To many people in most part of Indonesia archipelago, gold is regarded as a guaranteed standard of wealth, but it does not apply in Toraja Land. The Toraja people treasure TEDONG or water buffalo are given special care by their owners and some even spoil them.

     TORAJA farmers rarely use their buffalo in plowing rice fields as in usually the practice in other parts of Indonesia. They leave their TEDONG leisurely grazing while the owners till the rice-fields with hoes and the sweat of their brow. The TEDONG is given a daily bath and fed with nutritious fodder.

 The TORAJAS recognize five different species with black or grey specks on their white skin are the most expensive. Each head costs rupiah  6 million or the equivalent of 20 ordinary  buffalo. The BONGA, with specks from the nape of his neck to the head, are equivalent in price to 16 or 18 buffalo.TODI, with specks only on the forehead, costs about the same as 15 ordinary buffalo. The PUDU species or black ones cost 13 ordinary buffalo each, while the grey-skinned buffalo are detined to be slaughtered for traditional feasts or PELIANGAN.

 Among the noble families, hundreds of buffalo are slain during a feast, which lasts for several weeks, even among the common people, the number of buffalo slain numbers no less than 25 heads. It is estimated that at least 60.000 buffalo are slain each year in Tana TORAJA.

    A wooden sculpture in the form of a buffalo head with a real  horn decorates the main post of a Toraja house, an expression of appreciation among Toraja People for the TEDONG, symbol of their wealth and prosperity.