Early morning walk in Tanjung Bira

 

Tanjung Bira is a the beach area of South Sulawesi - so I swam in the Flores Sea.  The water was very calm - almost like a bay, and very salty.

Our day of snorkeling!  We rented the larger boat (there were 9 of us) and set out for small islands were there were lots of colorful fish.  Afterwards we went to a pristine beach and had a delicious lunch of freshly caught fish and the sea snails shown here.  Enak! (delicious)
This beach was much cleaner and empty so we spent the afternoon there enjoying the crystal clear water and sipping our coconut water.

Separating Rice from Chaff

Sengkang

Lake Tempe was our stop-over from Makassar to Tanjung Biru (the beach).  The 7 hour trip was over rough, broken paved roads so it felt good to stretch the legs and catch the sunset.

Batutumonga- "Land above the clouds"

 Located 1,300 meters above sea level, the village has earned the moniker “Land Above The Clouds” for its exceptional morning views, which has become popular tourist attraction only in the last couple of years. We got there at 4:30 and were able to witness a spectacular sunrise.

Christmas Tree Competition - Toraja

Not sure what or why

Thought it was pine cones but no....

snail shells

Torajan Beliefs

According to Torajan belief, funerals are where the soul finally leaves this Earth and starts its long and hard journey into Pooya - the final stage of the afterlife, where the soul gets reincarnated. Buffaloes are believed to be the carriers of the soul into the afterlife and that's why families sacrifice as many of them as they can, to help make the journey easier for the deceased.

Torajans spend most of their lives saving up for these rituals.

Once the families have saved up enough, they invite all friends and relatives from all over the world. The wealthier the deceased when alive, the larger and more elaborate these ceremonies.

Baby Graves

According to old Torajan beliefs, if a baby died without teeth, it was considered a holy or pure baby. Unlike adults (where their bodies will be kept for months or even years before finally being buried), the child’s body is not preserved but is kept for only a few hours or a night before the burial ritual is conducted. The biological mother does the wrapping and preparation of the baby’s body for the burial. This marks the last involvement of the ibu sebernarnya or the biological mother as the burial tree is recognised as the baby’s new mother, with the tree sap symbolising a mother’s breast milk. 

Necessarily, while the real mother conducts the rituals, the father and grave makers prepare the burial site, by digging out the soft wood and collecting the fibres for the door. The grave’s interior and position is based on the baby’s size and social rank, respectively. A baby from an upper class family is positioned the highest on the tree bark; a middle class baby buried in the middle; and the bottom part of the tree is reserved for lower class babies. The child’s father and the rest of the family attend the burial ceremony, while the biological mother is not allowed to attend the burial as now the tree is considered as the babies’ new mother.

Living with the dead

To outsiders the idea of keeping a dead person's body on show at home feels quite alien.  Yet, for more than a million people from the Toraja region of Sulawesi it's a tradition dating back centuries.  Here, animist beliefs blur the line between this world and the next, making the dead very much present in the world of the living. Until the funeral actually takes place in the cliffs- the dead are considered "sick" and they are given food and drink at least twice a day.

T

Grandpa is "sick" for the past 5 months

Grandma has been "sick" for five years

Londa

At Londa, a network of coffin-filled caves reaches deep into the limestone hills. Visitors expecting a solemn, well-kept grotto are often shocked and disturbed by skeletons tumbling out of wooden coffins, skulls and bones arranged , to western eyes, according to some gruesome aesthetic. But the Toraja feels that since their ancestor’s souls are residing in heaven, ensuring continued fertility in farm and field, it is appropriate that their earthly remains be on display for the pleasure of honored foreign guests.

Tana Toraja Death Rituals

 If the Toraja way of life is interesting, the way of death is a fascinating mix of rituals custom and spectacle. For the Toraja, the dead are as much a part of society as the living. At Lemo, cliffs rise precipitously  from  the  rice fields  like stonework condominiums. crypts carved with prodigious manual labor high into the solid rock house the mortal remains of Toraja nobility. Set amongst the crypts, the striking tau-tau, wooden effigies representing the deceased, look impassively on the world below.

Social organization and color representation

 Villagers are only permitted to decorate their house with the symbols and motifs appropriate to their social station. The gables and the wooden wall panels are incised with geometric, spiralling designs and motifs such as buffalo heads and cockerels painted in red, white, yellow and black, the colors that represent the various festivals of Aluk To Dolo (‘the Way of the Ancestors’), the indigenous Torala religion. Black symbolizes death and darkness; yellow, God’s blessing and power; white, the colour of flesh and bone, means purity; and red, the color of blood, symbolizes human life.