A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. History įrom the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups-the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators). The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders-such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi-than with insiders. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. Before Dutch colonisation and Christianisation, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. ![]() The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Tana Toraja, Palawa, painted front of a tongkonan house, ca. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model-in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo-to a largely Christian society. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism development and studied by anthropologists. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.īefore the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. ![]() Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colourful wood carvings. The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. The word Toraja comes from the Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim ( Torajan Muslims) or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). ![]() The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |