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Published: October 15th 2012
Majority of people who have traveled for extended period of time know that it is hard sometimes to find the excitement anymore. It can happen especially when you spend too much time in the same region of the world. I guess we got to that point in Borneo where we were so fed up with things and people that we seriously had to try hard to stay motivated to go on. We were very relieved though when we landed in Sulawesi as we knew for fact that we would love this place.
From the airport we had no trouble getting to the center of
Makassar by public bus (15,000/1,5$ each) and again we did some walking around to find suitable accommodation. Then and there Makassar surprised us. We walked in to probably 5 or 6 hotels and all of them where far from budget. Prices were in the range of 50 to even 100$. It would be no problem but who was their target audience? It was in the middle of summer holidays but the whole town was really empty and overall Makassar is not a typical tourist destination. Majority of people don’t even stop there and move on to
beautiful Tongkonan
we were amazed by the detailed decorationToraja straight away. Every hotel offered us 50%!o(MISSING)r more discount without even asking for it as they had no clients. Again, who did your market research? Being very tempted at that point we still had to remind ourselves that the price was still too high for us even with 50%!d(MISSING)iscount ;-(
We took a room in a very nice and LP recommended New Legend Hostel (125,000 deluxe room with breakfast and wifi) and we were also happy. We only wanted to stay around to see the town and then move on up north to the place where the death is in the centre of everyday life. Not much we can say about Makassar. It is small and you can see pretty much everything in one afternoon. The Dutch fort is not as impressive inside as it seems outside and the Chinatown is not the most exciting one when you have seen some great ones in other parts of Asia. We really have seen way too much already! We met some nice travelers in the hostel though but we were pretty much ready to move on.
The bus to
Rantepao town in Toraja Region takes around 8h
to get to. We arrived at night as asked the driver to drop us at the most recommended guesthouse but it was full and the one next door was full as well. Here we suddenly saw crowds of people and realized how popular this place was. It was after dark and we had no idea of where to move next so we just took a room in a hotel near the centre. It was quite poor quality for the 150,000R but we had little choice. We promised ourselves to look for some other, more atmospheric place to stay the next morning, which we did. We chose Wisma Maria I which was just really cool place to stay. It is a very traditional losmen, with mandi (Indonesian bath that holds water and you are supposed to use bucket to wash yourself) and Indonesian furnishings etc. For the price of 120,000R we got nice deluxe room with huge and yummy breakfast included. It made us very happy and we decided to take it easy in Toraja and stay longer than 3 days. We also had no choice as we both got sick and we could not do much but stay in. Later
on we found out that there had been tens of people sick around town in different hotels and we all wondered why. It could have been the food but we all stayed and ate in different places. I immediately thought about the place we are in. In the end there is a lot of dead around if you think about it.
Tana Toraja is a very distinctive region in Indonesia if not the whole world. It is home of Toraja ethnic group people and the tradition of this culture is a mixture of paganism and Christian practices. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local
animist beliefs known as
aluk ("the way"). These animist beliefs are recognized as
Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors"). The region is renowned for the elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as
tongkonan, and colorful
wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days. Before the funeral though they have to collect a lot of money to purchase live stock for sacrifice and that can take a year or two
depending how important the person was. There need to be at least one buffalo offered as this sacrifice assures the soul to travel to heaven. In the meantime they keep the deceased (soaked in formalin) in the best room in their homes, talk to them, offer them food and drink (they believe that the person is alive until the ceremony). When we heard that the body could be kept at home for a year or so we could not help but wonder where all the gems go. It reminded me us of Indian Varanasi where bodies are burnt and put into the water. It is so easy to catch some stomach problems over there right? So could the bodies in nearby homes have something to do with our stomach problems as well?
Nevertheless we were fascinated by this region. How can it be that they are Christians but perform these rituals? Churches next to the ritual sites, that was odd but so incredibly interesting. We decided not to rent a scooter but do it by local transport. No one was doing it this way and we wanted to check if that was possible. Of course it was as locals
have to travel somehow between the villages. It is actually very easy and all you have to do is stop any car going in your direction. They will charge you between 3000R-10,000/1$ for a ride which is way cheaper than a motorbike anyway and you get to meet some locals too. Because we felt quite weak we started with a close by burial site of
Kete-Kesu (3km one way, walking distance) which has some fantastic traditional houses as well as beautiful and one of the best kept tomb. The grave is like a house and you can see the effigies called tau-tau sitting there on the balcony as if they were having an afternoon break. The next day we ventured further and visited stunning burial caves of
Londa and
Lemo. We have to mention that the landscape in Toraja is simply stunning - lush green bamboo forests, rice terraces and beautiful gardens. What a change when compared with Kalimantan. It is hard to believe that this place also belongs to Indonesia.
Londa and Lemo’s caves offer some intriguing sights of hanging coffins and theater of
Tau-Tau’s. They look so alive, all dressed up and staring at you from their
balcony – unbelievable. These places were magnificent but also sad in a way. We do understand that this is a tradition that survived generations however when you see skulls and bones mixed up together because they fell down from rotten coffins - you feel nothing but sorrow. How do they know who the bones belong to? In our culture we burry people separately so that we could visit their graves, offer respects and remember them. I guess they do the same by creating Tau-Tau. Local visitors bring them beer and smokes and leave them in the open coffins for dead to enjoy – sweet in a way;-)
We also ventured a little bit further away from Rantepao and did some trekking around
Batutumonga and
Lokomata which also have some nice burial sites. Located high in the hills both places offered stunning views over the ‘
Death Valley’. We really enjoyed the day out. We also thought about joining the funeral ceremony but have decided we did not want to see it. I could not for a second stand the animal sacrifice even though I was tempted by the cultural aspect of it i.e. costumes, dances and other ritual. There was
only one funeral the week we visited and it was not really big but surely enough there would have been hundreds of tourists that happen to be in town. Even though we only saw burial sites, caves and traditional villages we really enjoyed it. Some people we met only went to see the funeral and sacrifices and did not see any of the surroundings so it had to be taken in mind that there is more to this place than just the rituals.
Additional Note: • To get to Batutumonga you have to take an
angotto Bori Terminal and then a local bus to either Lokomata or Batutumonga - easy;-)
• To see what there is to do around Toraja click on the link for the map:
http://incitoprima.com/details.php?catid=7&aid=7&Par=98
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Nice pics Arc Travels