No Funeral Events in Tana Toraja During Covid-19 Means No Income for Tourism Sector

This event is always held in December as usual, most of the Torajans living in another areas will come back to Toraja for the purpose of friendship and attending many events. Besides, the number of strangers will also come to see this event and they would like to see the process of funeral ceremony, because during that time all of the funeral events will be executed from June to the end of January.

Meanwhile, the highest statue of Jesus Christ on the globe is located in Tana Toraja now (± 40 meters) which its height beats the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. This is kind of the beauty of Tana Toraja that it can withdraw the interest of tourists from domestic and overseas, so this can add more income for tourism and hotel’s sector.

However, the entire nations on the earth is struggling to deal with the corona breakout right now. Every country is busy to handle with corona patients and how to stop the chain of corona’s spreading happening quickly. As a result, the global economy runs into the recession which several businesses are going down significantly in each sector, including tourism. For instance, Italy and Spain. The tourism is part and parcel of state income. Regrettably, they have to close all sectors of business, including their borders with another countries, and not to accept any tourists nowadays for stopping the spreading of corona.

Likewise, in Toraja, this is really famous with its funeral events and tourism attractions. There are many kinds of business prospects created by the influence of heritage and customs there must be closed due to the corona breakout. Not only in Toraja, but all of the areas in Indonesia take action to solve with this global issue. 

Every single district tries to stop the newcomers on the borders who will come back to their own villages, and the regional government is working so hardly to handle with corona patients and arranging the whole residents to obey the rules for the sake of preventing the corona spreading. Badly, many people lose their jobs because of this global pandemic, and there is no income for the stakeholders whose a personal business.

To sum up, it is more important to cancel for a while the numerous events in our place until the situation will be better again, though we lose our permanent incomes from the varied sources. There is no mercy when somebody has been infected by this virus, so the most important action is to keep our health respectively during this corona crisis. 

I personally believe that if we follow all regulations very well released by the government will accelerate the situations getting better, and the country’s economy will be normal again. Besides, we should not waste our money for several insignificant things but save it for urgent needs, and we must also care to people around us who are difficult in household economy during Covid - 19.

Heri Bertus A Toupa

28/04/2020