Toraja - The Art of Life with Death

<strong>Toraja</strong> - <strong>The</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>with</strong> <strong>Death</strong> This is Gonna. Gonna is a <strong>Toraja</strong> girl who lives in Tana <strong>Toraja</strong>, the central highland <strong>of</strong> southern Sulawesi. When I was Gonna's age this Indonesian island was still named Celebes and - from our point <strong>of</strong> view - marked the end <strong>of</strong> the world. In those days no visitors found their way into these tropical rain forests but a handful <strong>of</strong> anthropologists and some adventurers like the French Elisabeth Sauvy who, in 1934, published her travel diary "A Woman among Headhunters“. <strong>The</strong>ir stories usually told <strong>of</strong> bizarre rituals and terrifying death cults. Meanwhile, however, we have learned that the world is round and knows no end. Like children all over the world Gonna will grow up using a smartphone and the Internet. In school she will be taught mathematics and