TEDONG—the name for buffalo in Toraja—are quite spoiled. The animal is fed a bottle of honey a day, bathed daily in the river with every inch of its thick skin shampooed and brushed. “To make it shine and look beautiful,” said Anton, the pa’ kambi or buffalo herder of Batutumonga, Toraja.

The tedong being raised by Anton is a mottled buffalo of the most expensive type called saleko in local dialect. “There was an offer of Rp180 mi