Tana toraja
ABOUT TANA TORAJA
The Toraja is an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South
Sulawesi, Indonesia.
The
word Toraja comes
from
the Buginese
language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". There is another theory
said that Tana Toraja comes from 2 words, Tana means land and Toraja consists of
2 words Tau and Maraja, Tau means people and Maraja means Nobility, so Tana
Toraja means the land of nobility people. Based on the result of archaeological,
The ancestor of Torajan is from Yunan, Tongkin Bay, China.
Tana Toraja is centrally placed in Sulawesi Island and it is 300 km far north
from Makassar. You can go there by bus for about 8-10 hours or you can go there
by an airplane. It is really cheap for to go to Tana Toraja. The local government of
Tana Toraja seat is in Makale, while the center of Toraja culture is in Rantepao. But
now, Tana Toraja has been divided to two regencies that consist of Tana Toraja
with its capital at Makale and North Toraja with its capital at Rantepao. Tana
Toraja has been well-known as the second tourist destination after Bali by the
Ministry of Tourism.
TRADITIONAL COSTUMES
- Men Traditional Costume
Men traditional costume that is famous in Tana Toraja is Seppa Tallung
Buku, it is a short trousers that up to knees. This kind of costume is
completed with some accessories like, kandaure, lipa, gayang and many
other. Usually, men also carry a spear or a machete.
- Woman traditional costume
Woman traditional costume in Tana Toraja is Pokko. Pokko is a short
sleeves. Yellow, red, and white are the most combined colors for Tana Toraja
traditional costumes.
- Kandore Traditional Costume
Kandore traditional costume is Tana Toraja traditional costume that
decorated with beads to decorate chest, bracelet, headband and belt.
TRADITIONAL HOUSE
The word 'Tongkonan' is derived from the Toraja word tongkon means to
sit. Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals which are
associated with the tongkonan have important expressions of Torajans spiritual
life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because
symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestor, for life and future
kind. Every Tongkonan always face to the north because their ancestor comes from
the north and they believe that when Torajan die, their spirit will also go to the
north where their ancestor comes from.
In front of tongkonan there is rice barn, called 'Alang'. Poles are made of
palm trunk ('Bangah') that is smooth, so the mice can not go up into the barn. In
front of the barn there are variety of carvings, including a picture of chicken and
sun, a symbol to resolve the matter.
Tongkonan is used for residential, social activities, ceremonies, and the
foster family. The interior is divided into three sections: northern, central, and
southern. Room in the north is called 'tangalok', served as a living room, where
children sleep, also a place to put offerings. The room in the center is called 'Sali',
served as a dining room, a place for family gatherings, a place where laying the
dead, and also a kitchen. The room in the south is called 'sumbung', a room for the
head of the family. This room is also considered as a source of diseases.
There are three types of Tongkonan :
1. Tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority and used as the
center of government.
2. Tongkonan pekamberan, which belongs to the family group members, who
have some authorities in local traditions, known as adat.
3. Tongkonan batu, which belongs to the ordinary family members.
ORNAMENT IN TONGKONAN
Gables and the outside walls of tongkonan (im kool) are often decorated by
red, black, and yellow colored wood, with patterns carved into it. For nobility,
there are some carvings on Tongkonan wall, representing prosperities and fertilies
with the individual designs representing how important a particular family is.
Other houses have no carvings or paintings, their surfaces are simply bare weatherworn timbers.
Circular patterns represent sun, the symbol of power. Golden kris or daggers
pattern symbolizes wealthy. Geometric spiralling designs and patterns, including
buffaloes head represent prosperities and ritual sacrifice. Cockerels are
represented in the colours of red, white, yellow and black colors which symbolize
the indigenous of Toraja religion the Aluk To Dolo (the Way of the Ancestors).
Black symbolizes death and darkness, yellow means Gods blessing and power,
white is the colour of flesh and bone symbolizes purity, and red, the colour of
blood symbolizes human life. The pigments are sourced from common materials;
black is from soot; white is from lime; both red and yellow are from the nature;
and tuak (palm wine) is used to strengthen the colors.
Water is also a common theme in designing and representing life, fertility
and prolific rice fields. Buffaloes horns are hung in a vertical array on the front
gable are a sign of prestige and customarily used to signify the wealth of the
household. Furthermore, a buffalo head made from painted wood but crowned
with real horns, is mounted on the facades.
TRADITIONAL CEREMONY
- Wedding Ceremony
Funerals are by far the most important cultural ceremony in Tana Toraja;
however weddings are still a significant affair. The wedding ceremony in
Tana Toraja is called as Rampanan Kapa. In Toraja, anyone is welcomed to
attend the ceremony, so they are always crowded. The marriage is not
authorized by the religious people, but it is carried by the culture
government, which they called Ada , and it is organized by the regulation
from the culture teachings which provided by Aluk Rampanan Kapa
(culture organization in Tana Toraja).
The marriage between couples in Tana Toraja must be approved by their
parents and families. For the couples who break the rules, may no longer
lives in the families, and even in Tana Toraja. There are three levels of the
stage that must be done before the wedding ceremony.
1. Rompo Bobo Bonang
This stage is done only in one days, where the groom and his family
visit the brides family house and ask for the permission for the
marriage. They will stay until night and have dinner, and the groom
will stay at the brides house for one night. After this first stage, they
officially become couple and waiting for the reception of the wedding.
2. Rompo Karo Eng
This stage is a bit longer than the previous stage, that the grooms
family have to deliver the leaf of betel to the brides family house as a
sign of proposal. After they have been accepted by the brides family,
then they will proceed to have the same step as the previous stage.
3. Rompo Allo
This stage is quite complicated and usually done by the high class,
exclusive person in Tana Toraja. This stage also required a lot of
money and time. The first step is there will be an investigation to
know the status of couples, and the grooms family firstly will deliver
the leaf of betel, then in the evening the brides family will be
welcoming the grooms family with betel nut. They will stay until
night and the groom will stay until the next day.
In the day of wedding ceremony, the bride and the groom will be
dressed in their traditional costumes, which Kappa for the bride and Seppa
Talung Buku for the groom and decorated with a lot of accessories. First, the
bride will be picked up by the groom where headed by the car called
Pandoloan. After that, they will go to church for being authorized by
religion (most Torajan are Christians), then they will head toward the
location of the wedding party.
On the way to the location of the party, they will be headed by people
who carry Doke (kind of spear), and few girls and boys who wear the
traditional clothes of Tana Toraja. The couple will have seat on the wedding
stage which is decorated elaborately. Torajans who attend wedding party
bring palm wine to show the courteous behavior for the family, but it will
end up drunk by themselves.
There are a lot of traditional rules in a wedding ceremony for the
couple, family and even Torajan themselves. And that makes Toraja as a
huge tribes that got a bold culture blood in their veins.
- Funeral Rites
During their lives, the Torajans work extremely hard to accumulate
wealth. But unlike other societies, the Torajans do not save their money to
give themselves a good life, rather they save for a good send off in death.
In fact, it is the extravagance of the funeral, not the wedding, which marks
a familys status.
Funeral ceremonies are incredibly important to the Torajans and are
often held weeks, months, or even years after the death of a person to give
the family of the deceased time to raise enough money for expenses a body
is not buried until the funds have been raised. Many people go deeply into
debt in order to hold a funeral ceremony and it is not uncommon for a young
man, afraid of being burdened by debt, to postpone or cancel his marriage if
a grandparent of the girl he loves is old enough to die soon. The funerals are
raucous affairs involving the whole village and traditionally last for days or
even weeks. Specifically, a funeral reinforces the eternal bond between the
living and the dead.
When a Torajan dies, family members of the deceased are required to
hold a series of funeral ceremonies, known as Rambu Solo, over many days.
During this time, the corpse is not buried but is embalmed and stored in a
traditional house under the same roof with his or her family. Until the
funeral ceremonies are completed, the person is not considered to be truly
dead but merely suffering an illness. The dead relative is referred to simple
as a person who is sick or the one who is asleep. Remarkably, this could
even last several years after death, depending on how long it takes the family
to raise money. During this time, the deceased family member is
symbolically fed, cared for and taken out, and is very much a part of their
relatives lives.
Their ceremony begins when funeral visitors attend a buffaloslaughtering field. Family members are required to slaughter buffaloes and
pigs as they believe that the spirit of the deceased will live peacefully
thereafter, all of the sacrificed animal will become the transportation to bring
the spirit to the peaceful place. Before being sacrificed according to a
strictly defined procedure, the animals take part in trials of strength known
as silaga tedong.
After the sacrifice, the meat is distributed to the funeral visitors in
accordance with visitors' positions in the community, and the spirit of the
deceased is also entitled to a portion of meat, known locally as Aluk Todolo.
The heads of the buffaloes are returned to what is locally known as puya (a
site for the soul or spirit of the dead person) and their horns placed in front
of the house of the kin. The more horns that decorate the front of the house,
the higher the status of the deceased.
The body is not buried until the eleventh day of the ceremony,
although they are not technically buried the final resting place is in a cave
up on the cliff. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the
village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its
journey to the land of souls.
A wood-carved effigy called tau tau, carved with the likeness of the
dead person is then placed in the balcony of the tomb to represent the dead
and watch over their remains. Unfortunately, so many tau tau effigies have
been stolen to be sold to tourists that people have started to keep them in
their homes.
In one region, known as Kete kesu, the dead are not placed in cliffdug graves, but in wooden caskets hanging from the side of cliffs. The
coffins are beautifully decorated with geometrical shapes, but over time the
wood begins to rot and the bleached bones of the deceased often become
exposed.
The smallest of the Toraja burial grounds are the Baby Trees where
the tribes young are placed. If a child dies before he has started teething, the
baby is wrapped in cloth and placed inside a hollowed out space within the
trunk of a growing tree, and covered over with a palm fibre door. The belief
is that as the tree begins to heal, the childs essence will become part of the
tree. Dozens of babies may be interred within a single tree.
- Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses
Every year in August, a ritual called MaNene (The Ceremony of
Cleaning Corpses) takes place in which the bodies of the deceased are
exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. Damaged
boxes are fixed or replaced. The mummies are then walked around the
village by following a path of straight lines. Following these straight lines is
maybe the most important part of the ceremony. According to the myth,
these lines are connected with Hyang, a spiritual entity with supernatural
power. As this entity only move in straight lines, the soul of the deceased
body must follow the path of Hyang.This ritual must not be disturbed
because if anybody talk to the mummies or touch the mummies while it is
walking, people believe that the mummies will come and spook that person.
According to the ancient Torajan belief system, the spirit of a dead
person must return to his village of origin. So if a person died on a journey,
the family would go to the place of death and accompany the deceased back
home by walking them back to the village. In the past, people were
frightened to journey far, in case they died while they were away and were
unable to return to their village.
TRADITIONAL ATTRACTION
1. SISEMBA
Sisemba is a tradition coming from Tana Toraja where the people do a
mass kick fighting. Sisemba is held for celebrating the harvest season and
also as a prerequisite for the next successful harvest. In Sisemba, men
gathered from different villages making a group consists of 2 members or
more, holding hands, and trying to knock down the opponents from other
directions and positions by kicking the opponents feet. Although this
tradition sounds dangerous and anarchistic, there is a leader who has an
authority to separate and control them if the ritual become out of the control
so the risk of injured can be decreased. There are rules in this ritual, such as
if the opponents who have already fallen down to the ground can not be
attacked, the participants are also suggested not to held a grudge towards
others. The tradition is an expression of gratitude for the crops and is based
on faith that the event will keep them enthusiastic for the work ahead to get
the next plentiful crops. Without performing Sisemba, people of Tana Toraja
believe that there will be harvest failure. This ritual can be practiced from
children to adult.
2. PA SILAGA TEDONG
Pa Silaga Tedong is a ritual where a lot of buffaloes fight each other. It
is a part of Torajans funeral ceremony, Rambu Solo. For Torajan, it is
believed that the buffalo which is sacrificed acts as a transportation for the
spirit of the deceased to reach Nirvana . Buffalo is also used to indicate the
social status of the family. More buffaloes which are sacrificed for the
funeral ceremony means more wealthy the family is. For Torajan, buffalo is
sacred because it is the most valuable oblation compare to pig and chicken.
Before the funeral ceremony is begun, dozens of buffaloes are gathered in a
field and being competed each other to show which one the strongest is. A
buffalo is stated lost when it runs out from the field. The winner will be
worth with a fantastic price about hundreds million until billions rupiah and
the loser will be sacrificed and slaughtered for the funeral ceremony.
Bufalloes which are used for this ritual are not ordinary bufalloes, but only 3
types of buffaloes are used, such as albino buffalo, water buffalo, and the
most expensive one which could reach billions rupiah, tedong saleko.
Tedong saleko is only found in Tana Toraja. It has white / pinkish skin with
black spots, ivory horns and white eyes.
NEW DESTINATION
GIANT JESUS CHRIST STATUE
There is a new awesome destination for you who want to visit Tana Toraja
called Giant Jesus Christ Statue. It is located in Burake Hill about 3,3 km from
Makale, Capital City of Tana Toraja. It can be reached by car about 10-15 minutes.
If we talk about Giant Jesus Christ Statue, one thing come to your mind is Giant
Jesus Christ Statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, right? There is one in Tana Toraja.
One thing that makes Giant Jesus Christ Statue so special is its height.
This statue has height about 40 metres, is taller than the statue in Brazil
which is only 38 metres height. It means Giant Jesus Christ Statue in Tana Toraja is
the tallest God statue in the world. It was made by bronze in Jogjakarta and
brought to Tana Toraja in pieces then set there. It had been made since May 2015
and was planned to be declared on August 2015. It cost about 30 billion rupiah to
make the statue. Burake Hill itself is located at 1,100 metres above the sea level.
So, it is a perfect place to enjoy the amazing view of Tana Toraja with very fresh
air.
