Toraja

Toraja tribe is one of four main tribes in South Sulawesi. Toraja itself is farmer group who lives in hills, besides Bugis tribe as majority group divides into ship maker and sailor. Most of Toraja tribes religion is Christian meanwhile half of them are Moslem and some groups of local animism named Aluk To Dolo. Aluk rules life system, agriculture, and religion practical. It can be different for each village. They separated strictly between death ceremony towards life ceremony but both of them are important. Nowadays, life ritual practices seldom because the rules does not allow Christian Toraja people attend them instead of the death ones.

Prestigious traditional house of Toraja named tongkonan. Tongkonan derives from Toraja language “tongkon” which means sit. It stands above wood piles decorated with red, black and yellow carving. Tongkonan was signed the highness of family status that divided into Layuk as the highest power functioned as governance central, Pekamberan belongs to families who has certain position in the custom system and Stone tongkonan belongs to rabble families.

Toraja people speak in many dialects in accord with their area. They has Sa’dan Toraja as main dialect but also Indonesia language. Still their children has taught Toraja language at all elementary school in this land. Their language results many artistic carving but not written system. They told their language through kinds of ornament wood carving. They expressed concept of religion and social of Toraja people. The wood carving called Pa’ssura that means writing. The ornaments formed in abstract and geometric shapes shows their orderliness character. Every ornaments signed good intention.

Toraja people death ritual costs highly but also regarded as the most important part. This ritual placed in wide savannah called ‘rante’. The ceremony process accompanied by flute music, song, and poetry. Essence of this ceremony is Ma’badong where a group of men stay in a circle and sing along the night to respect the late person. The dead body will buried in cave, carve stone tomb or hung in a cleft. The spirit of the dead will need buffalo to carry them to Puya, their afterlife world. So, they slaughter many buffalo in believing it will quickened their journey to Puya.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.