Lemo, Sulawesi, Indonesia

5Paul Catteeuw 5:00 PM Sep 15, 2017

Wonderful tautau
This is the best place to see wonderful tautau. It is a splendid walk in lush natures, seeing all these magnificent wooden tautau. Do not however let them fool you. The oldest tautau do not have a face, having a similar face as the deceased is a fairly young tradition. As long as you know that you can only enjoy the walk.

5scotworldtraveller 5:00 PM Mar 29, 2015

local customs
Lemo, where we were privileged to see graves cut into the front of a high limestone cliff, along with several groups of brightly dressed effigies sharing wooden balconies secured to the cliff face, replicas of the ancestors, gazing down at us from balconies added onto the cliff face. In both of the sites we visited, these painted wooden effigies, called Tau Tau (small people), take the place of the deceased and are set high on galleries and other prominent places to watch over the village and rice fields. The coffins, left behind when the corpse is inserted into the burial cave, are magnificently and ornately carved and often in the form of a pig, water buffalo, or ship. Everyone buried in this manner has to be a person of great importance; ordinary people do not receive the elaborate – and expensive - rituals involved in one of these funerals.