Cultural heritage of wood carvings as Torajan identity and social value in daily life

The Toraja are a tribal native group to a mountainous region (Tana Toraja) of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Among population of ca. 650,000, the majority is Christian, despite local animism of "Aluk to Dolo" (Way of the Ancestors) which was recognized as a sect of Hinduism since 1965. Toraja people lived in autonomous villages, unveiled by the outsider until the early 1900s, but following to Dutch missionary activities, the area became an ideal tourism and anthropologists, particularly from 1970. Toraja people are well-known for sophisticated funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses, and colorful wood carvings. As the Toraja language is oral and no writing system exists, Toraja people carve wood, calling it "Pa ssura" (the writing) to express social and religious concepts. Consequently, wood carvings are Toraja s cultural manifestation and way of life. Each carving bears a special name, and common motifs of animals and plants symbolize goodwill and virtue. For example, the wooden wall panels are incised with geometric and spiraling designs, and motifs such as buffalo heads and cockerels painted in red, white, yellow and black represent the indigenous Toraja religion. Nature, full of abstraction with regularity and order, provides the basic ornamentation of Torajan architecture. It is argued that ornament is the means by which aesthetic beauty or symbolic significance is imparted to utility. Symbolic ornaments compose of elements chosen for significance, while aesthetic ones for beauty alone. To Toraja people minds, symbolism is more favored, as they produce cultural expressions of inner dynamics through material heritage. The paper investigates different types of wood carving, in order to legitimize them as Torajan identity in everyday life. It means how Torajan intangible heritage has been expressed through material culture, strengthening the social value of heritage as a mediator for unity and progress in Toraja and the whole Indonesia.