Toraja rice barn panel: "Art from the Mountain"

Toraja rice barn panel

Origin: Toraja, Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia
Material: wood

The name Toraja refers to a number of ethnic group inhabiting the mountainous regions of southwestern and central Sulawesi, an Indonesian island formerly called Celebes. The word may be derived from To-ri-aja, Men of the Mountain, a name given to them by the Buginese, one of the other ethnic groups inhabiting South Sulawesi.

The traditional house and the rice-barn are an expression of the esthetic feeling of the Toraja and of his craftmanship. Today, many houses and rice-barns are lavishly decorated with leaf patterns, scrolls, meanders, double spirals, sun-motifs, buffalo head and so on. Carved objects in Torajan houses and barns are an expression of the natural environment and are linked to the highest god in Torajan beliefs (Aluk Todolo). Most of the carved motifs on Toraja houses and granaries suggest fertility and prosperity, concepts that are closely related, if not identical, from the local viewpoint. House and rice-barns, the ends of their roofs upturned, look like proas. In fact, the Toraja themselves point out the resemblance of their dwellings to ships.