Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 12. (Budapest, 1970)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Bodrogi, Tibor: The Art of the Sadang Toriadja in Central Celebes

Fig. 1. Engraved and painted decoration of a Sadang Toradja house influence. It is only in the south-western and north-eastern parts of Celebes that societies are known to exist which belong to the new layer of Indonesian culture, i.e. to the Mohammedan high culture, while the population of the other parts represents the ancient Indonesian layer. Among the latter, the Toradja people, inhabitants of the mountainous region of Central Celebes, are best known; these people have longest preserved their ancient culture. There exist three Toradja groups: A Swedish researcher, Kaudem, studied the art of the western and the eastern groups, whereas the culture and art of the southern (Sadang) group are still rather unexplored. It was after lengthy and hard struggles that their area came under Dutch rule in 1906. As a result, head-hunting was gradually abolished, and attempts were made to introduce the cultivation of rice by means of plough and irrigation; Christian missionaries began to work there at the same time. This notwithstanding, the majority of the Sadang Toradja still continue to hold to the ancient religion. Although the chiefs of clans have lost all political power, their social authority, and also functional importance of the clan as a social unit, have survided. 1 have studied two elements of the Toradja culture in more detail: building decoration and burial customs. The Toradja people of the valleys have abandoned the ancient style of architecture, whereas those inhabiting the more remote places and the rocky mountains still live in ancient structures of the