Sulawesi

Sulawesi holds some of the oldest art in the world: hand stencils and animal paintings in the limestone caves of Maros and Pangkep, north of Makassar, have been dated to more than 40,000 years ago. Later the island became a crossroads of Austronesian seafarers. From the 16th century the twin kingdom of Gowa and Tallo, based at Makassar, grew into a major trading power and adopted Islam in the early 1600s, welcoming Portuguese, English and Asian merchants.

That openness brought conflict with the Dutch East India Company, which with the help of the Bugis prince Arung Palakka of Bone defeated Gowa in the Makassar War of 1666–69. The Treaty of Bongaya handed the Dutch the fort that became Fort Rotterdam. Bugis and Makassarese sailors dispersed across the archipelago as traders, settlers and mercenaries, and for centuries Makassan fishermen sailed to northern Australia for sea cucumbers. In the north, the Minahasa people became Protestant under Dutch influence and supplied soldiers and officials to the colony. Inland Toraja was brought under Dutch control only in the early 20th century, when missionaries arrived.

After independence, the Darul Islam revolt of Kahar Muzakkar troubled the south into the 1960s, and the Permesta rebellion of 1957–61 was based in the north. Gorontalo became a separate province in 2000 and West Sulawesi in 2004. Communal violence between Christians and Muslims around Poso from 1998 to 2001 killed hundreds, and the Palu earthquake of 2018 devastated Central Sulawesi. Recently, nickel mining and smelting have transformed Morowali and other parts of the island.

The south-west belongs to the Bugis, Makassarese and Mandar, mostly Muslim peoples with a strong seafaring tradition and a code of honour called siri'. The art of building the pinisi, the wooden sailing ship of South Sulawesi, is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. Bugis tradition recognises several gender identities, including the bissu, ritual specialists who are neither men nor women.

In the highlands, the Toraja are mostly Christian but keep much of their ancestral religion, Aluk To Dolo, above all in funerals. A death is followed by months or years of preparation, and the funeral, Rambu Solo', lasts days, with guests, processions and the sacrifice of water buffalo and pigs, the number reflecting the family's status. The dead are placed in cliff tombs guarded by carved effigies called tau tau, and in some villages the Ma'nene ritual sees the bodies of relatives cleaned and re-dressed. The tongkonan, an ancestral house with a sweeping saddle-shaped roof, is the centre of family identity.

The Minahasa of North Sulawesi are largely Protestant, outspoken and fond of their churches, choirs and parties, and Gorontalo is known for karawo embroidery. The Bajau, a people traditionally living on boats and stilt villages, are found around Wakatobi and the Togeans. Buton, off the south-east, was the seat of an old sultanate.

Sulawesi had almost 15 million people at the 2000 census, and its population has grown since. Makassar, with about 1.5 million, is the largest city and main port of eastern Indonesia; Manado has roughly 450,000, and Palu, Kendari and Gorontalo are smaller provincial capitals. Much of the island is rural, with villages strung along the coasts and in the rice valleys.

South Sulawesi is a rice bowl and a producer of cocoa, cloves and seaweed, while the north grows coconuts and cloves and fishes for tuna. Nickel is the new driver: huge industrial parks with smelters in Morowali and elsewhere process ore for steel and batteries, creating jobs but also deforestation, pollution and disputes over land and working conditions. Toraja depends on coffee, rice and funeral-related spending, much of it funded by relatives working elsewhere.

In Makassar, days revolve around the port, markets and coffee shops, with evenings on the waterfront. Toraja families save for years to host funerals, and the buffalo sacrificed are a large part of the cost. In Minahasa, Sunday church and family gatherings set the weekly rhythm.

Makassar's cooking is rich and meaty. Coto Makassar is a beef and offal soup thickened with ground peanuts and eaten with rice cakes; konro is a beef rib soup darkened with keluak nut, also served grilled; and pallubasa is similar to coto but enriched with grated coconut. Sweets include pisang epe, flattened grilled banana with palm-sugar syrup, and es pisang ijo, banana wrapped in green dough with syrup and shaved ice.

North Sulawesi's Minahasan food is known for its heat. Tinutuan, also called bubur Manado, is a rice porridge with pumpkin, corn and greens; cakalang fufu is smoked skipjack tuna; and rica-rica and woku are fiery chilli and herb preparations for fish or meat, served with dabu-dabu, a fresh chilli-tomato sambal. Klappertaart, a coconut custard cake, shows the Dutch influence, and cap tikus is a strong palm spirit.

In Toraja, pa'piong is meat or fish cooked in bamboo tubes, and Toraja coffee is prized. Palu's signature is kaledo, a sour beef-shank soup; Gorontalo has binte biluhuta, a corn soup with fish or shrimp; and in Southeast Sulawesi kasuami, steamed grated cassava, is eaten with fish.

Makassar has Fort Rotterdam, the Paotere harbour with its wooden pinisi schooners, and Losari Beach for sunsets and street food. North of the city, the Maros-Pangkep karst has ancient cave paintings, the tower-karst landscape of Rammang-Rammang and the Bantimurung waterfall with its butterflies. In the south, the beaches of Bira and the boatyards of Tana Beru in Bulukumba still build pinisi by hand.

Tana Toraja and North Toraja are the main inland draw: Rantepao is the base for the cliff graves of Lemo and Londa, the baby graves in the trees of Kambira, the tongkonan village of Kete Kesu, the terraces of Batutumonga and, if a family permits visitors, a funeral.

Central Sulawesi has Lore Lindu National Park and the megaliths of the Bada valley, Lake Poso, and, reached from Ampana, the Togean islands in the Gulf of Tomini. Just across the border in South Sulawesi's East Luwu lies Lake Matano, one of the deepest lakes in Asia. Southeast Sulawesi's Wakatobi National Park takes in Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia and Binongko, with some of Indonesia's most intact reefs, and Buton has the old sultanate fort at Baubau.

In the north, Manado is the base for Bunaken National Park, with its reef walls and the cone of Manado Tua. The Lembeh Strait near Bitung is known for its colourful small marine life, especially sea slugs, Tangkoko has tarsiers and macaques, and the Minahasa highlands around Tomohon have volcanoes and crater lakes. Gorontalo offers whale sharks at Botubarani.