The Culture of Tana Toraja

Toraja is a name of a tribe in the mountainous northern region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Toraja comes from the Bugis language that is to Riaja, which means people who inhabit the land above / plateau. Interest is still thick with indigenous animism is attracting tourists, especially on customary ritual, architecture of the building, wood carvings and beautiful natural scenery.

One of the traditional rituals that attract enough attention from the people Toraja funeral or burial of the bodies. A funeral is known as the Rambu Solo'. Ceremony Rambu Solo' is a very festive tradition, because it
requires several days to celebrate, even need to take weeks if the death of the nobility. Burial place is quite unique, namely in the rock cliffs. According to public confidence in Toraja (Aluk To Dolo) the higher the burial place of one's soul more quickly get to heaven.

This burial process has several stages, departure corpse from the funeral home to a traditional house, then into a field called Rante. All these stages do not forget along with the slaughter of buffalo as an offering in
a way typical Toraja, namely using a machete to slaughter buffalo in one blow. After experiencing various stages of the corpse before burial. There are three different ways according to the Toraja funeral is a funeral in a coffin that is stored in caves, tombs carved using stone coffin or casket which hung on the front of the rock cliffs adorned with carvings and stone sculptures.

In addition to the funeral procession, the community has also Toraja traditional house architecture which is very charming. The traditional house called Tongkonan. The house is made of wood decorated with carvings
of red, black and yellow. Tongkonan is the center of the Toraja social activities, all family members must be present at the event held in Tongkonan, because it symbolizes the relationship between them and their ancestors. Tongkonan Development is an activity that exhausting and usually can be done jointly by a large family. One of the famous Tongkonan is Tongkonan Pallawa, the traditional house situated on a hilltop among the bamboo trees and adorned by many buffalo horn that is attached at the front of the house. Tongkonan Pallawa is located about 12 km to the north of Rantepao.

Toraja culture is inseparable from the tradition of wood carving, wood carving characteristic of typical Toraja is a motif that regular and orderly in the form of symbols. There was also an abstract and geometric motifs. Natural conditions is often the inspiration and made the basis of typical Toraja wood carving ornaments. Currently, the statue of the sculptor Tana Toraja exhibited in many museums in North America.