Tana
Toraja is protected by mountains and granite cliffs. This is a place, where
residents of Toraja live in a fertile area, terraced rice field and coffee
farming. Its enchantment comes out when you see human skeletons at the tombs.
There are has been dozens of pigs and buffalos slaughtered to a death ceremony
in one of ritual of ‘living dead’. In this place, you can visit a site of
carving tomb in Lemo, cave of ancient tomb in Londa, and Menhir in Rante Karassik.
Those tombs are well-maintained in a frame of culture because society very
respect to the ancestor and keep the existence of tombs.
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| Pictures Jongjava.com |
When you come to the plateau of Tana Toraja, you will get
start to adore the beauty of panorama. It is because the residents have been
defense tradition into their life cycle, which is eternal and after death. The road
from Makasar to Toraja can be reached around 130 km and it will end in the
mountain. When you enter to Tana Toraja, you can see a perfect beauty of green
scenery. In there, the noble of Toraja is believed as a descent of God.
In
order to keep the power of land and people, Toraja’s residents believe that the
land must be kept through ritual to celebrate their life and ancestor. In this
place, life is kept very straight by death ceremony. That is why the death
ceremony can be held for many days and involves all of the residents. They come
not only to send condolences, but they will join to entertainment ritual and
fraternal community.
The death ceremony is held after harvest and usually on July
and September, while life ceremony is held during planting season on October.
At that time, the burial process doesn’t do soon, but the family will delay it
for months or even years. The dead body will be kept inside the house until the
family preparing enough budgets. Most of visitors who visit Toraja will have
interest to the uniqueness of culture and rituals.
Transportation
To reach Tana Toraja, you have to take a flight to Sultan
Hasanuddin Airport in Makasar, the capital of South Sulawesi Province,
Indonesia. There are many flights to and from Makasar. You can start from
Manado, Bali, Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia. From the airport, you can
select two ways of transportation to bring you to Tana Toraja. By taking a
plane, you will arrive at Pong Tiku Airport in Tana Toraja, which is takes 45
minutes. The flight is available twice a week, Tuesday and Friday. When you
select public transportation, you will arrive at Tana Toraja after 8 hours. There
are many buses to Rantepao from Makasar. Usually, the bus will depart at 07.00,
13.00 and 19.00 local time from bus station.
Accommodations
When you come to Tana Toraja, you do not need to worry where
you will stay overnight because there are many hotels in this place. If you
like to stay in the center of city, you can choose big and small hotels, which
is can be reserved through travel agent, i.e. Toraja Prince Hotel and Hotel
Heritage Toraja. Differently if you have adrenalin to challenge the nature, you
can stay overnight in the people’s house.
Activities
Strolling to Tampang Allo, Lemo and Londa will give you a
change to witness popular tomb in the world, which is placed in the wall of the
rock and caves fulfilled by coffins and skeletons. You do not need to be afraid
to come inside as long as you don’t have intent to take their skeletons. When you
come to Tana Toraja on June, July and December, you will witness the slaughter of
buffalos and pigs colossal by butchers. You will see the uniqueness and a
sacred moment of the place. For the residents of Tana Toraja, buffalo is a sacrificial
animal of death ceremony. They believe that the soul of buffalo can be medium
of transportation for the spirit of the death.
If you interested to see traditional house of Toraja’s
residents, you can visit Ke’te Kesu’ Village. When you arrive there, you will
find ranges of Tongkonan with beautiful decoration and barns. Tongkonan itself
is a traditional house of Tana Toraja, which is has roof resembles to saddle,
or it will remind you to buffalo’s horn. Tongkonan has stratum of noble in
society, such as golden stratum, bronze, iron, and brass.
It is not complete visiting Tana Toraja without bringing
souvenirs. For this, you can visit Palawa. This is a center of woven cloth. In Rantepao,
you also can purchase dress, bags, wallets, and other hand-made. It will be fun
to stroll around Tana Toraja because you can learn about traditional life.
