Toraja, Makassar (Ujung Pandang)

Monday, 2011-3-14

Road to Toraja was under construction

We left Makassar at 8 am, and soon was on the toll way to the airport. The driver Jafarwais a Bugis living near the airport. The rent for his house was only Rp1,000,000 for two years. He had two young children and would not have anymore due to the high cost in raising a child. We passed industrial area, and there were many workers wanting to go to work on motorbikes. The city had installed a barricade to allow the motorbikes only on the side of the road, and to prevent any of them getting access to the main road. After the airport, it was a chaos. The road was being widen and the construction had been going on for over 3 years and not yet completed. The car had to struggle against the heavy traffic, exposed large boulders on the road surface and the large potholes. The construction was done in sections, and there were abrupt joins in the old and the new section.

Bugis traditional house

We were in Bugis area, and the stilt houses had steeper roof. The roof was in reversed V-shape, and ran from front to rear. The two pieces of boards at both ends of the roof extended beyond the vertex of the V and looked like the poles in an Indian tee-pee tent. And most of the houses had the appearance of a main house and an attachment with a further setback from the street and a flat roof. The kitchen and other service room were located in this attachment.

Bemor

They were two cement factories in Makassar taking advantages of the abundance of limestones. One hour after we passed the airport, we were in a small town and we started seeing the motor rickshaw they called bemor (a new word combining the beca and motor). Beca was the Indonesian word for rickshaw. They removed the front end of a motorbike and attached the cab of a rickshaw instead.

Makassar was in a large flat plain. And a lot of the paddy fields were gold in colour and were ready to be harvested. As the road got closer to the coast, we saw many fish farm ponds. The most cultivated fish was inkan banteng, a silvery and bony fish, which were grown extensively in Taiwan.

Roadside stand selling polmalo

An hour and half after we passed the airport, there were a long line of road side huts selling large polmalo. We stopped and bought some. They were cheap (Rp5,000 each) and delicious. Jafar, the driver, was very familiar of local specialty food along the road, and he would stop and let us buy some to try. We arrived at Parepare, and had the choice of having lunch in a sea side restaurant or on a hill. We chose the later. It was large but was empty when we were there. And it had a good view of the sea and the town below. There was a strong breeze, and was very pleasant. I ordered a fish and chips. It was very good. The chips in particular were excellent. It was fried from a fresh high quality potato. Ching ordered a mixed vegetables and was ok, and Linki ordered fried rice. Later a white couples came and ordered a fried whole fish with chips. It looked delicious.

We then started climbing the mountain, and the road began to get winding with sharp hairpin turns. About an hour and half later, Jafar stopped on a roadside hut and introduced us the local cheese. It was made in a local factory by boiling the fresh milk, and then mixed it with the papaya sap to make the milk solidified. It was packaged in a banana leaf wrap, and could be eaten fresh or cut into pieces and fried. The fried one taste like toufu and with a similar texture. The vendor also sale boil young corn, and was very delicious. I had to warm Ching many times not to eat too many of them.

Bukit Nona

The gate to Toraja land

It started raining, and we stopped at a rest station where there was a viewing balcony seeing the mountain across the valley. Jafar had told us many times that we would stop at Erotic Mountain. It looked a little like a female sexual organ. Later, Ching told me that she found the name of the mountain was Bukit Nona (girl hill). Soon we entered the hilly country of Toraja land. A large arch was built across the road to welcome the visitors. The roof of the stilt house had the shape of a buffalo horn which was the same as in Minangkabao in Padang area. But the horn was not pointed and one end of the house with some windows faced the street or the courtyard. The stair leading to the house was on the side. In most villages, the houses were built in a row on one side of a courtyard, and on the other side was another row of smaller house used for storage. These houses were called rumah adat (traditional house).

Luta Resort Hotel

It was past 6 pm and was dark when we arrived in Rantepao in Toraja. Jafar was eager to find us a hotel, and asked us to stay in the car while he talked to the front desk. He was probably trying to negotiate for a commission. He told us that he got us 20% discount for a room with the original price of Rp600,000. And appeared to be not too please when we turned it down, and suggested to him to go to Luta Resort Hotel, where I had booked a room there. The room was a little small, and we finally got one larger room with a king size bed and a French Napoleon coach for close to Rp600,000. Jafar was very unhappy that we turned down a cheaper one that he had found and stayed in a far more expensive one. The hotel was a new one located on the bank of a muddy river, and we like it.

I asked Jafar, and he seemed to give me the impression that he would be able to show me all the tourist points in Toraja in one day. Therefore, I decided to return to Makassar on Wednesday. The driver had mentioned several times that we might need to hire a guide. Before he left, he asked me again on this, and I told him that he could help us by making some enquiries. And I would decided after getting more detail information.

The explosion in the Japanese nuclear power plant had become the big news. We were paying a big price for the technological advancement in our life, society and culture, but was it worth it. Sadly enough, we didn’t have much control of it. We were being swept by the advancing flood and could only went with it or got drown.

Tuesday, 2011-3-15

Burial ground in a cave

Burial ground in a crevice

Burial ground carved out of rock

An individual tomb

Tau tau on balcony

Toraja traditional houses

The focal points of today activities were to visit several burial grounds. They were located at different villages where all the residences belong to the same clan, and only the members of the clan were allow to be buried in the perspective ground in a simple wooden coffin. In ancient time, the coffin could be carved out of a single piece of timber. Those that we had seen were five kinds: large natural caves in a limestone hill, and was used collectively, where coffins were piled up in a specific location assigned to a family; large crevices on the limestone rock face; coffins laid on the supporting wooden sticks driven into the crevices; individual chambers carved out of huge rocks, and man made tombs. Caves in a higher elevation were reserved for the rich family, and they would have to sacrifice at least 24 buffalos in the burial ceremony. A wooden sculpture of the deceased was placed collectively in a specially constructed balcony in standing position, or on benches on sitting position for people to see and respected. This sculpture was called Tau Tau. They were all fully dressed liked when they were alive, and their large eyes were staring at the world below them, or watched with intensity the game of life playing in front of them. Even for a poor family, the sacrifice of at least one buffalo was needed to get the permission to be buried ceremonially. When natural caves were not available, rectangular chamber was carved out of the face of a low and steep hill or huge rock. Again, the size of the chamber decided the status of the deceased in the clan. The tomb could also be constructed in the shape of a large chamber or others. We saw a cylindrical one the shape and size twice as big as the underground oil tank. The coffin was carried into the burial ground on a special platform. Again, depended on the wealth of the family, the platform could be an elaborate and miniature size of the rumah adat, but for the poor it would be only a raft made of bamboo. Showing off of the wealth and getting the respect accordingly seemed to be the most important things in life of the people.

In general, the burial grounds were easily reached even by today standard. They were quite different from those in China where the ground was on a very high and steep hill, and the coffin was big and heavy. And it was still a mystery of how the ancient people managed to carry them up. The roads leading to all burial grounds we had visited were all narrow, bumpy and in very bad shape. Judging from the economical benefits brought in by the tourists, there were more than enough to justify for its improvement.

The driver didn’t bring up the issue of hiring a guide, and I kept quiet about it. We passed the hotel where he stayed, and he told us that all drivers stayed in that hotel for Rp40,000 a night.

(1) Pasar Bolu

Market day in Pasar Bolu

Albino baffalo

Got the buffalo ready for the show

The driver learned from a tour guide who was taking a white couple at a restaurant in Parepare where we had lunch yesterday that there would be a buffalo market today in Pasar Bolu. He was excited about it that he had something to show us. The market was one of the largest in Indonesia. It held the buffalo market every Tuesday, and could generate a total transaction of many billion Rupiah that day. The government collected sales tax accordingly. When we arrived, there were already many hundreds of buffalo, and many more came continually on trucks. The owner treated their buffalos like in a dog show. They washed and cleaned them. Many of the buffalo purchased in the market would end up being served as scarify for the various ceremonies, but some would be used as an investment for its re-sale value. One potential buyer put his hand down and squeezed at the testicles of a buffalo that he was checking. Probably he wanted to make sure that the animal was in good health. And the government would collect tax for each animal used for the ceremony. The most expensive buffalo was the albino, and it might fetch a price of Rp250 million, and the regular one would be ten times less. The minimum requirement for a rich family burial was 24 buffalos, and at least three of them must be albino. Therefore, it was a large financial burden for the deceased family to hold a burial ceremony. There were many good things of the old customs, but it also had many bad consequences. The owner held the lease tight to the ring on the buffalo nose, and his assistant fed the animal with its favourite grasses to calm it down. Some buffalo were aggressive and hold their head high looking for challengers. The owners held the lease firmly and tried to restrain and calm them. There were many foreigners among the people in the market. In addition to trading buffalos, the market also sold pigs, horses and other domestic animals in different areas, but we didn’t venture into these areas. They collected from us Rp10,000 each for admission fee as a foreigner. We learned the lesson, and for the rest of our visits, we claimed to be from Jakarta and paid only half price for the admission, and Linki was the tour guide and was free.

Construction of a traditional house

As we arrived in the market, I saw people were constructing the roof of a new rumah adat. Bamboo scaffoldings were set up to build the horn shape extension of the roof. And the framework of whole roof was made of wood. Workers were planning more than one inch thick board used for the construction.

Eggs wrapped in black compound

People put their chicken, mostly cocks, in a heavy duty bag, and then gently pick up the cock to show to his customer. The fighting cocks were the popular and favourite pets, and therefore being handled kindly. Old women were squatting in front of their goods piled inside various containers on the road side. Many of them were selling several different kinds of mushrooms. The choice of vegetables was good, and there were some Chinese varieties. The most available fruits were many different kinds of bananas, large papaya, mangoes, salaks, avocados, tree tomato, passion fruits, several different kind of citrus fruits, and nangka. I saw big bundles of leaves vegetable looked like the leaves of sweet potatoes. Later, we learned that it was used as pork feed. Several vendors were selling black earthy staff, and the eggs which had been wrapped by this material. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask what they were. When we were about to leave, we saw a newly purchased black pig being cruelly tied down to a bamboo raft. In the opposite, I also saw a man herding his big male pig without a lease. He just gave verbal commands and pig responded by making its usual sound through its nose.

The car traffic on the narrow street was heavy. Somehow, I was not paying any attention, and walk passed the rear of a van parking on the roadside, and suddenly a car passed by and missed me only by the inches. I could recalled several incidences when I nearly missed a serious accidents. I could only say that it was my luck.

(2) Marante

Tau tau sitting in a balcony

This site had a large and high, over 200 feet, limestone outcrops with a steep face full of crevies, cracks and holes. It also had an imposing overhang like a natural roof 60 ft from the ground. Immediately under this roof was a large horizontal crevice, and many tau tau had been put there in a sitting position on benches like a spectators in a foot ball game. There was another smaller crevice on a lower elevation and a wooden box was laid on supporting sticks. Many human bones were laid in that box. On another rock face, Tau tau was standing in a row on a balcony laid on a wooden structure. I was told that the corpses had been laid inside the crevices found on higher elevation. By following the small trail, we saw many black pigs kept in bamboo huts. A large pot was kept steaming on a small fire; it must have the cooked vegetables for the pig. It reminded me the time when my father was raising pigs, and we had to gather some leaves and other vegetation for him to cook the pig food. An old man was caring the simple apparatus harvesting sand by pumping the water from sediment-laden stream. I was not certain if it would worsen the land erosion on the bank of the river. The shape of the column or stilt supporting the rumah adat was in rectangular shape. Probably it was made of pour concrete.

(3) Nanggala

Constructing the bamboo roof

Traditional house

Modernized house

Newly built house

We passed a beautiful limestone bed stream with cascading muddy water, and the paddy field in the villages was filled with brownish water. The scenery was peaceful and beautiful. Soon we entered a large, rich and beautiful valley, and at the end of the road was a village of Nanggala. The driver said that it was the village of the raja (king). It was probably true judging from the large traditional houses and its number. The roof of one of the storage house was being re-constructed, and I could see the worker laying layers of bamboo to make the roof looked thick and heavy. The bamboos were split in half. And laid the inside facing up in one layer, and then it was covered by another layer of bamboos with the inside facing down. This would make it water proof. The column was a section of trunk cut from a special palm tree. It had a very hard and long lasting skin about half an inch thick. The fibers inside was a quarter of an inch in diameter and were easily breakable, and usually the fibers in both ends of a section were partly or almost completely lost to a depth of 4 inches due to handling or aging. In some large residential traditional houses, the outer exterior of the roof was covered by metal corrugated roof. One of the houses was two stories and had veranda on the lower level. One of them was a new modern version with no stilts showing and used shaded glass windows extensively.

(4) Sadan

Kids playing in the mud

Two young boys herding a US$30,000 albino buffalo

Going to school

Going to next assignment

Five under 10 years old boys were playing in the empty and muddy paddy field like buffalo enjoying its muddy bath. They appeared partly playing and partly in the process of catching fish or digging some roots. A man was pushing his miniaturized plowing tractor probably to a new assignment site. This machine was gradually replacing the buffalo. We saw some men assembling some bamboos into a raft in the water filled field, but I couldn’t understand its usefulness. To me the only reason appeared to be the depth of the water was more than knee high. A group of small children were going home from school. I saw on this trip that all students were wearing uniform, and I asked the maid in Mei’s house, and she told me that the parents had to pay for the uniforms. The children in Toraja looked particularly small and skinny in comparison to children in other areas. Two young boys were herding a fat and completely albino buffalo that might fetch over US$30,000. Robbery was probably rare in this land.

We didn’t have lunch, and Linki appeared to be tired. The driver had recommended many times that we should try some local Toraja foods. We returned to the town of Roetenpao, and went to Gazedo Restaurant which was famous for this. The food must be ordered several hours ahead of time because it took time to cook. Linki didn’t want it and ordered only rice, we ordered a pork and a chicken papiong without asking what those food were.

Products for sale by the weavers

We were on our way to Sadan passing beautiful paddy fields and farming country. As we entered the village, we saw a row of low huts housing stores and workplaces for weaving. Three women came out of their house and went to their respective huts preparing to serve us. They used cotton threads, and the patterns they weaved were very similar probably they all learned from the same teacher. One of the weaver had pale skin, and she said that she had come back recently after living in Jakarta for a long time. She was happy to come back home. There was a beautiful stream with gravels passing in the back of the village, and there were two new pavilions which would be a good place to sit and relax.

(5) Palawa

House with thatch roof

Buffalo horns

There were many large regular tombs along the road as we approach the village. They took the form of a chamber above the ground, and the exterior were stucco and were probably built of bricks. One of the special feature of these traditional houses was their bamboo roof was partly covered by the overgrown ferns, and some houses had thatch roof using material made of the leaves of a certain palm tree. The other was the display of a large number of buffalo horns. In one house, its façade was almost completely covered by these horns, and there were a hundred of them. They were arranged in several columns with the longest horn at the bottom. Each column probably represented the sacrifices made on an occasion. The longest horn was over 5 feet.

(6) Bori

Phallus rocks

Burial chambers carved out of big boulder

We then entered a vast, rich and beautiful valley north of Rotenpao, and arrived at the burial ground. In addition to the chambers carved out of the hug boulders, there were many, over 50, short and tall cylindrical or rectangular rocks standing vertically on the ground. The tallest was over 10 feet high. It was certainly the reminiscent of the ancient worship of phallus. I walked up the small hill and saw a sign on a tree near the fence with an arrow indicating that an infant burial was 15 metre away. I didn’t realize anything special about it, but I did notice that a tall tree not far away had some back things wrapping around its trunk. Later, I was told that it was the baby burial.

Linki was tired and hungry, and we went back to the hotel to give Linki a rest. I took the opportunity to visit the telephone office enquiring the possibility of making a collect call to Visa office. I was told that the service was no longer available. I walked back and met Ching on the street. She found out that she had my wallet, and wanted to give it to me.

(7) Londa

Beautiful village

We drove through the beautiful farming area like in a picture, and arrived at Londa. There was to a souvenir shop at the entrance to the burial ground. It was taking care of by three boys. It started to rain. I learned from the guide book that we had to rent a lamp and hire a guide to see the burial ground in deep caves. We were just about to ask the boy, when a man came in. He told us the rent for a kerosene lamp was Rp25,000, and the tips for the guide was up to us.

Burial ground inside a cave

Tau tau standing in a balcony

Some part of the cave was low, and I had almost had to crawl in. Decayed coffins and corpses in wrappings were piling up in many corners, on top of the rock platforms, and the crevices in the cave. The cover of one coffin was damaged by decay and handling, and the skull and other contents inside were clearly visible. Some skeletons were scattered on the floor and higher ground. There were two skulls laying in a corner on the floor, and the guide told us that they belonged to a young suicide couple, Romeo and Juliet, he said. The cave was deep and we didn’t want to continue. The guide also showed us another cave close by. Many skeletons had been arranged and displayed to add the mystery of the place.

Huge cylindrical coffin

Kete-kisu

Our last stop for today was Kete-kisu. The roof was the traditional houses was thick thatch roof covered with green ferns and other vegetation. There were collective burial grounds in crevices, and there were many individual graves with huge coffins exposed above ground in pavilions with the style of a traditional house. One cylindrical coffin was bigger than an underground gas tank buried under a gas station. And one wooden coffin was carved like a pig.

Originally, Linki said that he wouldn’t join us for dinner, and would have it in the hotel by himself. We didn’t want to leave him alone, and went back to the hotel to fetch him for dinner. The pork papiong was a mixture of pork and a locally grown vegetable looked like the velvet colour Chinese xiancai cooked slowly over a small open fire in a 4 inches bamboo. For the chicken, the vegetable was replaced by the bud of banana. The pork had a little bitter and strong foreign taste. I didn’t like it. The chicken didn’t have the strong taste, and was more palatable. We should have ordered only one kind to try it.

Wednesday, 2011-3-16

The beautiful village of Lemo

We went to see Lemo, the site which we didn’t have time to see yesterday. It was one of the best sites that I liked. I learned from the guidebook that the best time to see this site was in the morning when the sun shined directly on the wall of the cliff where there were many tau tau on displayed. I mentioned this to the driver, but he won’t listen, and preferred to go by his schedule. It was good that we didn’t have time to see it late yesterday afternoon.

Tau tau in a balcony carved on the face of a rock

The site was a large rock outcrop in a beautiful and peaceful valley green with paddy. The rock had a flat and vertical section facing the sun, and on this side, the tau tau were standing on two side by side carved out balconies with their hand extended in welcoming posture. They were like VIP guests watching a game and clapping their hands. Their faces would be covered by the shadow of the balcony cave when the sun was up. There were many rectangular holes or chambers carved out on the surface of this rock like beehives, and they were covered by wooden frame with a handle at the middle for the ease of opening it. Some of the covers were missing, and we could peek at its contents. The corpses were wrapped in fabrics and piled up on top of each other like in a seldom-used storage area.

He was making tau tau for sale

There were several huts scattered on the trail selling imitating tau tau sculptures and others. Several foreigners came after us with their guide. As Ching was shopping for some souvenirs, I saw a large tree with feather like thinly grown leaves with many parasite plants on its branches like mistletoes. I was surprised of this finding.

Beautiful scenery

We left Toraja and returned to Makassar. The mountain scenery was very attractive as we approached the Gunung Nona, where the dense tree covers had been replaced by cultivated field and fresh looking low vegetation. We stopped and had snack in the restaurant across the valley from Gunung Nona. We had the best avocado in this trip.It was very relaxing, and I would certainly like to stay here for vacation. There were good motorbike trail going down the valley. The limestone mountain looked particularly beautiful and majestic after we left the Arch of Toraja Land. There was a new house built on a newly cultivated land facing the cliff of this limestone mountain. It commanded the perfect view, and I asked the driver to talk to the house owner if he was interested in selling it. And he said that he would think about it. The only disadvantage was this was no longer in the Toraja land, and the population was mostly Muslim. There was small souvenir shop next to the arch, and it was taken care of by one 8 years old sister and two brothers a few years younger than her. They looked cute, and knew all the prices. They sold the vanilla bean, and they also showed me its vine.

Originally, we wanted to stop to try the wild duck, but we were still feeling full and we wanted to get back to Makassar to try the ikan kudu, the blowfish, for dinner. Therefore, we skipped the duck and went straight to Makassar.

The driver took us to Rumah Makan Bahiri in China town. We chose two big kudu fish each over a foot long, which was twice the size of fish, which we had tasted in Vera’s uncle house. The cost was Rp50,000 each. The driver had suggested that the best way to eat the fish was by deep fried in batter. And that was what we chose. Actually, it was a mistake. We should have ordered one for roasting and one for deep fried. As it turned out, the deep fried was too dry and we hardly ahd the real taste of the fish. We had also ordered a steamed gurapi for Rp90,000 a kilo which was very delicious. We went checked-in in Makassar Golden Hotel after dinner. Ching wanted to buy some rubbing oil which was the famous local product. We went to a store close to the hotel. A Chinese girl, over 20 years old, was on the counter, and she spoke some Mandarin with Ching.

Congested canal

Marine workshop next to the canal

We were in Makassar mainly to arrange for the trip to Toraja. It was a big and busy commercial city, and there were not many interesting places to see. We visit the old fort which had now turned into a museum, and the busy port seeing many Bugis ships. Beside the port was a canal and a fishing market. The canal was packed with fishing boats and commuter boats. Along the road, there were many stands selling large salted fish. Barbeque fish was a very popular dish. The fish was fresh and it taste was delicious. Another popular food was barbeque banana sold in many stands along any street.