Tana Toraja trip

March 2004 - A four day stay in Tana Toraja including daily trips through the mountainous, rainy and warm area gives you a wonderfull look inside the daily life here. However much has changed for the sake of 'modernization', there are still many locations where you can still enjoy the very basics of life.

		Far view Tana Toraja is known for it's high mountains, long mountain roads and far views on top of those ...			Tau Tau The world-famous tau-tau puppets, which represent the dead, buried behind every puppet, in the rock. The tau-tau are ...			Rock graves There are more rock graves than there are tau-tau, because these puppets are only for the more wealthy ...
		Coffins These wooden coffins contain the bones of entire families. Some of the coffins are very old, and broken, ...			Family cave Behind this fence is an entire family of puppets. It's not visible on this image, because it was ...			Shelter for the dead These 'houses' are not houses at all. However they can be more luxurious and big than the house ...
		Hunting We were just taking a break outside the van when we noticed this big bird being on the ...			Just luck and nothing more than pure luck. This boa was dragged from the jungle earlier that day. They caught ...			Baby tree This big tree, which died quite some years ago already, houses several little babies which have died during ...
		Muddy river This is not the Yellow River in China, but a small branch of the mighty Sa'dan River which ...			Bright red Bright red traditional shaped roofs of Torajan houses can be seen across Tana Toraja. It's not the color ...			Church Most of the people in Tana Toraja are Christian, causing them not to go to mosques, but to ...
		Tomb Another huge tomb in which an entire family finds it's last resting place. They are probably the most ...			Dark sky And before you know the sun is hiding behind some big thundershowers and the sky comes falling down ...			Jalan-jalan After driving around for hours from one place to another, I just wanted to take a break. I ...
		Daily life What was a one time offer for me, is daily life for the people here. They had to ...			Roadblock Whoops.. When walking back we encountered a roadblock. Though we weren't asked for pasports or visa, passing it ...			Pasar kerbau More of those huge animals. These are used as labour force, and cost an astonishing Rp. 50,000,000 each, ...
		Pig in bag Behind the market for waterbuffalo's, pigs are traded, not the meat, no entire living pigs. Most of them ...			More pigs These pigs are probably better of than the ones in the bag, though they still have little place ...			Wide view A panoramic view across sawah's, with some traditional houses in the background. Sun shining bright today. ...
		Schoolkids Those outfits are a familiar sight all across Indonesia because all schoolkids untill highschool have their own colors. ...			Playing A youngster has found it's new toy for the day. It's a feet of a kerbau, which is ...			Elements Many colors and elements are included in this picture. From the bright green ricefields, to the dark grey ...
		Expensive concrete This 'coffin', because that's what it is, is a quite expensife one. It seems to be made of ...			Lazy couple In the heat of the day, it's better not to overwork or to make yourself tired. It can ...			Woodcarving Not a little bit of work, but work for several weeks for a few people. This rice-storage is ...
		No machine And making such woodcarving is still completely done by hand. It's a hell of a job if I ...			Landslide The driver stopped across the valley and drove backwards to see what happened there. I was amazed by ...			Houses and sawah's The magnificent views of Tana Toraja, one more time before we left the area for an eight hour ...
		Curtain of rain Upon leaving Tana Toraja, we got an extra surprise in the form of a heavy rainshower which came ...