Sulawesi Surprise!: Toraja's Way

There was a mistletoe on the wall where we were having our breakfast in the Prince Hotel and a Christmas tree in the little shop near the market where some of us had coffee. It was around Christmas while we were in Sulawesi and seeing Christmas decorations in remote Tana Toraja should not be a surprise at all since it is largely a Christian society there. The colonial Dutch government had, in the 1920s, through the Reformed Missionary Aliance of the Ducth Reformed Church, carried out missionary works in Tana Toraja. Islam was spreading then in South Sulawesi among the Makassarese and Bugis and the alarmed colonial masters had seen the people in Tana Toraja who were practising polytheistic animism as potential Christians. The indigenous people had been practising what is known as aluk or the way and today, in the predominantly Christian society, there are still people even among the Christians and Muslims, who place importance in what is called the death ritual. During this ritual,water buffaloes would be slaughtered and their carcasses and heads placed on a field so that the deceased would use them for their journey to Puya or the land of the souls. In the market which we visited, there is a big section where one can shop for water buffaloes solely for this important ritual...

Water buffaloes, water buffaloes everywhere...

Traveling Tip: Get to know the way!