Saoraja

South Sulawesi

A saoraja is a Bugis noble’s house and a bola is everyone else’s: a raised timber-framed building whose beams pass through its posts, divided into three from the bottom up, under a gable roof. What makes it worth building here is on the face of that gable. The timpa laja is a stack of boards there, their number is the household’s rank, and they carry no load at all — so this is the only house in the project whose rank marker is detachable, and therefore the only one whose marker can lie. The sun in this model is computed for South Sulawesi, 4.00° S and 119.63° E.

The board limits used here — three for a bola, five to nine for a saoraja — follow the sources on the count being odd and graded by standing; the exact limits differed between places and periods, and what this model uses is the author’s reading rather than the rule of one particular kingdom. The board sizes, the storey heights and the post spacing are all the author’s estimates. Bugis and Makassar are not one tradition though their houses are close kin; the terms here are Bugis. There is no carving, though a Bugis house is carved. And not one figure here comes from a measurement.