Sulawesi 1 (08)
The moment we heard Airasia is flying to Sulawesi, I know we are packing the bags again, never mind we just returned from East Java 3 months back. And which month can be better than August --- knowing Toraja will be witnessing one of the oldest culture that has been inherited for generations. Full scale funerals are normally taking place during the month of Jul/Aug and Sep. See the next set of Pic entitles Sulawesi 2.
Apart from Toraja, which is a definite tourist big pull to South Sulawesi, other part of the islands has fabulous attractions as well. Makassar the capital, like other metropolitan, may be not in the travelers' radar screen, but we found the Chinatown is an interesting place -- one can see row of shops run by Chinese, and they speak oh-so-fluent mandarin and a number of temples and surprisingly packed with people -- may be the ghost festival was around the corner when we were there. Talking to the local Chinese is very insightful, it is the opportunities to know what they thought and for certain, despite a well known fact of the past racial crashes, they still treat the land as their home lands. Just like most Malaysian Chinese think of Malaysia. One can find many Dutch buildings in Makasaar like the Fort Rottendam -- ithey are preserved quite well in this part of the world as compared to Malacca.
Food is marvelous in Makassar -- plenty of sea-food and you may not know sea-cucumber (hoi-sam) is one of the main export from this land. Of course we gave ourselves a treat -- not that cheap but really good.
Moving to the East, a 5 hrs journey from makassar is the Bira Beach -- small town, not much happening but nevertheless a wonderful place for resting. The sands are snowy white and the beach is full of creatures when the tides subside. Ah, forget to mention the striking sunsets. And Bira is also famous of traditional boat making -- the Bugis craftmen are famous all over the world and we met one trade man from Maluku who came over to monitor the progress of his cargo boat.
Going up North from Bira (after a grueling 8 hrs drive), we came to know this little lake town called Sengkang -- famous of the wetland and the floating villages. A lot of time people will overnight in this town to break the journey to Toraja -- which is still a few hours away. Another attraction of Sengkang town is silk weaving.
Aug 14-21, 2008
Aug 14: Arrive Makassar
Aug 15: Makassar and Travel to Bira
Aug 16: Bira
Aug 17: Travel to Sengkang
Aug 18-20: Tana Toraja
Aug 21: Pare-Pare and travel to Makassar
Sulawesi is always synonymous to the great sea-farer – Bugis. They had strong influence on the Malay Archipalego and even some of the sultanates in Malaysia originated from the Bugis. They had a reputation of being industrious, war-like and possess strong self-image. Many Bugis lives in the lowland of the island and majority of them are farmers.
Moving inland and towards the North of Makassar, about 10 hours from the city of Makassar, is where the highlanders called Torajan live. Home to this particular ethnic people is called Tana Toraja.
Torajan people, until today, still observe a traditional way of living to a large extent. They live (not all) in traditional houses called Tongkonan which to me, is an architecture wonder with a roof shape like a boat. For Torajan, as narrated by our guide, having a Tongkonan is always the goal of a life time. And not all Tongkonan are carved, that only reserved for the nobles (or Bangasawan).
So what else attract people coming to Tana Toraja?
-Very elaborate funerals; at the minimum hundreds of people will attend and span across days and weeks
-Funeral sites i.e those carved into the cliffs, hanging graves, caves used as burial sites
-Scenery and cool climates
We spent a total of 3 days in Toraja and regretfully it is too short a time to fully appreciate the beauty of this place. We didn’t get the chance to trek the villages for home-stay. Nevertheless, we are quite lucky this time around – able to participate one of the funeral and witness the sacrifices of buffaloes and pigs (ok, I am not sure whether it is a right thing to do by bringing the kids along), bull-fighting (not always held, normally as a prologue to the funeral) and of course visit the burial sites like caves, cliffs. Also saw tau-taus (effigies, a representation of a person in a form of statue) that can be traced back to many generations.
It is a very eye-opening trip, seeing a living cultures that are so vibrant even at this modern age.
Apart from Toraja, which is a definite tourist big pull to South Sulawesi, other part of the islands has fabulous attractions as well. Makassar the capital, like other metropolitan, may be not in the travelers' radar screen, but we found the Chinatown is an interesting place -- one can see row of shops run by Chinese, and they speak oh-so-fluent mandarin and a number of temples and surprisingly packed with people -- may be the ghost festival was around the corner when we were there. Talking to the local Chinese is very insightful, it is the opportunities to know what they thought and for certain, despite a well known fact of the past racial crashes, they still treat the land as their home lands. Just like most Malaysian Chinese think of Malaysia. One can find many Dutch buildings in Makasaar like the Fort Rottendam -- ithey are preserved quite well in this part of the world as compared to Malacca.
Food is marvelous in Makassar -- plenty of sea-food and you may not know sea-cucumber (hoi-sam) is one of the main export from this land. Of course we gave ourselves a treat -- not that cheap but really good.
Moving to the East, a 5 hrs journey from makassar is the Bira Beach -- small town, not much happening but nevertheless a wonderful place for resting. The sands are snowy white and the beach is full of creatures when the tides subside. Ah, forget to mention the striking sunsets. And Bira is also famous of traditional boat making -- the Bugis craftmen are famous all over the world and we met one trade man from Maluku who came over to monitor the progress of his cargo boat.
Going up North from Bira (after a grueling 8 hrs drive), we came to know this little lake town called Sengkang -- famous of the wetland and the floating villages. A lot of time people will overnight in this town to break the journey to Toraja -- which is still a few hours away. Another attraction of Sengkang town is silk weaving.
Aug 14-21, 2008
Aug 14: Arrive Makassar
Aug 15: Makassar and Travel to Bira
Aug 16: Bira
Aug 17: Travel to Sengkang
Aug 18-20: Tana Toraja
Aug 21: Pare-Pare and travel to Makassar
Sulawesi is always synonymous to the great sea-farer – Bugis. They had strong influence on the Malay Archipalego and even some of the sultanates in Malaysia originated from the Bugis. They had a reputation of being industrious, war-like and possess strong self-image. Many Bugis lives in the lowland of the island and majority of them are farmers.
Moving inland and towards the North of Makassar, about 10 hours from the city of Makassar, is where the highlanders called Torajan live. Home to this particular ethnic people is called Tana Toraja.
Torajan people, until today, still observe a traditional way of living to a large extent. They live (not all) in traditional houses called Tongkonan which to me, is an architecture wonder with a roof shape like a boat. For Torajan, as narrated by our guide, having a Tongkonan is always the goal of a life time. And not all Tongkonan are carved, that only reserved for the nobles (or Bangasawan).
So what else attract people coming to Tana Toraja?
-Very elaborate funerals; at the minimum hundreds of people will attend and span across days and weeks
-Funeral sites i.e those carved into the cliffs, hanging graves, caves used as burial sites
-Scenery and cool climates
We spent a total of 3 days in Toraja and regretfully it is too short a time to fully appreciate the beauty of this place. We didn’t get the chance to trek the villages for home-stay. Nevertheless, we are quite lucky this time around – able to participate one of the funeral and witness the sacrifices of buffaloes and pigs (ok, I am not sure whether it is a right thing to do by bringing the kids along), bull-fighting (not always held, normally as a prologue to the funeral) and of course visit the burial sites like caves, cliffs. Also saw tau-taus (effigies, a representation of a person in a form of statue) that can be traced back to many generations.
It is a very eye-opening trip, seeing a living cultures that are so vibrant even at this modern age.
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