FUNERAL WAIT FOR YEARS

The skulls inside the rock

                                             Carry the corpse and lay it down in a hole
If you have any plan to travel to Celebes or Sulawesi island, the best place to go is to visit a funeral ceremony at a certain time in a year. This old tradition or culture still keep running in modern age even a lot of the member tribes got a higher education and most of population were christian.

Actually he body didn't buried but they keep it at  Tongkonan home for some time, some  to 10 years until family members can afford to held a big ceremony. The skulls of their love one, then take to the grave yard or hole in the rocks belong to the certain family. Some grave locate in a higher rock hill facing the road. The ceremony will take place after the last harvest, usually start from June to October each year.

The ceremony or the procession will take days and by the culture summons all  of  their big family members  . Every single members will come with their sacrifices as pigs and cows. The higher status of the pass away in the community affect the length of days of the celebration and spend much more money to feed all communities attending the funeral.

The way they cutting to pieces not in a general ways as they do in the market places but follow a certain culture rule. The consequences will be time consuming  and only certain older can do the works.

A very closed family members should sacrifice time, a lot of animal he raised or much money to spend to be eligible to follow this ritual event. Even sometime they should borrow money just to buy animals fo this celebration. So to speak, some time they postpone the funeral ceremony day for a long period of time.

                                                             Tongkonan home.

This unique ceremony just like one in Bali Hinduism ritual, become a attractive event to see, and now travel agents sell it as a special tourist destination. So in the event we will see a foreigners among people take a pictures when amazing procession take place.

To visit Rantepao, the capital of this district you may take a plane from Jakarta or from Bali stop over in Makassar. Make sure you catch up the flight to Rantepao airport in Tuesday and Friday, since the flight schedule unreliable, you may take 8 hours drive for 250 kilometers north of Makassar by Bus from Panakiang station, including break for a meal. Along the way you will not boring watching beautiful sea shores , green scene, paddy fields, since South Sulawesi is a fertilize land and produce rice, enough for their consumption.

The common cost for entry to the site around Rp. 10.000, (US$.1) and if you can a little Indonesia, no need to hire guides. For a day you may rent Rp.60.000 motor bike or rent a minibus/car and the driver for Rp. 150.000,-

Don't worry a lot of hotels and restaurants at last destination Rantepao or Makale town, and make reservation beforehand, so your arrival will be convenience at that remote area.