Toraja, a mountainous area of northern part of South Sulawesi, was not only famous for its funeral rites, tongkonan custom home, or a wood carving course. Female fingers Toraja tribe is also known for his skills when creating a striped fabric with distinctive colors like red, black, yellow, and white.
Unique woven the work of women from Sa'dan, a village in Toraja regency in North Sulawesi, is designed to improve the lives of the weavers and their families. The ability to weave a piece of woven cloth Toraja is not owned by everyone. Therefore, the required original Toraja people who still understand how to manufacture cloth. One of the local industries that is still actively preserving and marketing of woven fabric Toraja is "Toraja Melo".
Unique woven the work of women from Sa'dan, a village in Toraja regency in North Sulawesi, is designed to improve the lives of the weavers and their families. The ability to weave a piece of woven cloth Toraja is not owned by everyone. Therefore, the required original Toraja people who still understand how to manufacture cloth. One of the local industries that is still actively preserving and marketing of woven fabric Toraja is "Toraja Melo".
Melo Toraja, which means "land of beautiful Toraja", the creation a wide range of woven fabrics to be used as fashion items like handbags, shoes, purses, slippers, and scarves. The products of this Toraja fabric turned out to be items that sell well in Japan.
"We think the Japanese people have a history of expertise that understands the difficulty of the weaving process. In addition, they appreciate the high quality of hand made products from Toraja. There is a term, when penetrating the Japanese market; we will be able to penetrate the market anywhere. This is due to the high quality control in Japan, "said Protus Tanuhandaru, founder of the Toraja Melo.
The stories making the complicated fabric Toraja also presented to the people of Japan, and received very good response. Colorful bags wrapped Melo Toraja from woven fabric sheet after sheet of Toraja. Each piece of fabric is the result of a woman who spent many hours, sitting rigidly for several weeks, with back straight and feet stomping.
The women weavers are more than just a handyman or craftsman. They are the creative artists of Indonesia in the true sense. They chose the yarn in various colors, membentangnya (in Toraja ma'renden) in between two pieces of wood that made sober, and then began to weave, also with a simple instrument made of wood and bamboo, wood in the house is full of holes and often dark because there is no electricity.
To get the product Toraja Melo, you do not need all the way to South Sulawesi. Just visit the store in the East Kemang, South Jakarta, or through www.torajamelo.com. Toraja Melo also present and enliven the bazaar is the meeting place for e-commerce business owners, shop fair, on 13-14 July 2012 and in Epiwalk, Brass, Jakarta.
If you are concerned with the preservation of Indonesia's cultural products, then have the original cultural products, such as cloth weaving, batik and songket, and wear as part of everyday clothing. Do not let the native culture of Indonesia by claiming other countries due to lack of repeat our concern for the nation's own fashion products.
"Toraja Melo can be networked with the stakeholders of e-commerce, and potentially increasing sales of woven fabric Toraja itself," said Protus.