Life and Death

All these types of burial mean that valuable farming land is not wasted by space taken up for cemeteries. It is a very scenic area with green valleys and rice paddies dominated by limestone hills. But it is the Torajan houses which provide a spectacular setting in this serene landscape.

The wooden houses are built on high stilts, and have large curved roofs. These roofs are said to resemble ships or buffalo horns: ships to represent the means of transport by which the settlers arrived, and horns because the buffalo is an important animal linking man to his ancestors. All the houses point north, the direction from which the settlers came. Opposite the houses are smaller replicas which are used as rice barns. Both the houses and rice barns are intricately carved, and are further decorated with buffalo horns. It is good to see that these Torajan people have not lost their culture but still practice it today.