor’s souls are residing in heaven, ensuring continued fertility in farm and field, it’s appropriate that their earthly remains be on display for the pleasure of honored foreign guests.

While the valley between Rantepao and Makale provides a glimpse of Toraja life, the real Toraja lies in the surrounding mountains, accessible only on foot. In treks ranging from an easy day to strenuous week, those with a moderate capacity for adventure can experience authentic Toraja village life in charming mountain hamlets.

Funeral feast, employing intricate cycles of ritual observance punctuated with marvelous pageantry and even bloody spectacle, the Toraja devote much time and effort to the care of their ancestors. The Toraja believe their forebears reside in heaven and participate directly in the welfare of the material world through their blessing. To conduct the souls of the deceased safely into the next world, the Toraja elaborate ceremonies which also serve to solidify bonds of mutual obligation among the traditional suspicious clan groups. Finally, dozens of water buffaloes are sacrificed with a single sword-stroke to the neck, and hundred of pigs and chicken are summarily killed. Events range from quiet prayer and solemn processions to stirring hymn singing and exciting battles between water buffaloes, all conducted in a festive atmosphere of clan solidarity and reunion. Tongkonan, the family house, are built on stilts with the roof rearing up at either end, representing the prows of the first ship to arrive in the area with the Torajan ancestors. The houses all face north, this is because it was from the north that the ancestors of the Toraja came . Others, however will say that the north are regarded as the realm of the gods, on the compass of life.

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Copyright © 2001 Toraja Adventure
Last modified: January 05, 2001