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The Toraja (girl pictured) are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja. Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, which are usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days. Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly. (Read more...)