The giant Palindo stone statue towers above me, its eyes wild, its body leaning to one side as if warning me not to pass.
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Or maybe it’s just having a bit of fun. There’s no way of knowing – despite their discovery in 1908, no one has yet solved the mystery of this and the roughly 400 other megaliths in the area. What do they mean? How did they get there? Who did they belong to?
I was at Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, a megalith site that’s one of the largest in Southeast Asia.
The 2,180sqkm densely forested area is part of Indonesia’s rich prehistoric past, as well as one of the world’s greatest archaeological puzzles.
It holds three main areas of megaliths: Bada Valley, Besoa Valley, and Napu Valley. The exact age of these statues, which stand alone, in pairs, and in clusters, is still unknown because of a lack of research. But some estimates put them between 1,000 and 5,000 years old.
A rough but ruggedly beautiful route
Getting to Lore Lindu isn’t for the faint-hearted. It involves a long drive across challenging terrain and a walk through fields and forest.
My journey began with a two-hour flight from Jakarta to Central Sulawesi’s capital of Palu at the unearthly hour of 2am. From Palu, there was a five-hour drive to Besoa Valley, the location of the Megalith Tadulako and Megalith Pokekea sites.
As my companions and I entered the park, part of the Unesco World Network of Biosphere Reserves, our still-sleepy eyes were greeted with a magnificent landscape.
There were rolling hills and vibrant emerald meadows as far as I could see. From time to time, colourful birds darted across the green – the area is home to numerous rare bird species, including 77 that are endemic to Sulawesi.
Then came the difficult part of the journey. As we got closer, the road – chiselled into the mountainside – became narrow and uneven. At some places it was dangerously muddy, even though it wasn’t raining. Because of these conditions, I highly recommend visiting Lore Lindu only during the dry season.
Meeting the stone guardian
Finally, after a short trek, we reached the Megalith Tadulako site around 4pm. In the middle of a meadow surrounded by hills stood an ancient granite statue, over 2m tall and 60cm wide. It resembled a male figure with facial features such as eyes, ears, and nose, but had no lips.
According to local legend, the Tadulako statue was once a village guardian who was turned to stone as punishment for stealing rice.
Some distance behind it stood two imposing granite jars called kalamba. These vessels have historically been found to serve different purposes; here, they were apparently used to store water for the people living in the area at the time.
By now it was evening, so we headed to our lodging in the nearby Doda village to rest and prepare ourselves for another early start the next day. Note that the only accommodation options in the area are village homestays; ours was called Berkat.
The rooms in the rustic house were simple and there was no air conditioning and hot water, but the host was warm and welcoming, and made our stay as comfortable as possible.
Visiting the site of the “Spirit Boats”
We set off the next day for the Megalith Pokekea site. With over 60 megaliths of different sizes, Pokekea is the largest and also the oldest megalith site in Indonesia. Two kalamba came into sight as we entered the compound, each with eight human faces carved on them. This gave us a clue to their use – the stone jars were burial urns, most likely for the elite.
Archaeologists have found fragments of bones and teeth belonging to different individuals in both jars, as well as others in the area.
Because of what they contain, these kalamba are also called “Spirit Boats” – they’re said to have carried the souls of the departed to the spirit realm.
Their intricate designs made me wonder if this had once been an area of plenty; a prosperous community.
There was also evidence that the site’s inhabitants were very intelligent. At the border of the Pokekea compound, we came across a stone with a relief of the solar system, and an agricultural field divided into perfectly geometrical shapes. Clearly, the people who lived here had understood astronomy, agriculture, and mathematics.
View from Napu Valley
Next, we headed to Bada Valley, stopping along the way at Napu Valley, famous for its picture-perfect panoramas. From the top of a small hill, we got a front-row seat to the beauty.
While Napu’s megaliths aren’t particularly impressive (mostly kalamba), the panoramic vista of the valley looked like it was straight out of painting.
I could have spent hours gazing at the scene if the sun hadn’t sunk so rapidly. The rough, landslide-prone roads are best tackled while there’s still light, so we took a heart-racing drive to our hotel at Lake Poso, arriving shortly after dark.
The art of barkcloth making
The next morning, after a three-hour drive to Badangkaia in Bada Valley, we arrived at the Megalith Tantaduo site. Local people call it Watu Baula, or “buffalo stone”, because of its most famous megalith that resembles a buffalo without feet.
Tucked in the middle of a labyrinthian rice field, it wasn’t easy to spot and we had to ask a young farmer for help. To me, it looked more like a giant fish – the guardian of the paddies, perhaps.
Apart from viewing the megaliths, another interesting thing to do in this area is to learn more about the ancient art of barkcloth making – a practice that’s almost extinct. To do this, we met a famous craftsman who lives in the village, Antonius Taula, known for his work in conserving barkcloth. He passionately explained to us how to make the cloth and decorate it with tribal designs using natural dyes.
But the real show was when he put on an antique war costume and performed a war dance for us – an intimidating and invigorating sight.
Antonius then directed us to another house to learn how to make barkcloth. This turned out to be a very laborious process, starting with collecting bark from special trees, peeling them to a specific layer, and pounding them piece by piece. In this era of instant everything, this is an art that will surely disappear if no one cares enough to conserve it.
A lesson in power and the past
Now there was only one megalith left to visit, the leaning Palindo mentioned at the start of my story. This massive statue of about 4.5m in height is arguably the most visited in Lore Lindu, mainly because of how easy it is to reach.
While not as well known, Palindo has often been compared to the moai statues on Easter Island – some say it was built around the same time, if not earlier.
Local folklore offers an explanation to why it tilts. It’s said that a king named Luwu ordered thousands of people to turn the megalith to face south just to demonstrate his power and dominance. But the people of Bada Valley later rotated it back to face west. When Luwu’s men tried to turn it southwards again, the megalith fell sideways, killing hundreds of people in the process.
The story has apparently been used to teach leaders not to use their power unwisely. As someone famous once said: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
After visiting Lore Lindu, it’s easy to understand why archaeologists call it “The Land of Forgotten Civilisation”. One can imagine how many people occupied this vast area in its heyday, dwelling in territories marked by different styles of megaliths. Today, the former inhabitants of Besoa and Bada valleys continue to tell their stories – many megaliths remain buried under the soil of Lore Lindu, waiting to be discovered.
