T

em>Tana to Kaili, tanantove, tanakurivivintasi, torakuranga, tanakuremebula, torakuranga, tana to Kaili, nemoragero, rapobalumiu, riumbararamu

Those are the lyrics of the song “Riumba Raramu” (Where is your heart?), written by reggae singer Rival Himran, or Pallo as he is popularly known. The song protests uncontrolled deforestation in Palu and Donggala, Central Sulawesi.

“I also protest theft at the megalithic sites of Besoa valley, Poso,” Pallo said recently.

Central Sulawesi is home to numerous megalithic sites, legacies from an ancient era. Research reveals that megalithic statues, many of which are found in the regencies of Sigi and Poso, are more than 2,000 years old.

The statues were discovered by Albert Christian Kruyt, the first Dutch missionary in Central Sulawesi.

The sites are abandoned. As far as the eye can tell, there are just statues, neatly arranged, showcasing the exceptional architectural skill of this nation’s ancestors.

One of the sites is located in Doda subdistrict, Central Lore district, Poso, some 200 kilometers south of Palu, the provincial capital, a cool region with air temperature ranging between 10 and 14 degrees Celsius.

“I am concerned, which is why I used this site as the venue for my Riumba Raramu video clip,” said Pallo, who is also the lead vocalist and bassist of Project Duo Pallo.

All the statues at the site have been given names by the Central Sulawesi museum. One of them was named Tadulako, which means leader. It measures some 170 centimeters in height and features a carving of a person.

To reach the Tadulako statue, one has to walk for some 2 km from the main road, passing through agricultural fields.

Some 30 meters from Tadulako stands another megalith called Kalamba, or boat, a stone with a hole in the middle of it. Some 5 km further, there are many similar ones.

The stone monuments were built for rituals to respect ancestors’ spirits. Some were erected individually, while others stand in groups or were built together with buildings.

Iskam Djorimi of the Central Sulawesi museum said the Tadulako and Kalamba statues were worship sites, or dolmens.

“They indicate that the social status of the people buried here was very high. They were like kings of that time,” Iskam said.

He said to prove that the sites were dolmens, excavation was conducted on the sites in May 2007, which unearthed skeletons, silver cups, necklaces and swords, among other things.

Iskam said that during the first excavation conducted in 1903, huge amounts of gold were found at the sites. “All [objects found] are kept at Leiden Museum in the Netherlands,” he said.

He added that Leiden Museum held some 60,000 artifacts from Sulawesi, including Central Sulawesi, while the Central Sulawesi museum only had some 10,000 artifacts in its collection.

In other regions of Central Sulawesi, similar megalithic sites can be found in Tulo, Kulawi, Pipikiro and Banggain Sigi regency as well as in Bada, Pendolo, South and North Lore in Poso regency.

Once individuals claiming to be family members of Central Sulawesi provincial administration officials reportedly tried to steal the statues, claiming they would be taken to Palu for preservation work.

Pallo who is also a former member of the Steven & Coconut Treez reggae band, said he could not leave the sites abandoned.

He said he planned to organize a Reggae Megalith Festival at one of the sites to help promote it to tourists.

“We have to promote to the outside world the beauty of this region,” Pallo said.