Tanah Toraja
Tanah Toraja, the “land of the kings”, is known throughout Indonesia for its beautiful houses and elaborate funeral rituals. The Torajans preserved their unique culture in the isolated mountain valleys of central Sulawesi, withstanding the incursion of Islam and resisting Dutch rule until the early 20 th century. In Torajan culture, death is the most important event in life. When a person dies, his body is wrapped in herbs and kept in the house until there is enough money to organize an elaborate funeral. During the funeral ceremony, water buffalo are sacrificed, becoming spirits that will assist in carrying the deceased on a journey over the distant hills into the lands beyond the living.
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We spent our days in Tanah Toraja exploring the surrounding countryside. The landscape, with its rice fields and karst rock formations, is beautifully scenic. We stopped at a few traditional villages to admire the fine houses. In another area we paused to watch workers cutting, carving and painting the wooden panels used to decorate houses and rice barns. Torajan culture is alive and vibrant.
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The Torajans “bury” their dead in caves chipped out of cliff faces or boulders. In some areas, effigies of the deceased, called “Tau tau”, are placed at the entrance to the grave on the cliff face. Some of the higher rock graves have rows and rows of these “puppets” that stare with lifelike painted eyes over the surrounding rice fields. Sometimes an entire family is put into a single carved coffin that is placed in a cave or propped up under an overhanging rock wall. Children who die before teething are placed in small coffins in holes carved out of living trees.
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