Indonesia has many beautiful places, also amazing islands. In South Sulawesi province, there are several location, that we may say it like heaven on earth. Such as Tana Toraja regency (Land of Toraja) or we say it Toraja.
The Toraja are located on a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Currently their population is approximately 650,000 people. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Moslem and Animist. The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugeness Language as "to riaja", meaning "people of the uplands". Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as Tongkonan and unique wood carvings.
The Toraja are located on a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Currently their population is approximately 650,000 people. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Moslem and Animist. The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugeness Language as "to riaja", meaning "people of the uplands". Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as Tongkonan and unique wood carvings.
Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
THE TONGKONAN (The House)
A tongkonan with colorful decorations on the wall. Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government".
The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
TRADITIONAL WOOD CARVINGS
A Torajan wood carving: each panel symbolizes goodwill. Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, buffalo and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering.
A UNIQIUE BURIAL SITES
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of buffalo and they say it "tedong bonga" mean is albino buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast.
There are three methods of burial: using coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. . A wood-carved effigy, called tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
THE TONGKONAN (The House)
A tongkonan with colorful decorations on the wall. Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government".
The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
TRADITIONAL WOOD CARVINGS
A Torajan wood carving: each panel symbolizes goodwill. Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, buffalo and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering.
A UNIQIUE BURIAL SITES
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of buffalo and they say it "tedong bonga" mean is albino buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast.
There are three methods of burial: using coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. . A wood-carved effigy, called tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
