Uniqueness Tombs in Toraja, Makasar

Uniqueness Tombs in Toraja, Makasar

On the wall of a steep hill, visible coffins piled up at the crack of cliff. Wood sculpture man complete with clothes lined neatly carved in the cliff wall like a window of a house. Not far from the tomb hanging, hidden a burial cave hundreds of years old. This is the place that have led many travelers from all over the world. Make sure you enter the Londa in the list of destinations that should be visited. Not to Londa Toraja then you do not know!

Every tribe in the world with the customs and beliefs have different ways of honoring and burying dead relatives. It is no secret that the way the people of Tana Toraja (especially the nobility) to bury their relatives is one of the most unique in the world. A series of expensive traditional funeral (Signs Solo) and the tomb caves on high cliffs that you can find in Tana Toraja, Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Londa is one of the most popular burial cave as a tourist destination in Tana Toraja. Londa attractions in the village of Sandan Uai, District Sanggalangi. Located approximately 7 kilometers from the southern city of Rantepao, a tourism center and accommodation for tourists. Therefore, Londa easily reached by public transportation such as minibus, taxi, or rental car or motorcycle.

To reach the cave eating Londa, you have to down some stairs. Make sure before you hire a lantern petromak of local communities for 25,000, -. To enter the tomb of Londa cave, you really need a lamp as a torch. You can bring your own lantern or ask someone (who also serves as a guide) to take him. Typically, special burial cave tour guide Londa not determine tariffs, you are free to decide.

From a distance, it looks dirimbuni precipice green trees. If your eyes are observant, you may notice the brightly colored coffins tucked in the crevices of the cliff wall. At the foot of a high cliff this lush, hidden natural cave used as a tomb.

Arriving at the cave, you may soon catch mystique. Nature is still green and wild and cold mountain weather will also welcome upon arrival at the location. On the walls of the cliffs around the cave, you will see a row of wooden statues (tau-tau) in the same chiseled stone cliffs without glass display case for the statues. Tau-tau is a carved wood as closely as possible with the bodies buried there. Usually wood is selected jackfruit wood that tends to yellow, the color closest to the color of human skin. Some of tau-tau is made by looking at the details; line wrinkles or sagging skin of the neck because it was an old carved carefully.

Around ranks tau-tau, appear coffins (erong) are supported by a wood in such a way that the crates are safe to be on the cliff. Apparently this is the tomb hanging man often cited as another attraction of Tana Toraja. Casket (erong) is the coffin position of the nobility or honor. The higher the location of the casket, the higher the degree of bodies buried there.

Toraja people believe that the dead can bring fortune to a life after death. This is one reason why they buried coffins in high places. In addition to protecting the buried treasure involved, they also believe that the higher the coffin lies closer to the spirit of the deceased journey into the place after death (nirvana).

Before entering the cave, it appears the bones scattered. The bones are from a coffin fell off a cliff because of its place hung or coffin was destroyed with age. Skull and bones can be placed in a new coffin, only to do so shall also conducted ceremonies are very expensive; ceremony may be the same as the first coffin was buried.

The funeral is customary for the bodies Toraja nobleman known as Solo Signs. In order to perform this ceremony, relatives left behind shall kill approximately 24 to 100 buffaloes (the nobility) or approximately 8 buffaloes and 50 pigs (the middle class). To qualify, the family of the deceased often takes months or even years to be able to collect all the necessary requirements in performing a ritual signs Solo. While waiting for the ceremony was held, the body is considered not died completely (pain). Therefore, the body will be stored in custom rumat (tongkonan) and treated as a living person, for example by giving favorite foods, cigarettes, and more. The objects are placed in the same casket offerings. The bodies are stored before dibalsam order not to cause odor.

As you browse the cave, there are many more skulls and bones scattered about. In some places, it looks too coffins are stacked or arranged in such a way. The setting was adjusted to lineage or family. In addition to the casket, there were also clothes or cigarettes deliberately placed there by relatives corpse. Reportedly, a collection of skulls and bones in the cave has tens or even hundreds of years old.

Natural burial cave Londa has a depth of up to 1000 meters. In tracing the contours burial cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites, you need to be careful. In some parts of the cave, the cave height of only about 1 meter, so you need to walk bent.

Conditions dark cave likely add an aura of mystical cave tomb. However, a trip through the cave tomb of Londa certainly is an experience that you will not get elsewhere. Make sure you do not move let alone intend to take the bones, skulls, or other objects in the tomb area, because this is one of ethics that should be followed when entering the ancestral tomb of Toraja people. One more thing to note if you visit Londa: You shall request prior authorization to carry betel nut or flower.

If there is a coffin fell because of the fragile cliff where originally placed, the bones, skulls, or others and may not be transferred without the approval of a series of ceremonies and traditional Toraja. Therefore, you need to be careful not to step on the bones and skull, let alone move