Monday, October 31, 2011

Tanah Toraja - South Sulawesi Mainstay


anah Toraja, a famous tourist attraction with its cultural richness. District is located approximately 350 km north of Makassar is very popular with the customary form of house building. The traditional house is named Tongkonan . The roof is made from bamboo is split and stacked compiled, but now many are using zinc. Tongkonan also has a corresponding degree of nobility strata strata of society such as gold, bronze, iron and brass.
tongkonan - Toraja traditional house
Because so attach image Toraja Land with house building is customary, as a form of tourism promotion and to attract Japanese tourists to this region, then the custom house was built in the country "sunrise" it. The building was done by his own Toraja people and carried off to negari sakura tourism entrepreneurs. Now in Japan, there have been two Tongkonan Tongkonan very similar to the original. The presence Tongkonan always amaze people of the country because of its unique. The difference to the one in Tanah Toraja is located on the roof only using bamboo. 
There are many other charms of Tanah Toraja ritual signs other than solo (funeral) that has been famous for this. Call it baby graves in the tree in Kampung Kambira Tarra, Sangalla District, about 20 kilometers from Rantepao, prepared for the body of a baby aged 0-7 years.



Although burying the baby in the tree Tarra was not implemented since the last decades, but the tree where the "bury" dead baby was still upright and much visited by tourists. On top of a tree that has fruit similar Tarra breadfruit commonly used as a vegetable by the local population with a circle around the tree trunk 3.5 meters, saved dozens of dead babies. 
Before the body is inserted into the tree trunk, hollowed tree first and then placed into a dead baby and then covered with a black palm tree fibers. After decades, the baby's body will blend with the tree. This is an attraction for travelers and to Tanah Toraja society still considers sacred place like a newborn child.

Placement of the baby's body on the tree is well adapted to the social strata of society. The higher the degree of social family that then the higher the where babies were buried in the Tarra tree trunk. In fact, babies who die are placed in the direction of the bereaved family residences. If the house is in the western part of the tree, then the child's body will be laid to the west.
Londa stone tombs in Toraja land
Stone graves, one grave form of the Toraja people 

To reach this amazing Tanah Toraja there domestic airlines Makassar - Toraja Land which is currently only once a week and wear a small plane berpenumpang eight people, which takes 45 minutes from Airport Hasanuddin Makassar. If by land, which is quite tiring journey takes between seven and ten hours.
Interesting event in this tourist area that is the burial ceremony (solo signs) and signs Tuka (shower) which is a fixed calendar each year. In addition to these events, visitors can see up close the other interesting cultural attractions such as the storage bodies in the reservoir body shaped "containers" giant size with a width of 3 meters and a height of 10 meters and tongkonan 600 years old in Londa, Rantepao. 
party signs for solo 'in the land of Toraja
party signs for solo 'the Toraja
Rambu Solo party 'or a party / funeral ritual

This is a fraction of the many tours offered by the charm Tana Toraja as a tourist destination mainstay of southern Sulawesi. How? Interested in seeing the uniqueness of this cultural tourism?