Indonesia and World Tourism News

Life and Death in Torajaland, Sulawesi

LIZ PRICE gets an unexpected invitation to witness a Torajan funeral rite in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and finds their culture and traditions very much alive. In Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, I was chatting to a local man when he asked me to the funeral of his mother. Taken aback by this offer, as normally funerals are private matters reserved for family and friends, I politely refused. Yet he insisted, saying funerals are happy occassions and it would be an honour that I attend. I was in Torajaland, the centre of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The Torajan population are of Malay origin and came to Sulawesi many centuries ago settling around the town of Rantepao in what is now known at Tana Toraja. Although Islam arrived in Sulawesi in the early 17th century, the people still hold onto some beliefs of their forefathers.

What I knew of the funerary rites was limited other than they can last for several years. When a person dies, the body is placed in the back room of the house and is left there until enough money can be saved to give a decent ceremony so that the deceased can go to the next world. During this time, the deceased is considered to be sleeping and family members regularly attend to offer food and drink. The soul can only go on to the afterworld when the death ritual has been enacted. When it is time for the funeral, there is a procession around the villages so the departed can bid farewell to the living. Everyone gathers at the site for the celebrations, where bamboo pavilions have been erected.

The “Buffalo” in Toraja Culture

The first thing noticeable were the slaughtered buffalo lying in the centre of the pavilions. While startling from a western viewpoint, this is an important part of the funeral ceremony. As the relatives believe that the souls of animals follow the master to the next life, this accounts for the requirement of animal sacrifices at the local requiems. A strong buffalo is needed to carry the soul of the master on the journey to the afterworld.

In Torajaland the buffalo has long been the symbol of wealth and power. The more important the dead person, the more buffalo are slaughtered. In an attempt to impress, the family will slaughter as many buffalo as possible, and quite often this can cause financial ruin. In an attempt to end the practice, the Indonesian government has imposed a tax on each beast killed. As well, one buffalo has to be given to the tax collectors, and one to the church.

Funeral Rites

On the first day, the buffalo are slaughtered in the field. This is considered to be the moment of death of the “sleeping” person. I was only too glad that the beasts had already been killed. The carcasses were laid on the ground and the heads had been placed in a line. Nine heads were displayed. This meant the family had saved up a large portion of their income. Each buffalo cost up to two million rupiah (approx. $400 CDN).

The departed are said to preside over the ceremony and therefore the coffin is situated on a high platform constructed around the house at one end of the field. This was actually right next to the hut where I was sitting. The coffin and trimmings were decorated in bright red material. The children from the family were standing near me, each one dressed in their traditional attire.

The guests began to file in, forming a procession, firstly going past the tax tables. Each group of guests carried offerings tied to a bamboo pole: live animals such as pigs, food or drink. The pigs were killed out of sight at the back of the houses. Each group of adults were led in by the children of the deceased, and the visitors were taken to another hut for tea and cigarettes. I had actually taken a box of cigarettes as my contribution. This procession went on all morning. I was given some local palm wine, and drunk it out of a long piece of bamboo before lunch. This was rice on a banana leaf, with some of the barbecued meat, washed down with more tuak.

After lunch, The remaining buffalo carcasses were beginning to smell having been lying in the hot sun. Each carcass was skinned and butchered, and meat was being auctioned off, and the people were leaving with their share of meat tied to a piece of string. These procedures continue for anything from one to seven days. For entertainment there are buffalo, cock, and kick fighting.

Burial Day

The following day would be the actual burial and the body was being put in the family crypt in a stone grave. There are three methods of burial for the Torajan people. The coffin, plus any possessions which will be needed in the afterlife are placed either in a cave grave, a stone grave or a hanging grave.

There are many caves in the surrounding limestone hills, and for most people the coffin is placed just inside the cave entrance. The wealthy often have a stone grave carved out of the rocky cliff. This costs a considerable amount as it takes a specialist many months to chisel out the tomb. In some cases the hole can be large enough to accommodate the whole family. Sometimes the entrance is sealed with a metal or wooden gate, otherwise it is left open.

A carved effigy of the deceased is made and placed on the wooden balcony built on the rock face. These statue or tau tau look down over the land, and offerings are put in their outstretched hands. The tau tau are one of the most photographed sights in Sulawesi, and pictures appear in all the guidebooks. Unfortunately, theft of the statues by souvenir and antique collectors has become a major problem.

The third burial method is to hang the coffin by ropes and suspend it from the cliff face. This is known as a hanging grave. After some years the ropes inevitably rot and the coffin falls to the ground below. Coffins of babies and children are hung from trees.

All these types of burial mean that valuable farming land is not wasted by space taken up for cemeteries. It is a very scenic area with green valleys and rice paddies dominated by limestone hills. But it is the Torajan houses which provide a spectacular setting in this serene landscape.

The wooden houses are built on high stilts, and have large curved roofs. These roofs are said to resemble ships or buffalo horns: ships to represent the means of transport by which the settlers arrived, and horns because the buffalo is an important animal linking man to his ancestors. All the houses point north, the direction from which the settlers came. Opposite the houses are smaller replicas which are used as rice barns. Both the houses and rice barns are intricately carved, and are further decorated with buffalo horns. It is good to see that these Torajan people have not lost their culture but still practice it today.

Source : wildasia.net

Add comment February 26th, 2007

Bantimurung - Butterflies and Blue Pools

In Indonesian language, Bantimurung means “getting rid of sadness.” Befitting its name, this slice of paradise in Sulawesi boasts intriguing caves, cascading falls and exotic butterflies. Cave specialist LIZ PRICE revels on her little discovery.

The pool was such a milky turquoise colour that it didn’t seem real. It reminded me of the blue school uniforms worn in Malaysia, although was slightly paler in colour, as if mixed with milk. The water flowed out of the pool like a blue ribbon, through a wooded gorge and then plunged 15m down the Bantimurung falls. Once it reached the bottom of the waterfall it had lost its blue colour. Unfortunately it was dry season so there wasn’t much water, and the rocks supporting the waterfall were hardly covered. The bottom of the fall was a sea of people; it was a Sunday and this area is very popular with Indonesian day- trippers.

About 45 km north of Ujung Pandang the Bantimurung waterfalls are set amid lushly vegetated limestone cliffs. Bantimurung is crowded with Indonesians on weekends and holidays, and at other times it’s a wonderful retreat from the congestion of Ujung Pandang. Ujung Pandang (Makassar) is the capital of Sulawesi, the octopus-shaped island of Indonesia. To get to Bantimurung from the city, we took a bus for Maros. We were a group of cavers from England, and the youngest of our party, a fair- skinned lad, attracted the attention of several local girls on the bus. They all giggled and urged each other to talk to our friend, much to his embarrassment. We found all the Sulawesi people to be very friendly. They are a mix of Makassarese and Bugis Muslims, and Christian Minahasans.

Before the bus reached Maros, it stopped, and we were told to get off. We were a bit puzzled and were wondering what was happening, then someone shouted at a microlet driver. We were bundled onto this, and without saying anything, we were taken to Bantimurung Waterfall Park. I suppose it was obvious to the locals where we wanted to go. The road passed under a giant concrete monkey, which was waving with one hand and scratching its head with the other. Maybe it couldn’t decide whether to welcome us or not. Apparently this 6m tall statue is of a lutung, which is a black, long-tailed leaf monkey indigenous to Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

The road actually ended at the park, so we paid the driver, and then entered the park, paying a small admission fee. That was when we realised we had made a mistake by coming at a weekend, as there were people everywhere. We headed straight for Gua Mimpi, or Dreaming Cave. Bantimurung lies at the southern end of a limestone outcrop which houses a series of caves and rock shelters. There are many caves, but Gua Mimpi is one of the best, and is equipped as a tourist cave.

We followed the signboards, crossed the river and walked around a section of the hillside and then up a series of concrete steps which led to the main entrance of the cave. The cave consists of one long passage, maybe 500m long, and is full of stalactites and stalagmites. Some are white in colour, others varying shades of cream, yellow and brown. In addition some look like large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. There is a wooden plank walk all the way through the cave, so presumably a river covers the floor in the wet season.

We came out at the smaller backdoor and being curious, decided to look round. We ended up scrambling over a lot of bamboo, and then found a small track which led to another cave. This cave wasn’t very extensive, so we turned round and battled with the bamboo, before re-entering Gua Mimpi. We walked back through the cave to the main entrance. As we emerged, several Indonesians asked to have their photo taken with us. I suppose they don’t get too many European visitors to this area. To the left of this entrance is another cave, Gua Istana Toakala. There was no plank walk in this cave, but we went in, and again it had some great stalagmite formations. The cave ended in a stal blockage. Presumably these two caves were once part of the same system.

We went back down to the river and followed the right bank up to the waterfall. Several times we were stopped and had to have our photo taken with the locals. Steep steps lead up the side of the tufa waterfall and onto the gorge with the blue river. It reminded me of the Bei Shui river which flows through the Jiuzhaigou Nature Park in Sichuan province in southern China. It must be the tufa which gives the milky blue colour.

The pool looked inviting but no one was in the water. All the water was resurging from a cave. We were curious so went in to have a look and found a dry passage above the water. However the cave was very short and we soon popped out on the other side. There was another beautiful blue pool, with the water seeming to come out of yet another cave.

We made our way back downstream, and followed some steps which led up to another cave. Here some enterprising men had lanterns for hire so we went in to the cave, but it was quite short and nowhere near as nice as the two caves we had explored earlier.

The Bantimurung Nature Reserve covers 1000 ha. There are many other caves in these cliffs but apart from the scenery the area is also famous for its beautiful butterflies. The naturalist Alfred Wallace collected specimens here in the mid 1800’s. Among the butterflies that he caught was the Papilo Androcles, one of the rarest and biggest, with a tail like a swallow. Today entomologists still come here to look at the butterflies and other insects. It is certainly a beautiful area, with white falls and bright butterflies. Nowadays Bantimurung is a protected area, but there are still kids besieging visitors with beautifully coloured butterflies as souvenirs. The best time to see living butterflies is when the sun appears after a rain shower. They form a riot of colour as they fly from one shrub to another.

According to a tourist leaflet, Bantimurung means a place for getting rid of sadness (membanting kemurungan). It would be difficult to be sad in such a beautiful place.

Access to the park:
Take the bus to Maros from Sentral station in Ujung Pandang (1 hr). From Maros take a minibus to Bantimurung (0.5 hr.).

Source : wildasia.net

Add comment February 26th, 2007