Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2014 | Page 128

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Travel | Tana Toraja

Majestic, soaring rooflines are typical
of Torajan houses.
Buffalo horns are fixed to the front of Torajan
homes and symbolise the number of buffalo sacrificed
at the deceased inhabitant’s traditional funeral.
A prized pink spotted buffalo tethered at
the side of a road.
An example of the intricate padong designs that
cover much of the exterior of a Torajan house.

5 Senses – Touch
BUFFALO
Spotted buffalo tethered to poles and
carefully tended and washed by their
handlers are soft to the touch. They are
used to being handled and are as gentle
as they look, so go on, give them a stroke.
Kerbau albino Toraja yang ditambatkan
ke tiang, dirawat dan dimandikan oleh
pemiliknya ini terasa halus disentuh.
Selembut penampilannya, kerbau belang
ini biasa diusap-usap, jadi cobalah Anda
membelai kerbau ini.

To some, the island
resembles a giant spider that
has fallen from its lair high in
the ceiling and landed with its
legs splayed awkwardly in all
directions, surrounded by the
sapphire-blue waters of the
Java, the Flores, the Banda, the
Moluccas and the Celebes seas,
which gently caress her
tentacles that reach over
2,000km end to end.

Home to over 22 million souls, Sulawesi
plays host to a heady mix of the most
ethnically diverse peoples found anywhere.
Once, fierce sea-going tribes prevented the
early European spice traders from coming
ashore, effectively creating a formidable
barrier that kept any outsiders from
discovering its hidden secrets.
This meant that the mountainous spine of
the interior remained relatively unexplored
until the turn of the 20th century, and only
then did the Toraja tribe, meaning ‘the
people from above’, reveal themselves.
Ethnically dissimilar from any of their
neighbours, their appearance has given
rise to many conflicting anthropological
theories that still rage even today.
However, when the Torajans themselves
are asked where they came from they reply:
“Before the dawn of human memory our
ancestors descended from the Pleiades in sky
ships.” (Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Ring Of Fire.)

Our journey to Tana Toraja begins in the
sprawling city of Makassar perched on the
southern tip of the island, where the scent
of history is as rich as the air that hangs
listlessly above it.
Here the great bugis or perahus, the largest
working sailing ships left in the world, still
ply the waters, straining under the thousands
of feet of canvas powering these mighty craft
across the seas and safely home to port.
Makassar is an ideal jumping-off point for
the trip to the highlands and well worth
an overnight stay to explore the twisting
laneways and markets teeming wi F