TORAJA Culture Tour

TravellingToraja is one of the famous travel destinations and beautiful regions in South Sulawesi in Indonesia as well. From a distance, one can see jagged ridges of the hills stretching side by side along the slopes of the mountains. The traditional houses with curved roof among the paddy fields that are beautifully and naturally carved and colored by the sky full people of Tana Toraja

Before the Dutch come to power in this high land in the 20th century, there was no even a single word given for the name of their religion instead of the word “aluk” which refers to a ritual ways and daily lives activities that are to be controlled, without special instruction of how to build a house, to cook rice, to greet boys and the head of the village, and the number of buffaloes and pigs that must be slaughtered in every ritual ceremony.

About 90 % of the people of Tana Toraja are Christian. They still uphold and proud of their cultural heritage in welcoming the guest ritually.

Places Of Interest

LEMO

You can see the veranda of “tau-tau” mixed up together with the steep coral stone museum in the open air, which seems coral to be a combination between death, arts, and ritual. “Tau-tau’ is a small wooden statue which sometimes is made of Uru Tree, a special smooth tree where good to carve. This statue is considered to accommodate the spirit of the pass by person.

 

LONDA

Londa is a steep rocky sides graves. One of its sides is located on a higher place from the hills which has deep caves you can see coffins that are arranged and grouped based on the family lines.

 

KETE’KESU

Kete’Kesu is a village which is still characterized by the traditional lives of Toraja people.

 

FUNERAL CEREMONY

A Toraja’s burial ceremony is complicated. First, there should be some pigs and buffaloes available. If the family have their high-class family so they slaughtered more pigs and Buffalo for their parent’s ceremony.  For some families, coming from the traditional ruling elites, the number of buffalos and pigs can reach dozens of each. A burial ceremony, then, needs thousand dollars. Under economic considerations, this probably seems like a wasting and non-productive effort. Yet, the heart of a culture is often leaving aside other aspects considered irrational by many of us, who claim as being “modern”.