People Of Sulawesi

The population
Huge ethnical diversity

The huge diversity of Sulawesi's landscapes is only surpassed by the big ethnical, cultural and regligious diversity. Over half of the Sulawesi population lives in the fertile valleys and plains in the south, while another large group lived around Manado and the neighboring Minahasa region in the northeast. Makassar, the biggest city of Sulawesi, is a melting pot of populations and cultures.
Most well-known are the coastal- and lowland-populations from the south: the Buginese (about 3,5 milion), the Makassarese (1,5 milion), the Mandarese (half a milion) and the Toraja (one third of a milion) in the highlands. There are dozens of less known groups: the Wana, Mori, Kaili, Taijo, Pendau, Lauje, Kahumanoan and other groups in the rough inaldn; and the Tolaki in the southeast. In the north, the Minahasa are the big group, but there you also have populations like the Sangirese, the Bolaang Mongondow and the Gorontalo.
Names only cannot express the wealth and complexity of the cultural life. While these groups both have common and separate social conventions and expressive art, there also is much variation. The Minahasa have a strong identity and still speak six different (related, however) languages. The Mandarese, which mainly live from fishery and trade and are usually matched with their southern neighbors, the Buginese, speak several different languages (mainly Mandarese and Campalagian).
The name 'Toraja' (from the Buginese to riaja, 'highland population') was used for most non-islamic populations in the highlands. But the southern (Sa'dan) Toraja speak a language which is more related with their Mandarese and Buginese neighbors than to the western or eastern Toraja languages. However the Luwurese speak a language which is closely related to that of their Toraja neighbors, they are seen as 'Buginese', because of their islamic culture. The Toraja in their turn emphasised their identity the last decades, to oppose them against islam and for the tourists.
Outside the city- and official situations, where Bahasa Indonesia is spoken, it's more likely that the traveller hears the more lively local languages. Many people both speak several local languages as well as Indonesian. And when they are ritual specialists, they may even speak some of the 'high' poetic forms which are rich with metaphores. Many of these old literary and ritual forms are disappearing quickly however. In the recent history, translations of these ritual languages into Indonesian have appeared. What decreases as well is the power to read the old manuscripts, in which the histories of the kingdoms in the south are written in old local writing.

Migration of ideas and humans

Sulawesi has always been open for new ideas from far worlds. This already took place in the time of the Austronesian speaking farmers and sailors.
In the big century of the trade, the Pabicara Butta (a sort of 'prime minister') of Makassar, Karaeng and Matoaya had a library with European books; he studied the newest developments on mathematics and optics. Influences from abroad were biggest along the coasts and in city seaports and centers. They had a harder time penetrating the dense forests and high mountains, where many populations maintained their branding character until today.
As everywhere in Indonesia, the Chinese on Sulawesi are mainly to be found in the larger cities. Ever since the 17th century there are Chinese in Makassar and Manado, and at the moment about one per cent of the population is Chinese. However most of them are currently officially Indonesian citizen, several thousand were registered as Chinese or stateless in 1990. Many of them are christian, but there are also a few buddhists and confucianists.
Over the last decades, Sulawesi has also become the area where transmigrants from Jawa and Bali got to live. They are transported away from their overcrowded islands to lesser populated and (hopefully) more productive ground. Balinese migrated from the beginning of the 20th century to several parts of Sulawesi, and probably form the biggest group of the about 50,000 hindus which were registered in the census of 1980. Since 1962, almost 54,000 Jawanese have settled on the island. A big and successful Jawanese community can now be found in Wonomulyo, along the western coast, north of Parepare.

Islam, chrisianity and adat

However the majority of the population is currently muslem, the Portuguese and Spanish spice traders - and their catholic priests - had important relations with the states at the western coast and in the north in the 16th century. In the second half of that century, several local rulers in Siang (at the western coast), Siau, Manado and Kaidipan were baptized together with thousands of followers. In most areas such conversions were short-lived, especially after the Portuguese captain from Ternate (on neighboring Maluku) had killed the sultan there in 1570. The anti-Portuguese crusade, started by the son of the sultan, caused Gorontalo, Buton, Banggai and other parts of Sulawesi were converted to islam.
According to legends, islam was introduced on South-Sulawesi in 1603 by three holy mand from Minangkabau on Sumatera. After they had converted the ruling elite of the Luwu' and Makassar, they went ahead in the southern Buginese kingdoms, among them Bone. In 1611 they had moved all the rulers of South-Sulawesi to support islam, accept those of Toraja. Islam was (as well as christianity) known much earlier in the south. Malaysian islamic traders lived in the south ever since the 15th century, however South-Sulawesi was one of the few meeting points in the trade network between the islands where islam wasn't officially supported.
Islamic conversions in the early 17th century were radical, but didn't always happen peacefully. A report describes the obligation of the first royal mosque in South-Sulawesi: on the evening before the first Friday prayer (the most holy time of the week) the prince of Gowa slaughtered a pig and spread blood all over the mosque. This deed is seen as sacrilege of the worst kind and was ironically done to get back to pre-islamic dedicational rites, in which blood of bigs is put on people and objects. In Bone and Sopeng there was a strong opposition from the royals against the new religion; islam finally entered Gowa with the tip of the sword.