 In larger Tana Toraja villages, houses are arranged in a row, side by side, with their roofs on a north-south alignment with the front gable facing north.Opposite each house is the family's rice barn, or "alang" customarily a symbol of family wealth, and together they form a second row of parallel buildings.Houses of the Mamasa Toraja, however, are orientated to the direction of the river with their rice barns aligned perpendicular to the house.