Tana Toraja’s prized Arabika coffee plants. The red beans are ready to be picked, dried and roasted.

Guest of honor down a long, steep dirt road, the village of Panici in Toraja.

Alang. Torajan structures found throughout Tana Toraja. I at first thought these contained human remains but quickly found that they are used to keep and dry rice grain.

Close up of an Alang, many of these structures are elaborately decorated and sometimes contain several tons of rice.

Street vendors selling Batu Aki (gemstone rings) to government officials on the streets of Rantepao

Burial mountain in the Torajan village of  Kete Kesu. There must have been hundreds of bodies buried in this mountain, many in unmarked graves.

Bones and human remains found inside wooden coffins, cigarettes were placed next to some of the remains as offerings. ( I wonder how many of the deceased died of lung disease or smoking related illnesses)

Mobile rice processing across the street from the Kete Kesu tomb.

Beautiful brown rice on it way to becoming white.

More roadside villagers, these ladies were returning home after a day in the fields.

Rice fields in the upper mountains of Toraja.

I met a few locals in the village of Panici, who invited me to stay. This was breakfast the next day, fried pork fat and rice. Agrei worked for the local coffee plantation and is pictured here with his daughter.

A tour of the coffee plantation. The plantation is owned by a Japanese man who exports most of the harvested beans.

Inside the plantation. Each bean is individually inspected by a local Torajan! Only 10% make it into a cup of this plantations top notch coffee.

Classification of beans

Fresh roast, I bought 4 pounds of Arabika coffee from the store house of the plantation at an expensive local price of $3 a pound. The grounds now fill the majority of my rear right pannier

Ever heard of “Tuak”? Local alcohol made from the juice of an “E-Ju” tree. This is the local brewer’s house, he gave me a complementary bottle.

“E-Ju” tree and bamboo ladder apparatus. The brewer slowly collects the juice which is then naturally fermented into a wine like beverage. Tuak is sold in two forms “Tuak Manis” which is sweet and contains were little alcohol and “Tuak Alcohol”. While staying in the village of Panici I drank a bottle of Tuak alcohol that was infused with durian.

Bamboo ladder used to climb “E-ju”/Tuak tree

Village kids playing under a temporarily blue sky

Lower hills of Tana Toraja, Corn drying in the sun.