The Rocks of Toraja

I love rocks. I love the solid, sometimes rough, sometimes smooth feeling when touching a rock. I love monuments, like The Borobudur temple which is built with black volcanic rocks. I love the big, carved, rock tomb stones in Sumba island (East of Indonesia) – pieces of arts as a symbol of a living animistic belief. I love the tall, standing in a round formation of the Stonehenge rocks in the United Kingdom – the proof of a sophisticated life of long ago. But most of all, I love the rocks in Batutumonga.

First and foremost, is THE rock called Batutumonga, which means the leaning rock (see picture). It stands alone, in front of my father-in-law’s cottage and tongkonan (traditional ancestors’ home) by the main road of Pangli and Pangala, in the Batutumonga hamlet. The energy emanating from that rock is peaceful. The story goes, though, that not long ago, people believed that this rock is the gathering place of spirits. Then people did not dare to walk by this rock. I tend to believe this story, because at night, when I sleep in the cottage, I can feel the breeze of spirits flying from the tongkonan to the rock. Friendly spirits who are happy that we are visiting them.

There are rocks on the eastern side of Mount Sesean, dotting the valleys and the terraced rice fields. According to my Geologist friend, they are of the conglomerate volcanic type. A gigantic mountain must have erupted long time ago. For some reason, the rocks flew to the eastern side, because there are no big rocks on the western side of the mountain. As you can find in many guide books or web-sites, the Torajanese then use the big rocks as tomb stones.