ARCHITECTURE AND HOUSING
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There was also a new type of house, usually called an emper (verandah). Its structure resembled the sorts of houses we see in large numbers in the city today.24
The new houses were likely, at that time, bungalows introduced by the Dutch. The Batak include seven different regional groups, all of which cannot be discussed here. The elite homes of Batak also boast impressive saddleback roofs with outward leaning gables. Construction techniques resemble Minangkabau methods, using posts and beams fastened by pegs or notches and built atop piers. The Batak largely converted to Protestantism in the nineteenth century, abandoning clan house rituals and instead building smaller, single family homes. The rumah gorga (carved house) is the most prestigious structure among the Toba Batak. Entered from beneath, these homes are exquisitely carved and painted with deities and mythical creatures. Carving on the exteriors is especially fine and difficult to carry out, using a mallet to tap a razor sharp carving knife. Most gorga work consists of three parallel grooves and requires master carvers.25 As elsewhere, rumah adat went into decline as people moved into simpler or more modern houses, following modern trends and pressures. However, as recently described: In the early 1980s, there was a resurgence of interest in traditional house carving among urban Bataks, many of whom worked for the provincial and national government. Several public works projects in the towns and cities incorporated the traditional rumah adat-style architecture, which necessitated the production of huge carved facades.26
These facades primarily adorned hotels and vacation homes in the Toba Batak area. The quote above reflects two relatively recent trends in Indonesian architecture. First, the national government has funded projects to revive or at least present imitations of older regional styles to attract tourists and capitalize on “ethnicity.” Second, groups throughout Indonesia have been returning to some of their customary forms because modern designs lacked deeper meaning. These older structural designs not only signify revived status symbols, following their increased scarcity. They also proclaim tangible ethnic, clan, gender, religious, and class identities and pride in a country plagued by political and economic woes. Toraja of Sulawesi
The Torajan homeland is a mountainous interior region of South Sulawesi, long isolated from the dominant ethnic groups of the greater region—the Islamic Buginese and Makasarese peoples of the lowlands. Traditionally, the Toraja lived in scattered mountaintop households and although they maintained relationships through ritual exchange, Dutch colonial forces