In Tana Toraja

Some say that their ancestors were seafarers who came upstream along the Sadan river to settle in the dense jungled lands of central Sulawesi. In order for their ways to not be forgotten, they made houses on stilts with roofs that resembled their boats. To this day the people remember the ways of their ancestors, build homes with boat roofs, practice ancient rituals of sacrifice and purification, elaborate funeral ceremonies to appease the dead, mount their dead in hanging graves protected by Tau-Tau or life sized wooden effigies of moving limbs, crafted to resemble the dead. Mystery and macabre combined irresistibly compelling me towards Tana Toraja.

We sped between emerald rice fields, my sister and I, sitting on motorcycles behind our Toraja guides. Villages appeared in distance like fleets of boats,rising out of green seas. Homes with bamboo and bale roofs sheltered incredibly carved ornate homes in distinctive Toraja motifs of buffalo and fowl, pig, sun. The designs were detailed in mineral colors of white, black, ochre and red, while the fronts hung with tall rows of stacked buffalo horns signifying the family's importance in the village hierarchy. Walks past village led to burial sites in caves or carved into rock faces guarded by rows of Tau-Tau with blank wide eyed glares, while piles of bones, skulls spilled out of caskets shaped like pigs. Families were buried together along with their possessions like a favorite pipe, telephone directory, a bottle of arak, a favored dagger, a snuff pouch.

We walked through darkened forests, carrying our bundles of sugar and a large pouch of arak, towards the site of a house warming ceremony. Our approach was heralded by unbearable high pitched screeches of sacrificial pigs. Soon the forest path upwards to the clearing was covered with rivulets of blood crisscrossing under our feet. Sounds of great excitement and clamor accompanied guests bearing gifts of sacrificial pigs carried on highly colorful towers borne on shoulders of strong young men. We were told that a new home was inaugurated when covered fully with pig blood. We were offered some glutinous rice and banana wrapped in leaves that we ate with both suspicion and great reluctance, cleaned it down with an arak gulp, and fled!