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Philip Game | profile | all galleries >> Indonesia & East Timor (12 galleries) >> Tanah Toraja, southern Sulawesi tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Ubud, Bali's heartland | Kuta Beach revisited | Villa stay outside Ubud, Bali | Nusa Lembongan, Bali | Volcanoes of Indonesia | Jakarta, the 'Big Durian' | Journeys across Java | Tanah Toraja, southern Sulawesi | Timika, West Papua | Nusa Tenggara, the islands east of Bali | Backpacking through Indonesia in 1975-76 | East Timor (Timor Leste)

Tanah Toraja, southern Sulawesi

From Ujung Pandang (Makassar), the unlovely capital of southern Sulawesi - Celebes on old maps - a long, straight road crosses the flat plains dotted with Muslim villages, before climbing at last into the lush hill country of Tanah Toraja (TATOR), the home of the Toraja people known for their extravagant funerary rituals and boat-shaped houses.

No prizes for the photography here, but the scanning, Photoshopping and displaying of the 1987 images captured in these deteriorating 35mm negatives allows me to revive memories of a time and place that remains off the beaten track.

High-resolution scans are available for licensing.

Traditional boat-shaped Toraja home
Traditional boat-shaped Toraja home		 Buffalo horns adorn a traditional home
Buffalo horns adorn a traditional home		 Traditional boat-shaped Toraja homes
Traditional boat-shaped Toraja homes
Traditional boat-shaped Toraja rice granaries
Traditional boat-shaped Toraja rice granaries		 Resting under a tongkonan or rice granary
Resting under a tongkonan or rice granary		 Kete Kesu village
Kete Kesu village
Tau Tau or effigies of the dead adorn graves in a cliff face
Tau Tau or effigies of the dead adorn graves in a cliff face		 Toraja coffin and ancestral skulls
Toraja coffin and ancestral skulls		 Viewing pavilion at a Toraja funeral
Viewing pavilion at a Toraja funeral
Mourners at a Toraja funeral
Mourners at a Toraja funeral		 Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral
Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral		 Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral
Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral
Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral
Buffalo sacrifice at a Toraja funeral		 Toraja funerals are enormous affairs
Toraja funerals are enormous affairs		 Mourners at a Toraja funeral
Mourners at a Toraja funeral

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Marion MacQueen 07-Apr-2011 13:14
It's interesting to compare these photos with what I saw last week. Some differences but a lot the same.
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