The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a
mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is
approximately 1 million people, with 500,000 of whom
still live in Tana Toraja
Regency, Toraja Utara Regency, and Mamasa Regency. Most of the population is Christian, and
others are Muslim and have local beliefs known as "Aluk
To Dolo". The
Indonesian government has recognized this belief as Aluk
To Dolo ("Way of the
Ancestors").
The word Toraja comes from the Bugis language's To Riaja,
meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named
the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans
are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky
cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as Tongkonan,
and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are
important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for
several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in
autonomous villages, where untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s,
Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan
highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in
the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by
tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism
peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly,
from an agrarian model in which social life and customs were out growths of the
Aluk To Dolo
to a largely Christian society.
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toraja
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