Rantepao,Pa'piong the bamboo food,Torajan iron working,Tau tau,Bolu market

Before leaving Tana Toraja,we visited Pasar Bolu(litteraly betel vine leave market)located about 2km from Rantepao center and held every six days.It consists of a classical market with vegetables,fish,clothes...but mostly an amazing cattle market where are sold hundreds of pigs and water-buffaloes to those who need them for thanksgiving ceremonies,weddings and funerals.One component of the funeral ritual is there the slaughter of buffaloes.The more buffalos are distroyed the higher the status of the deceased.That's the reason why families save for years to buy water-buffaloes.
We saw first buffaloes of all kind held by the leash and fed by their owners,then lots of them in corrals.
We were very surprised to learn the gigantic prrices of these animals:4000 to 6000 Usd for a standard buffalo,7000 up to 10000 Usd for a spotted albino!
A pig cost around 800 Usd,the black ones being the most expensive.Heading to the pig area,we saw piglets in shoulder plastic bags,other bigger tied to bamboos and worn on one shoulder and some monsters carried by 2 people,all snorting or squealing.But the most impressive was to see and to hear hundreds of pigs and piglets tied to bamboos squealing all together under hangars,a bit surreal in the world's first muslim country!

Tau tau meaning little person or humanoïd are life-size wooden effigies representing the deceased.It seems that these effigies of only high ranking dead have been made for the first time in the late 19th century showing only the deceased's gender,recently the carvers try to imitate the likeness of the dead's face.Making of these tau tau takes a long time with many taboos and because they are made in nangka,an expensive durable wood of the breadtree,they cost a lot of money.
One can see in the carved balconies of Lemo tau tau about half life-size or a little bigger dressed with fine clothing with their arms outstretched welcoming their desendants or the visitors.They are not the originals but replicas.
In Londa there is a balcony of amazing tau tau guarding the entrance of the graves cave.
Tau tau are meeting places for the spirit,they guard the excavated tombs and bless their descendants.

Tana Toraja,the land of Torajan people in Sulawesi has its own delicacies like in many parts of Indonesia,but a bit different there because most of them are Christians.
The most typical Torajan meal is piong or pa'piong where cooking takes place in a bamboo tube cooked slowly over low flames(as in many parts of SEA).There are 2 kinds of piong,the pa'piong bo'bo mostly eaten in the harvest ceremonies and made up sticky rice as main ingredient and the pa'piong duku made up meat and white or black rice.Pa'piong duku contains usually pork,chicken or fish, sliced or cube size meat mixed with grated coconut,onions or shallots,garlic,salt,chillies,ginger and vegetables,the spinach like mayana leaves.Usually blood is added to the pork(or waterbuffalo) meat.
Once all these ingredients are mixed,the small (6 to 7 cm in diameter)bamboo tube is closed with a banana or lime leaf and left directly above the fireplace.
A special spice called pamarasan,the black powder from keluwek seeds is used in particular in a meal using braised pork.
If young people prefer beer,the traditional alcoholic beverage is tuak,made with the fermented saps of a special palm tree traditionaly carried in bamboo tubes but nowadays mostly in plastic cans.
Nobody eats salad there,the vegetables being always cooked.

Ironworking is a well-developped craft in Tana Toraja,the land of Torajan people in Sulawesi Indonesia who attribute a magical force to iron.In every village one can see at least a forge with a smith.There are also temporary forges for blacksmiths digging during months into hard rocks graves.They have to stop their work frequently to fix their chisels in the forge because of the hardness of the rock.
Blacksmiths in Tana Toraja use for metal processing traditional Malay bellows that consist in a pair of connected bamboo pipes and chicken feather bellows at the end ,the smith being on the top and blowing the bellows.
A scale model of iron processing is displayed in Makassar Museum.
I was surprised to see how an old car shock absorber may come back to life and become a sickle for example...