Our East Asia Adventure aboard Caledonian Sky: Tana Toraja , Sulawesi, June 23-24,2016

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi: Thursday June 23

After docking at lunchtime at Pare Para, a port on the South West coast of the island of Sulawesi, we departed for Tana Toraja – home to the Toraja people who have the most complex funeral rituals in the world.

Welcome at Para Pare by local young dancers.

We drove for nearly 5 hours in small coaches to reach Tana Toraja. Although only a distance of around 140Km, the journey was on a narrow winding mountainous road passing numerous small villages and townships on route.

The scenery and lifestyle was very interesting with many ‘Buginese (local ethnic group) townships and villages where the Muslim population (95%) all help to fund and build a large local village mosque.The conversion of the South West Peninsular of South Sulawesi to Islam occurred in the early 17th century.

Initially we passed many rice fields where 3 harvests occur annually. As the road climbed the mountainsides, we saw other crops being grown including coffee, cashew nuts, and tropical fruits.

Rice fields

Bumbapuang - Erotic mountain.

After about two and a half hours we had a tea/coffee and loo stop at a village called Puncak Lakawan where we saw what is called the Erotic Mountain - Bambapuang. It gave a great view of the mountains and river deep below in the valley floor.

Uniquely shaped rice barns

The road continued to climb and we soon reached the highlands of Tana Toraja, Land of Toraja - the unique architecture of the rice barns and housing became apparent. The population of the Toraja district in Sulawesi is 650,000 and 450,000 in the Tana Toraja regency.

The Torajan people who live in this area of central South Sulawesi are predominately Christian people (30% Roman Catholic, 60% Protestant, 10% Muslim). The Dutch missionaries converted Tarajans to Christianity almost a century ago. Most noticeable is the dress of the majority of the females who do not wear a headdress or hijab; some younger girls even were wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Before going to our hotel, we visited the burial caves in the limestone cliff face at the Lemo gravesite, the final resting place of the bodies of dead family members and ancestors. Whole families are interned here with a number of generations of some families. They also have effigies of the dead relatives seated in a carved niche the rock face alongside the burial door cave entrance.

The effigies of deceased family members with the burial caves above

At our hotel, the Missilliana Hotel we had a show put on by young children from a local orphanage during dinner.

This little guy was such a showman - and stole the show

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi: Friday June 24

The beautiful gardens in our hotel- note the christian quotes which were along most walkways.
Unfortunately the rooms were in need of refurbishment, but were were comfortable.

Our morning began with a visit the USNESCO village of Kete Kesu, the home of traditional Tonngkongan houses and viewed the unique architecture of the boat shaped rice barns and houses that go back over 400 years.

As well as the unusual architecture and lifestyle we learnt that for the Toraja people, life revolves around death, but not in a morbid sense.

Give me five...

The more buffalos sacrificed at the funeral...

the greater ones' status

The peoples during their lives work hard to accumulate wealth. But Tarajans don’t save money to live well, rather for a good send off in death. The extravagance of the funeral - not the wedding marks the family status.

We saw the burial places for the ancestors.

Then a visit to the area market where livestock of water buffalo and pigs were sold mainly as offerings for the funerals.

Then we visited the first day of the a funeral of a well-respected man in area.

Hey,who are these people..not our relatives.

Funeral ceremonies are incredibly important – and when a family member dies it can take a long time typically years to raise the money for the funeral ceremony. The body is not buried until the money has been raised, which can take years and it is not uncommon to go deeply into debt to raise the funds and some younger men afraid of going into debt postpone or cancel a marriage if the girl he loves has a grandparent who is old enough to die soon.

A funeral becomes a celebration of life – it is an occasion in which the entire family of the deceased and all the members of the village take part. The ceremony is known as Rambu Soloq and held over many days. Until the funeral the deceased is not buried but embalmed and stored in a traditional house under the same roof with his or her family. Until the funeral ceremonies are completed the person is not considered to be truly dead but merely suffering an illness. The dead relative is referred to as “ a person who is asleep” or a “person who sis sick”. Until the funeral, the deceased family member is symbolically fed, cared for and taken out. And remains part of their relatives’ lives.

The funeral ceremony begins when funeral visitors attend a buffalo and pig slaughtering and which they bring as an offering in honour of the deceased. Family members do this slaughter because they believe that the spirit of the deceased will live peacefully thereafter. Before being sacrificed according to a strict procedure, the animals take part in trials of strength known as tedong silaga. The heads of the buffalos are returned to what is locally known as puya (a site for the soul or spirit of the dead person) and their horns placed in front of the house of the kin. The more horns that decorate the front of the house - the higher the status of the deceased.

After the sacrifice, the meat is distributed to the funeral visitors in accordance with the visitors’ position in the community. The spirit of the deceased is also entitled to a portion of meat, known locally as Aluk Todolo.

The body is not buried until the eleventh day of the ceremony, although they are not technically buried – the final resting place is in a cave up on a cliff. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed after which it begins its journey to the land of souls.

A wood-carved effigy called tau tau, carved with the likeness of the dead person is then placed on the balcony of the tomb to represent the dead and watch over their remains. Unfortunately so many effigies have been stolen to be sold to tourists that people haves started to keep them in their houses.

We finished off our tour with a visit to a traditional village called Kambira village and saw how the rice was prepared to storage and more rice barns.