It seems that for Vietnamese tourists, Sulawesi is still quite strange because we often think that Indonesia only has Bali, Lombok, Bromo or Yogya. In fact, this country of thousands of islands owns many unique lands that attract tourists. Even Indonesians dream of setting foot on strange lands in their vast country. Sulawesi, the fourth largest island in Indonesia and eleventh in the world, is home to the Tana Toraja people who still preserve creepy customs from hundreds of years ago in the mysterious mountains of South Sulawesi.
Located in the west of Broneo Island, Sulawesi has a very special shape. I saw that they stylized the letter “K” in Makassar with the shape of this island. Makassar, the largest city, is the gateway for tourists to set foot to explore the island. When learning about the island, in addition to the beaches, the small, pristine islands nestled in the beautiful bays of Sulawesi, this island contains unique stories about culture.
This trip of mine was also a strange trip. I suddenly started the journey, was introduced to the Hendri family in Sulawesi by a friend in Vietnam, and only thought of stopping by Makassar to spend a day with them, but then I was swept away by their strange hospitality and spent nearly two weeks wandering with them on this island and discovering Sulawesi like a true Indonesian.
Unique bamboo architecture
The road to Rantapao city, the gateway to Tana Toraja, is very beautiful thanks to the government's investment in infrastructure in recent years. After about 100 km of flat coastal roads, the remaining 200 km are winding mountain passes, but because we started at night, the traffic density was also lighter. We arrived in Rantapao at 3 am after stopping at roadside stalls several times. The early morning temperature in the highland town is quite cool and pleasant in the summer. We immediately found a bedroom in the town center to regain strength for the journey of discovery ahead.
When the sky was already bright, Hendri called a Taraja man to ask him to take him to the unique villages in Tana Torajan. Hendri said that he had been a business partner for more than ten years. At that time, Hendri had to go to Rantepao twice a week so he was quite familiar with this land, but of course as a pure businessman. Therefore, he introduced his local friend to provide me with complete information.
Sulawesi has six provinces, with South Sulawesi being the most densely populated, home to the modern city of Makassar and the Toraja highlands. The Toraja are an indigenous ethnic minority with an estimated population of 1.1 million, of whom 450,000 live in the Tana Toraja region. Most are Protestant, some are Muslim, and the remainder practice an animist religion known locally as Aluk, which means road.
Tana Toraja has many traditional villages with roofs like boats gliding on the sea, which are locally called Tongkonan. Tongkonan are intricately designed like a stilt house with four large pillars underneath, usually taken from giant bamboo trees. A small wooden staircase leads up to the floor. The house space is quite cozy and is divided into 3 rooms, the front room is for children, the middle room with the fireplace is the common living space for the whole family, the back room is for parents or grandparents. Depending on the size of the family, the Tongkonan has a suitable area.
The most characteristic of the stilt house is the curved roof, which is elaborately decorated with elaborate carvings and patterns. In front of it is hung a black buffalo head, while a few others hang an albino buffalo head with sharp horns. In front of the house is a pole with buffalo horns. A house with many buffalo horns shows that the family is rich or has a high status in the village. The houses are often built in two rows facing the common yard in the middle to perform all the rituals of Aluktodolo, a religion of the indigenous people before the spread of existing religions. A Toraja person also told us that the origin of the Toraja people comes from Vietnam when their ancestors migrated to this island by boat in the past. I don't know how much to explain or believe this, but I still feel touched when I learn more interesting information related to the Vietnamese people in the past.
I was led to a Toraja house that was still under construction and was the priest of a small church next door. The majority of the Tarajo people were Protestant, so every village had a church for worship. Like the people in this land, the priest's house grew some industrial crops such as coffee, cocoa, cloves, and raised some livestock and poultry for self-sufficiency. We were treated to charcoal-grilled mountain chicken and stir-fried chayote with intestines in a spicy chili sauce. I was the only one using a spoon; most people used their right hand to pick up their food. That said, cultures are diverse and intermingled, as not only Muslims use their hands when eating.
Today, Rantepao has Tongkonan brick houses, here and there are modern civil or religious works mixed in with the green of the mountains and forests. Daily prayers are broadcast from high-power speakers, but the Tana Taraja people are still leisurely and peaceful with their way of life. They still grow crops, raise livestock, still pray for peace, still live with their loved ones after they have passed away... as has existed for hundreds of years in this mysterious land on the island of Sulawesi.
The Land of the Spirits
According to Hendri’s friend, the Toraja people’s religious culture is heavily influenced by animism, meaning they believe that all things in the world – from animals, plants, minerals to natural phenomena such as lightning, storms, earthquakes – are inhabited by spirits. Therefore, when a person dies, they hold a funeral with many elaborate rituals.
When a Toraja person dies, their relatives must perform a series of funeral rites over several days. However, most Toraja families do not have enough money to perform all the funeral rites immediately, so they have to wait for weeks, months, or even years. Some families wait until the end of the harvest season. The Toraja rarely bury their dead in the ground, but place them in caves, crevices, or hollows in the mountains, or place them in wooden coffins and hang them on high cliffs. They spend a lot of time and money to complete the resting place of their dead. They may embalm the body and place it in a room in their own house.
Before the funeral rites are over, the corpse is considered to be sick, not dead. As soon as the family has enough money, the funeral rites begin. They kill buffalo, horses, pigs and dance, while boys use long bamboo tubes to catch the blood from the animals killed by the adults. The higher the status of the deceased, the larger the number of buffaloes used for the funeral. In some funerals of rich or powerful people in the village, the head of the family can slaughter up to several dozen buffaloes and several hundred pigs. Many wealthy families even sacrifice rare albino buffaloes, worth up to 500 million Rupiah. After the sacrifice, the head of the family will divide the meat among the funeral guests.
A sad news that Hendri's friend told me, exactly one month ago, his family held a funeral for his mother-in-law. When the crowd placed the coffin on a bamboo ladder, which was built from the ground to a scaffold more than 10 meters high. When reaching the top of the scaffold, the crowd shouted to gain strength to pull the coffin up the last step, the bamboo ladder collapsed. The coffin and the crowd fell down and crushed the family's nephew to death. Hendri showed me the clip on his phone to see the horror of that accident.
I was led to a cave area where many wooden coffins of the Taraja people were placed on bamboo frames hanging close to the wall halfway up the mountain. Hendri hired a local with a large lantern to lead us inside the cave. When they saw strangers entering the cave, flocks of bats started to chirp loudly. Outside the cave entrance, there were many stone niches which were the tombs of the Toraja people. One of the niches was very new with wreaths marking the date of death about three weeks ago. The rocks inside the cave were countless human skulls placed on top. The rotten coffins had their lids opened so I could clearly see the mummies inside. They were embalmed with aromatic cigarettes to preserve the bodies. The local friend showed me two human skulls placed next to each other and said that these were a couple of lovers who committed suicide more than ten years ago. They loved each other but could not be together because of the girl's family's opposition. So they hanged themselves and the locals put their bodies in this cave.
The most sacred place in Tana Toraja that Hendri told me I had to visit was the giant Lemo stone, which is also the largest mass grave of many rich indigenous people. Hendri said that not everyone can afford to reserve a small space about 1 meter high, 2 meters deep and 8 inches wide to bury their loved ones when they pass on to the other world. The family of the deceased decorated the coffin quite elaborately, but due to the effects of time, the wood gradually rotted, causing the bones of the deceased to no longer be in their original position.
For babies who die before their teeth grow, the Toraja hollow out the trunk of a tree and place the body inside. They weave palm leaves to form a shield around the hollow. Over time, the tree continues to grow and the hollows gradually disappear. Each tree can become the resting place of dozens of children. When entering a cave or forest, I mumble a prayer to ask permission from the spirits, considering it a private ritual to show respect to the “owner” before visiting them.
It can be said that never before, nowhere has the gap between the dead and the living been as small as in the Tana Toraja region.
MORE INFORMATION
Visa:Vietnamese tourists to Indonesia are exempt from visas.
Trip: To get to Makassar, visitors must fly through three stops, from Ho Chi Minh City (Hanoi) to Kuala Lumpur and then transit in Surabaya. There are also transit airports to the island from other cities such as Jakarta, Bali... Makassar is increasingly attracting domestic tourists so flights will gradually increase in the future.
Time: Toraja is in the UTC + 8 time zone, so it is one hour ahead of Vietnam. April is a good time to visit Sulawesi because of its pleasant temperature and little rain. July is quite hot but very attractive to tourists because this is the time when a series of traditional local festivals take place (especially the funeral season). From October to December, the Sulawesi sea area is often affected by tropical storms.
Accommodation:Cost for backpackers is from 180,000 - 200,000 VND/night or staying at local people's houses.
Cuisine: You should go to the famous 20-year-old restaurant Warung Pong Buri in the center of Rantepao town, which prepares many local Tarajo dishes, including the unique black bean stewed eel and grilled wild boar with perilla leaves in bamboo tubes.
Means of transport
- Airplane: Tana Toraja has a small airport and only one flight a week on Mondays but the flight is often cancelled due to low passenger numbers or bad weather conditions. Currently, the government has invested in the new Buntukunik Airport to be able to transport tourists to Tana Toraja by ATR 72 daily.
- Buses are a popular means of transport for tourists and locals. Tana Toraja is 300 km from Makassar, so it will take about 8 hours to travel. You should use the night bus route to save time and money. There are 2 high-quality bus companies from Makassar to Rantepao every day, Bingtang Prima and Litha & Co, with fares of about 200,000 Rp/trip. You can use minibuses running in the Rantepao area, which cost about 2,000 Rp for short trips of a few kilometers.
- Taxi or car rental: You can rent a taxi or rent a car for the Tana Toraja tour. The rental cost is from 850,000 - 1,200,000 Rp/trip from Makassar to Rantepao. You can also negotiate with the driver going in the direction of Rantepao to save costs or rent a car for about 550,000 Rp/day.
- You can also rent a motorbike for about 80,000 - 100,000 Rp/day
Sightseeing:Tana Toraja has traditional villages, caves, and beautiful rice terraces. However, there are not many signs in Tana Toraja to get to remote villages or participate in festivals, so you should hire a local guide.
Places not to be missed in the journey to explore Tana Toraja include: Gunung Sesean hill overlooking the highland town of Rantepao, Lemo giant stone tombs for Toraja burials, Londa burial caves, Bori Parinding ceremonial area, Ke'te Kesu' traditional village, Bolu Market cattle market, Kambira with children's graves on trees, participating in funeral rituals in a traditional village in Tana Toraja
Expense:about 17 million VND for a 12-day trip, including round-trip airfare, meals, transportation, entrance tickets and souvenirs.
