On Foot to Tana Toraja, Sulawesi’s Traditional Heartland
On Foot to Tana Toraja, Sulawesi’s Traditional Heartland
The mountain village was full of sound: running water, the voices of children, buffalo lowing in the rice terraces, and goats bleating in the pine trees on the higher slopes. But there was no traffic noise; the nearest surfaced road was a full day’s walk back across the mountains.
I was sitting in the shade outside Ibu Maria’s house in the hamlet of Timbaan, enjoying the cool of the evening, and watching the first stars appearing in the pale sky above the pine-studded ridges. I had begun my solo trek that morning. There were two days of walking ahead of me, but if the landscapes I had seen already were anything to go by, the aches and blisters would all be worth it.
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Sulawesi is the great, spidery, four-legged Indonesian island that lies east of Borneo. With a hinterland of green mountains, and clear coral seas offshore, it is one of the most intriguing of
Indonesia’s islands. Sulawesi’s most famous attraction is Tana Toraja, an upland fastness in the centre of the island’s southwest “leg”. Home to mountains, tumbling rice terraces, and traditional culture, it stands out even amongst Indonesia’s myriad wonders.
Most visitors to Toraja make their way directly from Sulawesi’s capital Makassar by bus or air, but I had chosen an off-beat route, one that would entail three days of walking through the mountains from the remote neighbouring region of Mamasa. I was slipping into Tana Toraja through the back door.
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Tim Hannigan
is originally from Cornwall in the southwest of the UK and has wandered all over Asia and the Middle East. A freelance writer and photographer, until recently he was based in Indonesia where he wrote on travel for the Jakarta Post and other publications. Now back in Britain, he plans to head east again before too long.
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