Tana Toraja
Beautiful village nestled within the countryside of Sulawesi, known for its extremely unique funeral culture
Getting to and around Tana Toraja
Getting to Tana Toraja From Makassar
There’s a bus from Makassar that will take you directly to Tana Toraja. It departs twice a day and is a 9-10 hour long journey. The day bus leaves at 9am and arrives at 7pm, and the night bus leaves at 9pm and arrives at 6am. Bus tickets cost 250K per person ($15).
If you stayed the night at Rammang Rammang, you can also hop on the bus from there at around 10pm. Once you arrive in Rantepao, the main city of Tana Toraja, check with your host for the best way to reach your accommodation from the bus stop. Our host so kindly came and picked us up (at 5:30 in the morning!).
There are a handful of bus companies, but we took the night bus from Metro Permai. The bus had very comfortable sleeper seats, but try and get a seat towards the front of the bus, where it’s cooler and less shaky. There’s no bathroom aboard the bus, but the driver will make stops if you request.
Getting to Tana Toraja from Tentena
There’s a 14 hour bus from Tentena to Tana Toraja. We took the bus from Tana Toraja to Tentena and I honestly can’t find much information about the reverse direction, so unfortunately can’t provide much detailed information. Contact your homestay host in Tentena and Tana Toraja, and they should be able to help you arrange bus tickets.
Getting around Tana Toraja
You’ll need to rent a scooter to get around Tana Toraja. There’s so much to explore beyond the main town of Rantepao that if you want to be able to experience the countryside and attend what Tana Toraja is most famous for, the funerals, you’ll need a scooter. There are a few rental shops in town that you can rent from, or your homestay may have scooter rentals. We rented a scooter from our homestay for 100K IDR / day ($6), which seemed to be the standard price.
How long to stay in Tana Toraja
Tana Toraja is known for its extremely unique funeral practices, and is also a beautiful village set amidst the countryside. Many people come for only 2-3 days to see the funeral practices, but we ended up staying a full week there exploring the region, as it was beautiful with much to see! We stayed in our homestay for a couple of days just reading and working on our laptops, so I would recommend around 5 days for fully exploring. In 5 days, you’ll be attend 1 or 2 funeral events, explore the beautiful surrounding countryside and mountains, and visit traditional villages surrounding Rantepao.
Where to stay in Tana Toraja
The main town of Tana Toraja is Rantepao. We stayed at Villa Luna, a homestay a bit outside of the main town. We absolutely loved our stay and would highly recommend it. It was nice and also affordable - 150K IDR ($9) per night for a private room including a nice breakfast. The rooms and common areas are very comfortable, and the house feels a bit like a retreat in nature. The best part is the extremely kind owner, Lynda, who went out of her way to help us with everything we needed and really made it feel like home there. To book, you can contact Lynda directly on WhatsApp +62 813-4210-2690.
Another guesthouse we were recommended is Mama Tia Homestay. While we didn’t stay here ourselves, we heard good things from other travelers.
Lastly, a friend of mine also stayed at Villa Bait Lino, a bungalow surrounded by rice fields, and absolutely loved it and would highly recommend.
What to do in Tana Toraja
Attend a funeral
The most common reason people visit Tana Toraja is to experience their extremely unique funeral practices. The lives of Torajan people are centered around funerals. Funerals are a multi-day event and designed to be a grand celebration of life for the deceased person. They are designed to bring as much luck as possible for the deceased in the afterlife.
Buffalo sacrifice is central to the funeral, as they believe that buffalo guide the deceased to heaven. From a young age, they are taught to start earning and saving money, for eventually buying buffalo when their parents and elders pass away. The buffalo can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and depending on the family’s wealth, there can be anywhere from 6 buffalo to hundreds of buffalo sacrificed during the funeral. Further, if the family doesn’t have enough money to buy buffalo and put on a proper funeral when someone passes away, they will keep their dead in the house for as long as it takes to buy the buffalo and hold the funeral, sometimes even for years.
While the funeral practices can be difficult to watch with the amount of animal sacrifice involved, it’s an extremely unique culture to experience and should be a part of your Toraja visit.
Visit burial sites
Torajans don’t believe in burying their dead underground. Instead, their graveyards are built into the sides of cliffs and in caves. There are many burial sites featuring different styles of graves to visit.
Ke’te Kesu – Traditional tongkanans, tau-tau, and hanging graves
Lemo – Famous cliff graves and tau-tau
Londa – Cliff, cave, and tau-tau
Lo’ko Mata – Rock grace with great mountain views on the way
Kambira Sangalla – baby graves in a tree
Kote – Baby graves in a tree
Visit Bolu Market to see buffalo being sold
Bolu Market is a big traditional market. But what makes this market particularly special, is that buffalo are sold here for the Torajan funeral practices! Buffalo can cost anywhere between a few thousand USD to tens of thousands of USD.
Drive around and explore the countryside by scooter
The area around Tana Toraja is beautiful. There’s countryside, rice fields, and mountains all around. It’s definitely worth taking a day or two to drive around and experience it, stopping through viewpoints and local villages.
Batutumonga Village – Traditional village in the mountains with beautiful views. Definitely recommend!
Lolai – Nice, scenic viewpoint at the top of a mountain. Supposed to be a good place for sunrise.
Palawa Village – Traditional village featuring many tongkonan.
Balusu Village – Traditional village with beautiful rice fields all around.
Visit the local street food market
There’s a street food market surrounding a park in Rantepao here. There’s dozens of cheap, local Indonesian food options and a nice spot for local people watching.
Take a day trip, or a multi-day trip, to the surrounding mountains
Tebing Romantis Ollon is a beautiful mountain area 2 hours away from Rantepao. There’s great hiking and it’s a beautiful place to stay for a couple days or make a day trip to.
How do the funerals work?
Funerals are a 4-5 day affair in Torajan culture, and each day of the funeral is different.
Greeting day, where the family welcomes the community to the festivities to come
Bringing the body to the ceremony
Funeral ceremony and reception
Buffalo sacrifice
Burial
If visitors are interested in seeing a funeral, they are usually invited to attend Day 3, the main reception day. While you may think it’s strange to attend a stranger’s funeral, visitors are all happily welcomed and even embraced, as they believe that the more people that attend, the more luck the deceased person will have in reaching the afterlife. Expect to spend a few hours at the reception where you’ll see traditional ceremonies, singing, dancing, some animal sacrifice (they sacrifice a few buffalo and pigs for lunch), and you’ll even be fed by the family.
You can also attend Day 4, the buffalo sacrifice day, but be aware you’ll be witnessing up to dozens of buffalo being sacrificed. We attended this and while it was very interesting to experience, it was too much for us and we left after the sacrifice of just a few buffalo.
Here’s our YouTube video for an inside look into the Funeral Day and Buffalo Sacrifice Day.
What to eat in Tana Toraja
Salebayu Restaurant – Restaurant attached to a large bungalow accommodation with beautiful views over rice fields. Large Indonesian food menu with slightly higher prices for the ambience.
Randan Uma Coffee Roastery – Part coffee shop and part traditional Indonesian restaurant with extremely cute individual dining huts over rice fields. Good food and good prices, especially for the ambience.
Rumah Makan Soponyono – Local warung with cheap, good Indonesian food. The best nasi goreng!
Kaana Toraya Coffee – Very cute cafe with some Western food options like sandwiches and toast, Indonesian food, and coffee. Good food and good price.
Street food area – This area around a park has dozens of local street food stalls. A good place to get good and cheap food amongst locals.
