About this place

Torajaland is home to the Toraja ethnic group. They are located in highland in South Sulawesi, 300 km north of Makassar. They are most famous and attract numerous visitors because of their house architecture and interesting tradition. Their houses have the roof in shape of a ´boat´. These roofs were traditionally made of bamboo and other material, but today people mostly build iron roofs. These houses are called Tongkonan and are positioned on wooden piles. Its walls are painted in black, red, and yellow and have carvings. These houses have both traditional and religious value since, according to the legend, the first Torajan ancestor saw this way of building before he came from heaven to Earth. The carvings in houses are in the shape of plants and animals. These houses must face North while the South represents the heaven. The left and the right sides represent the left and right hands. Of course, people of different social position had more richly or poorly decorated houses. This way, Tongkonan layuk belonged to the most important authorities, tongkonan pekamberan belonged to the middle status or related to the high authorities while the tongkonan batu belonged to the ordinary people.