Ma'gellu' dance perform in Rambu tuka' ritual
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
Ma'randing dance often perform in Rambu solo' ritual
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
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Pa'pompang, traditional musical from bamboo
flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a Jew's harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies. Text Source: Wikipedia |
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Toraja Carving
The Toraja language is only spoken; no writing system exists. To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation. Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool. See list of Toraja carvings motif here: http://batusura.de/ukiran.htm Text Source: Wikipedia |
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 Toraja has a rich and ancient heritage in traditional textiles. Some very fine ikat textile is produced in Toraja. Ikat and weaving villages can generally be found around the north and west of Toraja. Ikat and weaving is important for the Toraja people. In the past, people in Toraja sold their livestock, buffalo, or their agriculture pickings just for getting the ikat textiles. Ikat at that moment represent one of the highest valuable of goods that symbolize the prosperity and the glory.
Torajans learn the way of weaving from their ancestor by generations but not all of them earn skillful to weave the best and high quality of Tradisional woven such as ikat (sekomandi) , tali tobatu , paruki’, tannun kamandang , ect. People in Toraja who can weave are the peoples who live along North and West of Toraja.
In South Celebes (Sulawesi) there are two center areas of ikat weaving textiles: KALUMPANG and RONGKONG (west), both situated in the more isolated areas of Torajaland. The closest to Toraja is Kalumpang, in West Toraja, north of Mamasa, it take 3 to 5 days walking to reach this villages.
 The other weaving textile area that produced Paruki' woven is SA'DAN (north) 25 minutes driving from Rantepao town. Each area has its own distinct colors and patterns. Buffalo and other patterns from Toraja wood carvings often become the primary motif of Toraja ikat. Nowadays only a few Toraja ikat exist, Toraja ikat has been dramatically decreased in quantity at the moment.
In Toraja vilages specially in Kalumpang, Ronkong and Sa'dan village we can still find women sitting in the shade weaving with a simple back-strap loom in front of their house. Several years ago it was quite common to find women weaving in their house now the amount of them are dramatically decreased.
Some women who make the ikat still use the traditional method of spinning and dyeing cotton with leaves, roots, and bark. This traditional weaving method consumes an immense amount of time and labor. To get the right color the cloth has to be subjected to repeated dippings in natural dyes. It can take months before they are ready to be used. Because this is very time consuming others prefer to use machine spun thread and synthetic dyes. For finished one Toraja ikat need months.
In Toraja, traditional woven is mainly used as clothing, wall decoration or serves in the system of gift exchanges. In some cases they are used as gift to other village. The Toraja woven which come in various qualities and thickness, were used in funeral rites or other traditional ritual.
Source: Todi.co.id |
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 A specialist (pande tau-tau) fashions the effigy out of nangka-wood. Certain individuals have won fame in the making of these dolls; the carving supplies them with supplementary income. Well-known pande are Teken in Kesu' and Pong Salapu in Sangalla'. Today, resemblance to the deceased is the specialist's goal. Nowadays, since some tau-tau craftsmen, Teken, or Olle, have had training in sculpture on Bali, increasing verisimilitude is being achieved but, it seems to me, at the cost of something of the fascination and mystery characteristic of early death dolls.
Manufacture of the tau-tau is accompanied by offerings. Tau-tau have the genitals of whichever sex which they represent. The dolls have movable limbs so that, for example, even the forearm and upperarm can be detached from each other. The head, too, can be removed. Old effigies found in the vicinity of ancient coffins, do not have movable limbs.
The tau-tau are clothed exactly like a Toraja of status - in an early phase of the ritual, in simple garments, but in grand apparel when he is carried to the slaughtering place of the kerbau.
Source: Batusura.de |
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