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Published: June 24th 2014
Immediately after work a week ago Friday and throughout that weekend many people left for their respected homes for their summer break. Instead of heading home myself, a friend and I headed to another Indonesian Island called Sulawesi for a four day trip.
Day One · Saturday June 14, 2014 · Jakarta, Java – Makassar, Sulawesi – Tana Toraja, Sulawesi
With an early start at 3:45am we left our apartments and were on our way to the airport to catch our 5:00am flight to Makassar. Two other friends were headed to Bali, Lombok and Gili Islands for the week as well so we split a cab. We landed in Makassar around 8:30am their time where we were picked up by our driver and proceeded to start the seven hour drive to a place called Tana Toraja . If you look at a map of Indonesia, Sulawesi is the island that looks like the letter “K” and Toraja is located more or less where the other lines intersect. Toraja is a popular tourist location for witnessing funerals and experiencing the local tribal life-style. This trip was not in any way a beach vacation but
rather strictly cultural. As we left the airport we started driving along the ocean and shortly turned north towards the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking and absolutely stunning! The mountainside and valleys were carved out with rice paddies and the buildings displayed Torajan architecture. The road was narrow at times and super windy, but our driver did a great job navigating those turns. We did feel a little nauseous towards the end after hours of relentless twisting roads and hills. We finally made it to our hotel mid afternoon which marked the end of our first day. We ate, relaxed and met with our local tour guide to go over the itinerary for the next three days. As we were waiting for our meals by the pool, there were a group of teens were hanging out. We could hear them practicing their English and discussing how they should approach us for a photo. They were excited we said yes and first had to put on their sunglasses despite the fact the sun had already gone down. Why not kill time waiting for our meals by taking some photos?
Day Two
· Sunday June 15, 2014 · Makale . Lemo . Bolu . Tongkonan Ke’te Kesu’ . Kambira . Buntu Pune
We were on the road again by 8:30am. Our first stop was Makale, a main city centre in the Torajan area. Lemo, a cliff burial site with displays of wooden dolls from jack fruit trees representing the dead was our second stop. These kind of burial sites are left for the wealthy. It takes roughly two years for one person to chisel the rock away to create a hole large enough for the body to fit inside. With more people it takes about six months to do so. Tombs carved into limestone erodes the bones quickly whereas the granite rock tombs the bones are broken down but then leaks from the graves and essentially drips down the rock face. If you take a close look in some of the photos posted, you’ll notice it. It looks like a white streak in the rock coming down from the wooden door. People leave wills behind to determine how long they would like their body to be preserved for. One of the examples our guide gave us was that his grandfather
didn’t want to be buried until the youngest grandchild had completed their university studies. For what reasons? It was never explained but rather the point he was trying to make was that as a people, they will preserve the body often times for years and years before a burial is summoned. The body is washed and wrapped in pineapple cloth . Our guide continued to say something along the lines of black magic is used to remove the bodily fluids and body smell which is then disposed of far away.
We stopped next at Bolu Market in Rantepao. There are two major livestock markets in Toraja: Bolu and Makale. These markets also happen to be Toraja’s largest. Bolu is primarily the water buffalo market whereas Makale is for pigs. Water buffalo and pigs are extremely important for the people as both animals are a major commodity and requirement for every Torajan ceremony. Our tour guide described the water buffalo as locks and pigs as keys – point being they go hand in hand and you can’t have one without the other. These markets run on a rotation schedule where each market
only opens once every six days. We just happen to luck out and be there in time for the Bolu Market . This rotation system dates back to the 19
th century. Rice, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, and cloves being some of the top crops grown in Toraja are also sold amongst other food items in this market. We learned that the value of these water buffalo decreases as their colouring darkens. For example, an albino buffalo would cost the most , followed by grey toned ones and black buffalos being the cheapest or the most affordable ones to buy. The size of the water buffalo as well as skin patterns influences the value. In the end spotted buffalo costs a little more compared to solid dark coloured ones. The more rare a buffalo is, the more value it has – higher the price. The market centre is an open but very muddy field where everyone gathers with their water buffalo tied to a rope and hope they can make a sale. We walked around a little trying not to get too muddy but being in flip flops, it was inevitable. You had to be careful you
wouldn’t be trampled on! Even though this was a market centered on buffalo, there were lots of pigs being sold too. Man, were those pigs loud and for good reason. They were not cared for in the most humane way which made it hard for us to walk through. There were pigs squealing all around you, snorting at your feet, being tied to bamboo rafts and carried around by men, piglets tossed into bags and others tied down on motorcycles or thrown into back of trucks. The pig section was certainly louder, muddier, and had a few more flies. We continued to walk through the rest of the market – starting with the fish section. We came across fish laying in a shallow basket but still very much breathing. Our guide told us that they can continue breathing like this for up to 3 hours! Talk about a dry land death. We couldn’t quite understand why the fish weren’t already dead or even in a tank of water and sold live that way…we’ve seen both options in our travels, but never this.
Tongkonan Ke’te Kesu’ being our fourth stop of the day was a site full of
the traditional homes with their recognizable architecture. A Tongkonan is a home built on stilts with a distinguished boat-shaped and saddleback roof. The reason for the stilts is because traditionally the live stalk would live below and the family would sleep up top. The distinct roofs symbolize the first settlers to the area who traveled by boat, or the roofs can be said to also resemble water buffalo horns. Originally, only nobles lived in these kinds of homes where as commoners lived in smaller dwellings. Tongkonans are decorated colourfully and carved with patterns. There are four colours that can often be spotted in the artwork, beaded clothing and accessories or even in several tongkonans: red, yellow, black and white. Each colour stands for something different.
Red – Blood, Great Person
Yellow – Glory
Black – Sorrow
White – Bone
The fifth stop was Kambira . All children who pass away before the teething stage are brought to the forest and buried in a hole carved out in a tree. The child is buried as soon as possible. Burials don’t happen in just any tree. These trees
must have white sap. The white sap is significant as it represents that of a mother’s milk. Once the child has been placed inside the hole, a weaving of palm leaves form the door and placed over the hole. The number of stakes hammered in the door to keep it in place on the tree depends on your status. Doors with four stakes only are the commoners, where as six plus stakes indicates more wealth. Really large doors mean twins have been buried. The tree continues to grow as normal and eventually there is another ceremony to celebrate the release of the baby’s spirit. This is done in the year when the child would have turned sixteen years old. This practice continues today, however the tree we saw was a jackfruit tree and the last child buried at this particular site dates back to 1948.
Our final site for the day was at Buntu Pune, another burial site. At this site there were not only rock tombs as seen earlier in the day, but caskets suspended from the cliff. Most of these caskets were shaped as boats to them with the exception of a few
in the shape of a water buffalo. We were told whoever was buried in the water buffalo shaped casket most likely came from a wealthy family and/or was an important person. The casket carvings were symbols for buffalo horns and many of the caskets were breaking apart. Bones, skulls and vertebrae littered the ground and on the caskets that hung below. We also learned that the higher up a casket is hung, the wealthier the person was . There are two main reasons for wanting to be hung as high as possible. The first to be protected by predators and the second rests in the thought of the higher you are left to rest, the closer you are to paradise.
Day Three · Monday June 16, 2014 · Nanggala . Deri . Lempo . Batu Tumonga
Funeral Day. Our guide asked around to inquire if any funerals were happening and he came to hear of one in Nanggala. Again, we woke up early and were on the road by 8:00 for our hour commute to where the funeral was being held. It is customary
and expected for guests to bring an offering of some kind . We however, recommended by our guide gave sugar and cigarettes as our offering to the family. There were rows of temporary buildings to accommodate guests and each section was numbered off. Inside each section members of the grieving family were there to “host” you. We sat with one of the deceased man’s sons and after we shook hands with him and gave our offering we continued to drink tea and eat cookies with him and other members of his family. Funeral celebrations last typically for a week. We witnessed day one of this event. The coffin was placed under a smaller replica of a traditional home. This funeral house if you will had a long piece of red fabric flowing from it. All the female members of the family walked underneath it and behind a small parade of flags. The flags represented the number of buffalo the family had. The funeral house then which was the last thing that passed by in the procession was carried by a number of men. These walks can be as long as 5km. The route they take traces the
deceased person’s childhood steps . The procession ends with the family walking into their reception tent whose entrance is lined with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in traditional attire. Guests continue to present pigs and put them in the holding section of the main area. The MC then shares a detailed obituary while guests are served tea, coffee and more snacks in the temporary buildings. Once the obituary reading is over, bulls are sacrificed. The bulls are led to the middle of the ceremonial grounds, tied to a tree and the throat is slashed with a machete. Blood penetrates everywhere and pools quickly. The animal eventually falls to the ground after jumping around. During our time there we witnessed two slaughters . During a weeklong celebration many animals are sacrificed depending on what the guests brought as offering and how wealthy the family is etc. Many of the Torajan beliefs are accredited to the ways of their ancestors. It is believed that the deceased enters their afterlife on the back of
a slaughtered water buffalo at the funeral ceremony. We left the funeral about mid day and continued on to see a cave burial site and drove to beautiful look out points in Lempo and Batu Tumonga. After taking in the beauty at that final lookout point we made our way down the mountain and back to our hotel.
Day Four · Tuesday June 17, 2014 · Toraja – Makassar
We drove all day back down to the cost and stayed at a hotel in Makassar. We spent our evening at the mall down the street from where we were staying and grabbed some dinner. We relaxed in our room and went to sleep early since we had another super early flight back to Jakarta the following morning.
Day Five · Wednesday June 18, 2014 · Makassar, Sulawesi – Jakarta, Java
Our driver picked us up at 4:30am so we could make our 6:00am flight in time. At the airport we had breakfast at Starbucks before boarding our plane and landing again at 8:30am.
I am glad to have seen the Torajan life-style firsthand and to
have gone on one last trip with my friend. She’s the one I bought the bike from and who is headed home first for a few weeks before moving to Brazil for another teaching position.
That Wednesday night, the same day I came back from my trip, I was invited to a Canadian BBQ. One of the families that decided not to go back invited the rest of us Canadians who hadn’t gone home or off on vacation yetagain for dinner. It was a fabulous night of food, company, laughter and games. It was great to be in a house again compared to the apartment life-style even if it was just for a short time.
I have spent this past week packing up for my upcoming trip to Tanzania, and my belongings for my move too. Slowly people are headed home so it’s been nice to spend their last time and evenings in Indo with them, squeezing in last minute memories. For instance, this past Friday night a group of us went downtown to shop a bit and go out for dinner. We had dessert at this place I have heard
about and always wanted to go to but hadn’t yet. It’s an ice cream place called Ron’s Laboratory. They make your ice cream using liquid nitrogen and give shots of additional flavors . The restaurant is set up like a laboratory and behind the counter the employees wear lab coats and use equipment such as beakers to make your dessert. It was awesome and the ice cream was tasty! One of the workers was walking around with popcorn samples. He had popped the kernels using the liquid nitrogen. It was super cool! The last of my friends moving back left this morning so my focus now is to finish moving, repaint the walls I painted when I moved in and pack the last bit of laundry for my trip to Africa. I leave this coming Friday and I am really looking forward to this trip!!! I leave Friday and arrive Sat. June 28. On Sunday we’ll start our 4 day safari trip, followed by our trek up Mount Kilimanjaro and then cap it off with some time relaxing on the beaches of Zanzibar Island.
I hope the rest of your
summers are off to a great start as well!
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Angela Elliott
non-member comment
Hello
Hi Janice. Wanted to wish you safe travels. It sounds like you've planned an awesome time in Africa. I so enjoy reading your blog. I have one question though. You said the colours used were black, red, white and yellow. However, in a lot of the pictures it looked like there was a lot of orange too. Was that just the colouring of the photos or a mixture of colours? Very interesting culture. I did fast forward through the slaughter scenes though. Kudos to you for taking it all in. Love, Angela