Essential Travel Guide to Toraja, Indonesia

In Toraja, high in the mountains of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, the worlds of the living and the dead stand side by side — with hardly anything dividing the two. Consequently, the Torajan realm of the dead is just as colorful (if not as lively) as that of the living.

Cave floors littered with human bones and offerings of cigarettes; towering tongkonan (Toraja houses) set high on pillars; effigies called “tau-tau” staring with sightless eyes out of openings in a cliff; and regular sacrifices of buffaloes to appease the spirits of the newly departed — these all spring from the belief that the departed ancestors of Toraja have not really “departed” at all.

Spending a few days in Toraja allows you to take in the fresh mountain air and the hospitality of the locals — and you’ll find how happily they live, even in the ever-present gaze of their sainted ancestors. Moreover, the unique culture of Toraja is well worth the ten-hour curvy mountain drive it takes to get there!

Where Is Toraja, Indonesia?

Long ago, Toraja was effectively insulated from mainstream Indonesia by the mountains of South Sulawesi. Getting to Toraja required several days of hard marching up mountainous terrain to reach a town some 200 miles north of the capital Makassar.

Today, a concrete highway makes short work of that distance, requiring only about eight to ten hours’ ride by bus. The Torajans have a reputation as excellent mechanics; they own and operate most of the buses connecting Makassar to their homeland.

Makassar, in turn, is only a short nonstop flight from Jakarta and Bali, aiding Toraja’s position as a key point in any substantial Indonesia travel itinerary.

Travelers disembark at Rantepao, North Toraja’s capital and its cultural center. Rantepao’s low-slung urbanity, filled with low 1960s-era buildings and the occasional tongkonan-style structures, quickly gives way to rice fields and towering limestone peaks.

The cooler weather is your only immediate clue to Toraja’s elevation. You’ll need to visit lookout points like Lolai to grasp your place in the highlands: in the mornings, the lookout at Lolai feels like an island peeking out of a sea of clouds.

What Sets Toraja Culture Apart From the Rest of Indonesia?

As the lowland Bugis and Makassar people underwent conversion to Islam, the Toraja managed to hold on to their traditional beliefs — Aluk Todolo, or “the way of the ancestors” — that still serve as the basis for Toraja’s culture today.

Even after the mass conversion of most Torajans to Christianity, adherence to old Aluk Todolo habits persist.

The traditional villages in Toraja — such as Pallawa — preserve the locals’ original lifestyle, embodied in the area’s iconic curved-roof tongkonan houses. Each community houses a single family or clan, living in a row of houses facing north; smaller rice granaries (alang) line the other side of the lane.

Torajan Status Symbols

Many traditional tongkonan feature a column of water buffalo horns, arranged according to size. These horns serve as markers of status: the remnants of previous sacrifices made in honor of dearly departed ancestors.

The people of Toraja — like every society worldwide — engage in collecting status symbols, accumulating wealth, and breeding descendants.

Torajans utilize rites of passage to cement their status, wealth, and family standing in society; nowhere is this more apparent than in Toraja’s famous funerary rites.

A Toraja Funeral: Going Out with a Bang

The strict Aluk Todolo system dictates how Toraja people live, depending on their position on certain social and spiritual ladders.

• Social: a four-tiered class system with royalty at the very top and servants at the very bottom.
• Spiritual: three different levels, from our mortal life to puya, the afterlife, to heaven for noble spirits and gods (deata).

When death comes for a Torajan, the family lays the corpse in the master bedroom and treats it as if it were a patient. “Mother is sick,” a Torajan might say of their parent, her corpse lying in state in the next room, being served food once a day by her obedient children. (Torajans use a traditional embalming fluid derived from the juices of betel leaf and bananas to delay decay.)

As the body slowly mummifies in the tongkonan, the family pulls out all the stops to arrange the biggest party money can buy: a funeral usually held over a month after the death.

Torajans believe that souls cannot enter puya (the afterlife) unless they perform a proper makaru’dusan ritual — involving the sacrifice of as many pigs and water buffaloes as they can afford.

The Water Buffalo: An Unlikely Status Symbol

Water buffaloes do not perform work in Toraja, despite the area’s many rice terraces. However, why is there a large, lowing herd trading at high prices at Rantepao’s Pasar Bolu market?

Every rite of passage calls for the sacrifice of several buffaloes or pigs — but the rules are particularly stringent for funerals. Aluk Todolo sets out a minimum number for slaughter, depending on one’s status. Middle-class families must offer at least eight buffalo and 50 pigs; noble families must sacrifice over a hundred buffalo.

Families can spend about 500 million Indonesian rupiah (USD $37,000) per water buffalo, with prices reaching astronomical heights for certain colors or patterns.

Tedong saleko, or white buffaloes with black spots, can fetch up to 800 million rupiah (USD $60,000), while the most expensive buffalo of all — albino buffalo known as tedong bonga — can cost over one billion rupiah (USD $75,000)!

No part of the buffalo goes to waste — in a conspicuous show of generosity, the family donates the meat to community members who attend the funeral.

The Nobility’s Final Rest in Tampang Allo

For the status-conscious Toraja people, not even death can erase class distinctions.

A cemetery cave — Tampang Allo, on the southern outskirts of Rantepao — contains the remains of the former ruling family of Sangalla district, Puang Menturino, who lived in the 16th century. The boat-shaped coffin (erong) immediately signifies the nobility of the decedents, for this type of coffin was the preserve of rulers and their kin.

Time has not been kind to the remains of Puang Menturino — the intricately carved erong, mounted on beams set high above the cave floor, have deteriorated over the centuries, with some contents having dropped below.

Locals have cleaned the scene somewhat, arranging ancient skulls and assorted bones on ledges around the cave. Offerings of cigarettes (left by pious locals) still litter the rock surrounding the skulls.

Last Resting Place for All Classes in Lemo

Burial caves are in short supply in Toraja today; however, limestone cliff faces are very common. Local custom disdains burial in the ground; rather, Torajans prefer to be entombed in rock, which often means a hole carved out of a Toraja cliff.

In the town of Lemo, a sheer cliff stands honeycombed with hand-carved crypts called liang patane, their doors measuring about five feet square and opening into small spaces that fit four or five coffin-less remains. Liang patane are designed to accommodate entire families and are guarded by tau-tau, or effigies, depicting the persons entombed behind them.

Unlike caves, liang patane are permissible for most Torajans regardless of class, yet the cost of such burials all but reserves them for the wealthy. Each hole costs about 20 to 60 million Indonesian rupiah to carve (approximately USD $1,500-4,500), not counting the costs associated with the funeral ritual.

Tau-tau: Toraja’s Silent Guardians

A few steps down from the Lemo cliff, you’ll find a tau-tau maker’s shop, whose handiwork stares out from the shop floor.

Tau-tau are meant to be likenesses of the dearly departed, and their makers take care to reproduce unique facial traits in each finished product. Craftsmen use different materials depending on the social class of the deceased: nobility receive tau-tau carved from jackfruit wood, while lower classes make do with effigies crafted from bamboo.

The tau-tau wear real clothing, which is replaced every few decades by surviving family members. The Lemo tau-tau wear relatively new clothes; they discarded the old ones before the President of Indonesia visited in 2013. (The tau-tau themselves are estimated to be over 400 years old.)

Tau-tau makers are traditionally compensated in water buffalo, and these effigies don’t come cheap: about 24 water buffaloes is the average price, with higher-end tau-tau costing 40 or more water buffaloes.

Practicing the Old Ways Alongside a Newer Faith

For all these picturesque pre-Christian traditions, most Torajans profess Christianity; locals practice Aluk Todolo alongside the sacraments and see little conflict between the two.

Approximately 60 percent of all Torajans belong to a Protestant Church, 18 percent profess the Catholic faith, and the remaining are divided between Muslims and strict Aluk Todolo practitioners.

You will find a Christian church (gereja in the local vernacular) on almost every road bend, and both capitals of Toraja — Makale and Rantepao — feature massive Christian structures built on nearby hills, visible from anywhere in the city.

A giant cross stands on Bukit Singki, overlooking Rantepao, the most visible sign of the local faith. On Buntu Burake hill over Makale, a giant Jesus statue stands even taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer (40 meters in height, compared to the Redeemer’s 38 meters).

Visitors to Buntu Burake can enjoy breathtaking views of the gorgeous Toraja landscape, as a concrete Jesus — arms outstretched, blessing the city below — oversees their experience.

The sculptor, an artisan from Yogyakarta named Hardo Wardoyo Suwarto, is himself Muslim — a situation that contrasts with another Indonesian landmark, the Istiqlal Mosque in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, a massive Islamic structure designed by a Christian!

Torajan Coffee

Toraja’s highland climate makes it ideal for Arabica coffee cultivation.

Due to its isolation in the 19th century, Toraja’s coffee plantations were spared from the coffee-leaf rust epidemic that afflicted Indonesia in the 1870s; consequently, Torajan coffee became so prized that a “Coffee War” broke out in the 1890s to control the local coffee industry.

Today, combat is the last thing on visiting coffee lovers’ agendas. You can buy a cup of hot coffee in every coffee shop, restaurant, and warung (street stall) in Toraja. For beans and grounds, budget shoppers can head to Malanggo’ Market for inexpensive Robusta by the liter (about 10,000 Indonesian rupiah per liter, or USD $0.75).

Shoppers with a bigger budget and more refined tastes may visit Coffee Kaa Roastery, a specialty shop offering Arabica beans labeled according to type and origin. Beans at Kaa cost about 20,000 Indonesian rupiah per kilogram, or around USD $1.50.

Where to Stay in Toraja & Where to Go

Indonesia’s tourism board promotes Toraja as the next cultural destination after Bali, and their optimism is well-founded: beyond the cultural sites mentioned previously, Toraja offers several adventures and activities suited to the hilly terrain:

• Trekking and Cycling: Explore the villages around Rantepao and Makale on foot or bike — the scenic highs and lows of Toraja’s highlands consist primarily of rice fields and forest, occasionally interrupted by limestone peaks and distinct tongkonan villages.
• Whitewater Rafting: If Toraja feels a little too laid back, go rafting on Toraja’s rivers for some adrenaline: operators conduct regular whitewater rafting expeditions on Sa’dan, Mai’ting, and Rongkong rivers, with difficulty levels ranging from class I to class V.
• Culinary Adventure: The rice-growing Torajans leave their mark on traditional Indonesian cuisine with unique dishes like pa’piong, spiced and seasoned meat grilled inside a bamboo tube. Eaten with rice and preferably by hand, pa’piong provides an excellent introduction to Torajan cuisine, available at many restaurants throughout Makale and Rantepao.

Accommodations in Toraja cater to travelers of all budgets. The Toraja Heritage Hotel is among the area’s earliest four-star hotels and remains one of the largest. Giant tongkonan-style structures surround the swimming pool, offering a taste of Toraja culture before you set out to explore the area!