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SOUTH
SULAWESI ( )
click the map!
The
Gate of the Eastern Part of Indonesia
Ujung
Pandang formerly Makassar, well known for its macassar
oil from which the English word "antimacassar" evolved for small
covers to protect upholstery. The area around Ujung Pandang holds
several sites of interest, from a spectacular coral reef and blinding white
beaches offshore, to colorful highland market towns and the evocative ruins
of vanished kingdoms.
The road leading up the west coast from Ujung Pandang to Toraja
is filled with awe-inspiring
scenery and glimpses of Sulawesi's venerable traditions. A limestone
range dominates this area, marked by intricate patterns of ridges and sheer
cliffs honey-combed with caves.
The South Coast is the homeland of the Makassarese,the
proud, indefatigable master seafarers who once regarded piracy as an honourable
profession. The beaches are a forest of masts from
the hundreds of fishing boats drawn up on the sand.The fortunate
may witness exciting boat races
and festivals to mark the departure of the fishing fleet. The sense
of lost time is still in the rows of
sturdy pinisi hulls being erected on the beaches.
Remnants of the great Bugis
kingdoms of the pre-Europeans era are found in Sulawesi's central
fertile plain. Scattered throughout the region are reconstructed wooden
palaces and gravesites, but
the greatest attraction is the area itself, with verdant
fields, attractive, colorful towns and glimpses
of net fishing, buffalos-powered field preparation, hand threshing
and other ageless activities of rural life.
Hanging like a teardrop off the southern tip of the penisula,
Selayar Island offers fine beaches an
and a glimpse of colonial life in the
preserved Dutch architecture and general
pre-industrial ambiance of the towns and villages. A splended
2000-year-old Vietnamese Dong Son drum,
perhaps washed up from a nearby shipwreck,
is kept in a wooden shed near a former royal palace.
Luwu, the horse-shoe-shaped region capping the Gulf of Bone,
is at once the most ancient and most modern region in South Sulawesi. Believed
the site of the first Bugis kingdom, Luwu became
an open frontier, with Javanese and Balinese transmigrants mixing with
long-isolated local tribes to
generate a fascinating mixture of peoples and cultures. The most incongruous
addition to the region
is a relocated Canadian mining town at Soroako, built for expatriate
mining experts but now populated mostly by Indonesian managers and professionals.
The nickel mine and associated facilities have brought good roads and other
modern facilities to Luwu, but the air of an untamed
land, reinforced by the looming presence of the Central
Sulawesi mountain range, remains.
