Tana Toraja

Tana Toraja, the “Land of The Heavenly Kings”, lies about 328 km north of Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi Province,in the central highlands of South Sulawesi. A picturesque mountainous region that is the home of to an indigenous group known as the Torajans.

The land of the Toraja people is famous for their spectacular burial rites. After a person’s death, the body is kept — often for several years — while money is saved to pay for the actual funeral ceremony, known as tomate. During the festival, which may last up to a week, ritual dances and buffalo fights are held, and buffaloes and pigs are slaughtered to ferry the soul of the deceased to the afterlife (puya). The deceased is then finally buried either in a small cave, often with a tau-tau effigy placed in front, inside a hollow tree or even left exposed to the elements in a bamboo frame hanging from a cliff.

Tana Toraja has unique culture set in stunning scenery if you venture away from the main roads you will find soon a way of life that has not changed much in the last 100 years.

Traditional Tongkonan houses with intricately decorated houses with upward-sloping roofs were the center of all religion before the coming of missionaries; from storing the harvest in the carved rice barns, “alang”, to slaughtering sacred water buffaloes at a week or more-funeral ceremonies. Tana Toraja’s beauty is also reflected in its people. Although they are devoutly Christian (there are small number of Muslims especially in the southern area), they combine this religious belief with magic and mysticism, and welcome visitors to witness their ceremonies.

At 300 to 2,880 metres above sea level, Tana Toraja combines tropical lushness with alpine freshness, with daily temperatures between 16 degrees Celsius to 28 degrees Celsius. Bright green rice terraces, tall limestone outcrops and bamboo graves are set against a backdrop of blue misty mountains.