In 1985, Dr. Nigel Barley, senior anthropologist at The British Museum, set off for the relatively unknown Indonesian island of Sulawesi in search of the Toraja, a people whose culture includes headhunting, transvestite priests and the massacre of buffalo. In witty and finely crafted prose, Barley offers fascinating insight into the people of Sulawesi and he recounts the tale of the four Torajan woodcarvers he invites back to London to construct an Indonesian rice barn in The British Museum.
Entrance to a Torajan village showing ricefields and traditional houses.
Torajan ricebarns at Nangala.
Nenek Tulian in priestly dress for a funeral.
Schoolchildren performing on traditional bamboo instruments
Men parading in warrior dress.
A coffin containing the deceased, wrapped in cloth with gold decoration.
Reopening of the coffin for rewrapping of body and final insertion in tomb.
A sacrificial buffalo being washed in a stream.
Distribution of buffalo meat to relatives and neighbours.
Tombs hollowed out of the rockface.
The market at Rantepao.
The start of a cock fight.
The interior of traditional house, Baruppu’.
A woman weaving a cloth, Mamasa.
Constructing the roof, Museum of Mankind, London.
Fitting together the body of the barn.
Fitting together the body of the barn.
Fitting together the body of the barn.
Fitting together the body of the barn.
Nenek Tulian carving a panel.
The door of the ricebarn showing a stylised buffalo.
The façade of the ricebarn showing two cockerels.
Indonesia
