Sulawesi 2020: Tanah Toraja Part 1

Bismillah...

There is currently a staggering increase of Covid 19 cases in west Malaysia and here we go again with another nationwide MCO. My goal for this MCO is not to get fat and stay productive! Lol I haven't been posting much about my travels for the past few years so tonight I think I will start with our one and only trip in 2020 to Makassar. This 1st February marks its one year anniversary! Which essentially means it's been a year since I've been abroad....

I thought of going there out of a whim one evening. I studied the route first before suggesting it to my travel buddies and Alhamdulillah MR said yes to it despite knowing the date that I've chosen is less than two weeks away after her trip to Kyushu. We spent 8 days in Makassar and our route goes like this

KL - Makassar - Rantepao -Ramang-ramang - Makassar

We arrived in Makassar at noon and had plenty of time to go around the capital city before our night bus to Rentapao. We had lunch in a food court that faces the marina and went to the Fort Rotterdam which was just across the food court. There was a family selling snacks and drinks in front of the fort. The husband offered to drive us around town before sending us to the bus stop with a cheaper fare compare to Grab. To our surprise, he sent us not to the bus stop that we intended to go but to a nearby bus stop in which the departure is much earlier. He gave me his number so he could fetch us from the bus stop when we're back in Makassar. But since he was not so trustworthy after all, I decided to ghost him although he did text me many times after that. We end up arriving in Rentapao at 4 am. And the most horrific thing was, Rentapao has many stray dogs that like to bark ferociously at you!

We were afraid to wake the host up so we waited until the sun was about to rise to ring the bell. She felt guilty that we have waited in front of her porch for hours but we were okay. We were extremely happy to find our comfortable beds after the long journey and after facing the fierce intimidating barks. That afternoon Sarah, our host arranged for us a meeting with a senior local guide, Pak Saleh, who is an expert in Torajan history and culture. The best! Hahaha

I think our itinerary was brilliantly arranged and to me it was the way how Pak Saleh explained about the history and culture that have kept us constantly curious and intrigued for what was next. On our first day in Rentapao we went to visit Kete Kesu Village to have a look at one of the oldest traditional houses in Tana Toraja known as Tongkonan. According to our guide, a Tongkonan symbolizes a strong family bond because building Tongkonan requires labourious efforts from all family members. It is also a symbol of family status. The Tongkonan outer walls are adorned with delicate carvings and buffalo horns. The more horns you see outside, that means the higher the homeowner's social status. 

We then went on to visit nearby burial sites. Most of the sites are set on the walls of limestone cliffs. The coffins were either hanging from the side of the cliff or placed inside caves that were carved by highly skilled craftsmen. How high the coffins are positioned is the symbol of the deceased social status. The noble family members are placed in higher places while commoners will rest at the foot of the cliff.  

The picture above is a burial site in Kete Kesu which is estimated to be around 700 years old.

As you can see there are skulls on the coffins. As this is an ancient burial site, most of the bodies have completely decomposed. The bones of members of the same family will be placed in the same coffins and the skulls will be put on top like in the picture

 

This is a burial site in Londa. If you look closely on the left, you can find a white coffin hanging on the side of the cliff.

This is a cave in Londa which is another burial site. You can see there are wooden hearses that were used during the funeral ceremony being left there. 

Those effigies are called Tau tau. Pak Salleh told us this was to eternalize the physical appearance of the deceased as there was no such thing as photography in the past. The noble families' effigies are usually better crafted that details like wrinkles, moles are visible on the effigies. These effigies wear clothes and ornaments owned by the deceased

Our last stop for that day was Bori Kalimbuang where more than a hundred megaliths which are called menhir can be found. This place is where families from the highest classes in Toraja hold their funeral ceremonies and the hut in the above picture is where the slaughtering ritual is performed

These megaliths are stones obtained from the mountains which were then carved to its current shape and later underwent several rituals before they were finally erected here. It was not too crowded here and there was this unexplainable peaceful ambiance to this place. Most of the tourists posed with the structures but MR and I thought that it was kind of inappropriate then. 

The burial site in this area is unique. The coffins are placed inside holes that were carved into huge boulders. We saw one that was still under construction but there was nobody working then. It looked extremely laborious because they are hand carved!

 That' all for now! To be continued...