South Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan)

1. Tana Toraja: Land of The Heavenly Kings
The road from Makassar or Ujung Pandand to Toraja runs along the coast for about 130 km's and then hits the mountains. After the entrance to Tana Toraja you enter a majestic landscape with giant gray, granites and stones and blue mountains at a distance after passing the market village of Mebali. They form a sharp contrast with the lively green of the fertile, rain-fed terraces and the rusty read of the tropical laterite soil. This is Tana Toraja, one of the most splendid areas in Indonesia.
Tana Toraja has a specific and unique funeral ceremony which is called Rambu Solo. In Tana Toraja, dead body is not buried, but it is put in Tongkonan for several times, even can be more than ten years until the family have enough money to held the ceremony. After ceremony, the dead body is brought to the cave or to the wall of the mountain. The skulls show us that the dead body is not buried but just put on stone or ground, or put in the hole.The funeral festival season begins when the last rice has been harvested, usually in late June or July, and lasts through to September.
To Do:
o Exploring the market; You should not to be missed going to the traditional market. Here you can get the top end of Toraja coffee beans [like Robusta and Arabica]. And several local veggies, fruits Tamarella or Terong Belanda and gold fish [ikan mas].
o Visit Batu Tumonga Plateu; It means stone that facing to the sky. From here can be seen many volcanic stones comes up in between padi fields. And, several giant stones became cave graveyard. The views is pretty awesome. The huge of Tana Toraja [Toraja land] looks so lush and greenery. Like a patchwork in gradation hue of green color
o Palawa is an excellent village to visit a Tongkonan, or a burial place still swarming with celebrations and festivals.
o Take a side trip from Rantepao to Kete, a traditional village with excellent handicraft shops. Behind the village on a hillside is a grave site with lifesize statues guarding over old coffins
2. The Bugis Pinisi Schooner
When sailing in the Indonesian seas one invariably meets one of these majestic traditional schooners at full sail. These are the Bugis pinisi, - or sometimes written phinisi - that have for centuries plied these waters journeying as far away as Malacca, Burma, Vietnam and Australia. Today one can see these large traditional boats at anchor along the Sunda Kelapa harbor in Jakarta and at the Ujung wharf of Surabaya unloading timber from Kalimantan, or at the Paotere harbor in Makassar, South Sulawesi, or even at the small port of Labuan Bajo on Flores.
The Bugis together with the Mandar, both of South Sulawesi, are master shipbuilders and superb mariners. These pinisi boats have carried the Bugis far across the archipelago and many have further settled on Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Papua, and the Nusatenggara islands. The Bugis were not only respected as master seafarers but were also greatly feared as pirates.
In the 18th century when the Dutch colonized their homeland, many aristocrats sailed to Malaya (present day Malaysia) and Kalimantan. The Sultans of Kutai in East Kalimantan and of Johor and Selangor in Malaysia are of Bugis descent. The original Bugis heartland is in Luwu on the Bay of Bone, where in the 13th.and 14th. century thrived a large Bugis kingdom. Here the Bugis great literary work “I La Galigo” was composed that relates the story of the origins of the Bugis in more than 6,000 pages.
The Bugis pinisi of 100 tons to 200 tons today still play a vital role in traditional transport and inter-island trade. In the 19th century Bugis perahus (boats) were loaded with European and Chinese manufactured goods from Singapore carrying these to far away Dobo in the Aru Islands in East Nusatenggara stopping at remote ports along the route. From the Indonesian islands they gathered birds-of-paradise feathers, sandalwood, spices, gold and pepper to sell them at significant profit in Singapore to Chinese and Indian merchants.
Today, the Bugis pinisi carry all sorts of cargo from timber to cement, house tiles, rice, sugar, up to motorcycles and crates of cigarettes to sell these to islanders in the archipelago.
Nowadays also, the Bugis pinisi are refitted to serve as unique traditional live-aboards for divers to pristine locations especially in the eastern Indonesian islands. These sturdy vessels now come complete with cabins, kitchen and toilet facilities to accommodate members of diving expeditions to the Komodo park in Flores and the Raja Ampat national park near Sorong, in West Papua.
The present-day large Bugis pinisi are said to be partly copied from the western schooner of the mid-nineteenth century. The pinisi is a larger version from the former Bugis perahus used, known as the perahu patorani and the padewakang.
The Bugis pinisi today have tall ketch rigs of seven sails, including two topsails and 2 tall masts.

3. Visit the Land of Heaven
According to myth and legend, the single ancestor of the Toraja people originated from heaven. This myth passed into legend as it was told from generation to generation. Today the people of Toraja continue telling the myth that the first ancestor of the Toraja used “stairway to go down from heaven”, the functioned of this stairway was as a media to communicate with Puang Matua (The Only One God).
The name of Toraja was given by the Bugis Sidendereng tribe and the people of Luwu. The Sidendereng people named the population of this region “Riaja” ("The first people inhabiting the upper part of country or mountainous area"). In the meantime, the people of Luwu called these people “Riajang” ("People inhabiting in the west"). Another version is the word ‘Toraya’ coined from To (Tau = people), and Raya (coined from the word Maraya = great). The two words together mean “great people”, or noble man. Eventually, the term morphed into Toraja. The word “Tana” means country. The Toraja inhabitants were eventually known as Tana Toraja.
Tanah Toraja is a fascinating tourist destination known for its many cultures. This regency, situated about 350 km to the north of Makassar, is known for its traditional house style. The traditional house is called “Tongkonan”. The roof is made of palm or coconut leaves and has a life expectancy of about 50 years before needing replacement. This Tongkonan also has a stratum in line with its community nobility hierarchy categorized as gold, bronze, iron and brass. Another attraction in Tanah Toraja is rambu solo, the traditional burial ceremony which is note worthy primarily because of the children’s graves being within living trees. The children are buried in Tarra tree trunks at Kambira Kampong, Sangalla village, about 20 kilometers from Rantepao. These graves were prepared for children of 0-7 years. This children’s burial right has not been performed in tens of years. However, the trees in which the children are buried are still growing and visited by many tourists. The fruit of the Tarra tree is similar to breadfruit and consumed by the locals, primarily in a vegetable soup.

(references: www.indonesia.travel and www.my-indonesia.info)