Travel Photo: Local Guide inside Grave Cave at Londa, Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi

Local Guide inside Grave Cave at Londa, Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi

Date Taken: September 13, 2013

Taken by: Ferry Wijaya

Location: Londa, Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi

~In Toraja culture, one of the places to bury the corpses of Torajan people is inside the cave at Londa~

Landscape Photography: Bukit Nona Toraja

Bukit Nona, Toraja, South Sulawesi

Date Taken: September 13, 2013

Taken by: Ferry Wijaya

Location: Bukit Nona, South Sulawesi

~Bukit Nona is about 1 hour from Tana Toraja~

~One of the gates to go to Tana Toraja is from Makassar~

~Tana Toraja (Tator) can be reached from Makassar for about 8 hours driving~

~Tana Toraja is one of the best cultural travel in Indonesia~

Go Back in Time at Fort Rotterdam Makassar

A visit to Makassar, used to be Ujungpandang, will not be complete without a visit to Ford Rotterdam....

Entry to Fort Rotterdam is absolutely free. You can sign up your name as a visitor at the entry office near the entrance.

Fort Rotterdam is basically operated as a museum in Makassar City.

Fort Rotterdam is one of the highlights when I visited Makassar in September 2013.

Toraja - Rich in Culture & Tradition

So, I haven't been updating this travel blog of mine for quite some time. But, I decided to update this blog with an entry of my recent travel to Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi / Celebes, Indonesia.

It was such a surreal experience. While it might not be one of the most popular travel destinations among Indonesians, it could be very interesting to international tourists who are looking for something new, especially those who are interested in cultures and traditions.

Starting my journey by car from Makassar, the Capital of South Sulawesi, at 10pm, the road trip took about 8 hours. We decided to sleep in the car for that night. Thank God for a good and strong driver who didn't sleep through the night. Thinking about it now, it was quite insane and tiring. But it was all worth it when we saw the many interesting and unique sites in Toraja.

We arrived in Toraja at about 9 am, since we took a roadside break for about 2 hours to let the driver catch some zzz-s.

The first site we visited was LONDA. The site which has graves in caves....

In front of the graveyard caves....

Venturing inside the cave... At some parts we had to crawl up and down through the cave....

We were also lucky enough to attend a Torajan funeral ceremony which was apparently visited by some foreign tourists. One of the tourists said that they had to donate a cow for the ceremony while we didn't have to.....

A tourist taking picture of the ceremony

 The relatives of the deceased....

After watching the ceremony, we went to the next site which was Kete' Kesu which is a colony of some villagers.... it's so nice to see a group of "Tongkonan" (traditional Torajan ancestral Houses) and the types of houses where they live in....

Next was Londa with a Torajan tomb in a high rocky cliff.

There is also this unique custom in Tana Toraja that the bury babies who died before they reached six months old in trees.

"Baby Trees"

Apparently a trip to Tana Toraja was a quite unique and interesting one..... A trip which you won't forget for the rest of your life and probably the only experience you can't get anywhere else in the world.

A look at one of the many cultures of Indonesia at Tana Toraja was an absolute eye-opener of how rich Indonesia is in culture and tradition....