Torajan people

Common card · No. 203409

The Torajan are an Austronesian ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regencies of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja") and Toraja Utara (North Toraja). Others live in adjacent regencies of South Selawesi, and in the Mamasa Regency of West Sulawesi Province to the west. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors") as well as Hindu Alukta, namely, a form of Hinduism in Indonesia. The word Toraja comes from the Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands", this cognates with the Toraja language to raya/to raja/to raa which also means "inland/upland people" or "northern people". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites...

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