Tongkonan
Encyclopedia
Toraja
The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja . Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk...
n people, in Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Tongkonan have a distinguishing boat-shaped and oversized saddle back roof. Like most of Indonesia’s Austronesian-based traditional architecture tongkonan are built on piles. The construction of tongkonan is laborious work and it is usually built with the help of all family members. In the original Toraja society, only nobles had the right to build tongkonan. Commoners live in smaller and less decorated homes called banua.
Background
Sulawesi (formerly known as The Celebes) is a large island, extraordinarily contorted in shape, lying between KalimantanKalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
(Indonesian Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
) and the Maluku
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
Island group (also known as The Molluccas). It is an island abundant in natural resources with a rich and varied array of cultures including some of the most distinctive and anthropologically significant in Indonesia. The dominant groups of the island are the sea-faring and once piratical Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Bugis
Bugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...
and Makassarese in the island’s south-west, and the strongly Christian Minahasa
Minahasa
The Minahasa are an ethnic group located in the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, formerly known as North Celebes...
of the northern peninsula. The Toraja, of South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia, located on the western southern peninsula of Sulawesi Island. The province is bordered by Central Sulawesi province to the north, South East Sulawesi province to the east and West Sulawesi province to the west...
are, however, arguably one of the most distinctive of ethnic groups in all Indonesia.
The name Toraja is of Bugis origin and is given to the people of rugged northern part of the south peninsula. The Toraja are a proto-Malay people
Proto Malay
The term Proto-Malay which translates to Melayu asli or Melayu purba , are the Mongoloids and Austronesian speakers from mainland Asia who moved to the Malay peninsular and Malay archipelago in a long series of migration between 2500 and 1500 BC.The Proto-Malays are believed to be seafarers...
whose origins lie in mainland South East Asia, possibly Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. Like many Indonesian ethnic groups, the Toraja were head-hunters and participants in inter-village raids; villages were thus located strategically on hill tops and were heavily fortified. The Dutch colonialists
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
pacified the Toraja and led them to build their villages in valleys and changed their agriculture from a slash and burn
Slash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
variety to wet-rice
Paddy field
A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Paddies can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such...
cultivation, and pig and buffalo raising.
The native religion is megalithic and animist. Many of these native practises remain including animal sacrifices, ostentatious funeral rites and huge communal feasts. Their native faith only began to change when Protestant missionaries first arrived in 1909 with Dutch colonists. Today, the Toraja are 60 per cent Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
Christians and 10 per cent Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. The beliefs of the rest are centered on the native religions. The Toraja’s are largely Christian and animist.
Toraja divided into different geographic groups, the most important being Mamasa, centred around the isolated Kalumpang valley and the Sa’dan of the southern Toraja lands. Known as 'Tana Toraja', Sa'dan has the market towns of Makale and Rantepao
Rantepao
Rantepao is a town in Tana Toraja Regency, which is known for the cultural center of Toraja ethnic group. National and regional tourism offices have developed the city as the starting point for visiting Tana Toraja, since the area was opened for tourism in 1970s.Hotels, restaurants and other Toraja...
. There have never been any strong lasting political grouping within the Toraja. Good roads now reach Tana Toraja from Makassar
Makassar
Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...
, the largest city in Sulawesi. This brings in a seasonal influx of foreign tourists who whilst injecting their money into the local economy have not yet had much lasting impact on local people’s lives.
Etymology and history
The word 'Tongkonan' is derived from the Toraja word tongkon (‘to sit’) and literally means the place where family members meet.According to the Torajan myth
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, the first tongkonan house was built in heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
by Puang Matua, the Creator
Creator deity
A creator deity is a deity responsible for the creation of the world . In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator deity, while polytheistic traditions may or may not have creator deities...
. It was built on four poles and the roof was made of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the heavenly house and held a big ceremony. An alternative legend, describes the Toraja arriving from the north by boats, but caught in a fierce storm, their boats were so badly damaged that they used them as roofs for their new houses.
There are three types of tongkonan. Tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority and it is used as the center of government. The second type is tongkonan pekamberan, which belongs to the family group members, who have some authorities in local traditions (known as adat
Adat
Adat in Indonesian-Malay culture is the set of cultural norms, values, customs and practices found among specific ethnic groups in Indonesia, the southern Philippines and Malaysia...
). The last one is tongkonan batu, which belongs to the ordinary family members.
Construction
Saddleback
In general, a saddleback is the shape of a saddle.Saddleback can also refer to:Fauna* Saddleback , an endemic bird in New Zealand.* Saddleback caterpillar, a moth larva with a painful sting* Saddleback clownfish* Saddleback toad...
roof with gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s that are dramatically upswept. The internal space is small in comparison with the overwhelming roof structure that covers it. Interiors are typically cramped and dark with few windows, however, most of daily life is lived outside the homes, with interiors simply intended for sleeping, storage, meetings and occasionally protection.
A large tongkonan can take a crew of ten about three months to build and another month to carve and paint the outside walls. Bamboo scaffold is erected for the duration of the construction phase. Traditionally tongue and groove
Tongue and groove
A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...
joinery
Woodworking joints
Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining together pieces of wood, to create furniture, structures, toys, and other items. Some wood joints employ fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements. The characteristics of wooden joints - strength, flexibility,...
has been used without the need for nails. A number of components are pre-fabricated with final assembly in-situ. Although built on a log-cabin style sub-structure, tongkonan are set on large vertical wooden piles
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
with mortises
Mortise and tenon
The mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at an angle of 90°. In its basic form it is both simple and strong. Although there are many joint variations, the basic mortise and tenon...
cut into their ends to grasp the horizontal tie beams
Beam (structure)
A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.- Overview...
. The tops of the piles are notched for the longitudinal and transverse beams that support the upper structure. The remainder of the sub-structure is assembled in-situ. The transverse beams are fitted into the notched piles, and then notched to fit the longitudinal beams. Side panels, which are often decorated, are then formed on these main horizontal beams. The distinctive curved roof shape is obtained through a series of vertical hanging spars supporting upwardly angled beams. A vertical free-standing pole supports that portion of the ridge pole extending beyond the ridge purlin
Purlin
In architecture or structural engineering or building, a purlin is a horizontal structural member in a roof. Purlins support the loads from the roof deck or sheathing and are supported by the principal rafters and/or the building walls, steel beams etc...
. Bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
staves bound with rattan
Rattan
Rattan is the name for the roughly 600 species of palms in the tribe Calameae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australasia.- Structure :...
are assembled transversely in layers and tied longitudinally to the rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s forming the roof. The under roofing is of bamboo culm. Wooden boards laid over thick hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
joist
Joist
A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
s form the floors. Nowadays, zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
roofing sheets and nails are increasingly used.
In larger Tana Toraja villages, houses are arranged in a row, side by side, with their roofs on a north-south alignment with the front gable facing north. Opposite each house is the family's rice barn, or alang customarily a symbol of family wealth, and together they form a second row of parallel buildings. Houses of the Mamasa Toraja, however, are orientated to the direction of the river with their rice barns aligned perpendicular to the house.
The tongkonan at Ke'te' Kesu' is reputed to be 500 years old; too old to trace a direct descendant from the founder to maintain the title that goes with the house. The buildings themselves, however, are constantly maintained and renewed, thus this age refers to the length of time years for which that particular site has been used as a meeting place.
Social significance
Common to Toraja of all religions is the cultural centrality of the tongkonan as ancestral homes. The homes are the focus of family identity and tradition, representing the descendants of a founding ancestor. Kis Jovak et al. (1988) describes the tongkonan as being not simply a house but symbolising a Torajan's microcosmMacrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...
.
As the focus of ancestral identity, it is through the tongkonan that Torajans consider themselves related to parents, grandparents and more distant relatives. Torajans belong to more than one house as they trace descent bilaterally - that is, through both the male and female line. Upon marriage, Toraja men customarily live in their wive's home. If divorced, possession of the house is granted to the wife, although the husband may be compensated by being given the rice barn which can be dismantled and reassembled. A tongkonan, however, is never removed, in part because of the large number of placenta
Placenta
The placenta is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply. "True" placentas are a defining characteristic of eutherian or "placental" mammals, but are also found in some snakes and...
e buried on the east side of the house (east is associated with life).
The tongkonan is traditionally seen as the navel of the universe and a miniature cosmos; and in those some regions, it is the meeting place of the north-south and east-west axes. It faces north, to the “head of the sky” where Puang Matua resides. The alang, or rice granaries, across the yard, face south or the posterior, as this is the direction from which trouble and disease exit. In some regions, the house is entered via a door on the northern end of the east wall, and in others, at the western end of the north wall. A person, thus, walks towards the southwest or southeast as they enter. The tongkonan is vertically divided into three levels: the attic where the regalia and family heirlooms are kept; the living area; and the space under the floor where domesticated animals are kept. These compare with the upper world, the middle world, and the under world.
There are three types of tongkonan which are classified according to their function in society. A tongkonan layuk ('grand tongkonan') or tongkonan pesio' aluk ('aluk maker') is the original ancestral home in which the aluk of a particular adat territory were established. The Grand Tongkonan is the seat of a kinship grouping that traces its descent from a single founding couple. It is the house of the highest authority and it is used as the center of government. Tongkonan according to its literal translation, is the place 'to sit' and it is the traditional centre of governance. Customarily people would assemble to sit in a place of historical significance to discuss and resolve matters of communal import. This site would be the seat of residence of the most respected member of the community. This home would thus be developed into a grand building.
The second type is tongkonan pekamberan, or tongkonan pekaindoran which belongs to the family group members and offspring of the founder. It is their duty to carry out local traditions (known as adat
Adat
Adat in Indonesian-Malay culture is the set of cultural norms, values, customs and practices found among specific ethnic groups in Indonesia, the southern Philippines and Malaysia...
). The last one is tongkonan batu, which belongs to the ordinary family members. Traditionally, only the nobility could afford to build large tongkonan and the elaborate ceremonies associated with them.
Ordinary residences, known as banua are smaller, less decorated homes versions of tongkonan, through which families’ descent would also be traced. Generally speaking their occupants would be families of lower social status, families that once constituted part of a greater family’s fiefdom. These homes may also be converted into tongkonan after several generations of the same line have lived in them and after suitable rites have been carried out, but due to prohibitive costs, this has traditionally been rare. The former exclusivity of the tongkonan is also diminishing as many Toraja commoners find employment in other parts of Indonesia and remit funds back to their families, enabling in some cases the construction of larger Tongkonan by commoners.
Ornamentation
Gables and the outside walls of tongkonan (im kool) are often decorated by red, black, and yellow colored wood, with patterns carved into it. Toraja society, however, is highly hierarchical and traditionally villagers have traditionally only been able to decorate their houses in a manner to their social status. Most carvings on tongkonan represent prosperity and fertility with the individual designs represent what is important to the particular family. Other houses have no carvings or painting; their surfaces are simply bare weather-worn timbers.Circular motifs represent the sun, the symbol of power. Golden kris
Kris
The kris or keris is an asymmetrical dagger or sword nowadays most strongly associated with the culture of Indonesia, but also indigenous to Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Brunei. It is known as kalis in the southern Philippines. The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade , but many have...
('daggers') motifs symbolise wealth. Geometric spiralling designs and motifs are used that include buffalo heads - representing a prosperity and ritual sacrifice. Cockerels are represented in the colours of red, white, yellow and black; colors which represent the indigenous Toraja religion the Aluk To Dolo (the Way of the Ancestors). Black symbolises death and darkness; yellow, God’s blessing and power; white, the colour of flesh and bone symbolising purity; and red, the colour of blood symbolising human life. The pigments are sourced from common materials; black from soot; white from lime
Lime (mineral)
Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
; red and yellow from colored earth; and tuak (palm wine) is used to strengthen the colors.
Many of the motifs are identical to those on Dong Son
Dong Son culture
The Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric Bronze Age age in Vietnam centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. At this time the first Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared...
kettle drums whereas other motifs. Another source of the motifs is thought to be Hindu-Buddhist, particularly the square cross motifs that may have alternatively been copied from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n trade cloths. Christian toraja use the cross as a decorative symbol of their faith. Payment for the decorating artists has traditionally been in the form of buffalo. Water is also a common theme in designs and represents life, fertility and prolific rice fields.
Buffalo horns hung in a vertical array on the front gable are a sign of prestige and are customarily used to signify the wealth of the household. Furthermore, a buffalo head made from painted wood and buffalo-dung, but crowned with real horns, is mounted on the façades.
Contemporary tongkonan
Although still commanding great prestige in a ritual sense, the tongkonan, like many traditional Indonesian housing styles, has a small, dark and smoky interior, and consequently is losing favour amongst contemporary Torajans. Instead, many Torajan villagers are choosing to live in a single storey 'Pan-Indonesia' style residence. The more spacious, brighter and more ventilated bugisBugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...
-type dwelling is also increasingly being adopted. An approach more inline with tradition is to add an extra storey and a saddleback roof which fulfils contemporary expectations of space and brightness, while maintaining the prestige of a tongkonan.
Tongkonan are a viable part of the market for managed tourism, their seminal value drawing enough people to make Tana Toraja one of Indonesia’s most significant destinations for international tourists
Tourism in Indonesia
Tourism in Indonesia is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as a significant source of its foreign exchange revenues. The vast country of sprawling archipelago has so much to offer; from natural beauty, historical heritage to cultural diversityIn 2009, the number of...
; a region particularly popular with European visitors.