Tana Toraja is one of the famous travel destination in South Sulawesi in Indonesia. 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 carved 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.

More than half of the people of Tana Toraja are Christian. They still up hold and proud of their cultural heritage in welcoming the guest ritually.

The 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 asmall wooden statue which sometimes is made of bamboo tree. 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 coffin’s 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 water buffalos available.The more they are slaughtered, the higher the social status of the family of the deceased is. For some families, coming from the traditional ruling elites, the number buffalos and pigs can reach dozens of each. A burial ceremony, then, needs thousand dollars. Under ecnonomic 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”.

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