North Sumatra, with its colorful and ethnically mixed population, is Indonesia's most populous province outside of Java. It now has a total of over 11 million inhabitants-more than the entire population of Kalimantan or all the islandas of Nusa Tenggara. Dynamic Bataks, Malays, Javanese, Indians and Chinese have created a fascinating kaleidoscope of modern and traditional Indonesia culture. The economy, long established on the basis of plantation agriculture, now supplemented by the huge Asahan aluminum project and various service industries, is one of the strongest in the nation. Tourism, based on the scenic beauties of lake Toba and the Karo Highlands, is next only to Bali and Yogyakarta.
There are two major ecological zones in the province-a fertile, swamp-fringed eastern plain largely given over the to plantations, and a central volcanic core-the Bukit Barisan-formed 70 millions years ago by tectonic movements. There is in addition a narrow coastal plain to the west, and a chain of sparsely-inhabited islands lying 125 km off the western coast, of which Nias is the best known,
The jewel of northern Sumatra, Lake Toba, was initially formed some 75,000 years ago in one of the most violent volcanic eruptions ever known-a cataclsym which created volcanic deposits over 600 m thick and hurled ash as far the Bay of Bengal. A second series of eruption ever some 30,000 years ago built up a new volcano inside the older one, and the depression formed by these convulsion now measure about 120 km long by 45 km wide. By comparsion, the much publicized eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State left a crater only 2 km in diameter.
The Toba explosion also resulted in the formation of a zoogeographical boundary in the Toba area. Species such as the orangutan, the white-handed gibbon, Thomas' leaf monkey and 17 types of birds are found only to the north of this region-while the tapir, tarsier, Sumatra rabbit, banded leaf monkey and 10 species of birds are found only to the south of it. It seems that the eruption created a vast, desolate region that many wildlife species were unable to cross.
The Bataklands
It is not known when the first humans came into the area but the Batak who dominate the highlands probably arrived from the Philippines and Borneo betwen 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. Si Raja Batak, the mythical ancestor of all Batak peoples (according to Toba legends), is said to have descended at Mt. Pusuk Buhit (1,981 m), a volcano on the western shores of Lake Toba. There are now six contigous Batak groups, each with its own language and customs (see "The Batak").
It is not known when the first humans came into the area but the Batak who dominate the highlands probably arrived from the Philippines and Borneo betwen 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. Si Raja Batak, the mythical ancestor of all Batak peoples (according to Toba legends), is said to have descended at Mt. Pusuk Buhit (1,981 m), a volcano on the western shores of Lake Toba. There are now six contigous Batak groups, each with its own language and customs (see "The Batak").
European knowledge of the huge lake in these highlands came quite late. Marsden, who spent 8 years in Bengkulu in the late 18th century, heard rumors of its existence. Two British missionaries, Burton and ward, entered the Silindung Valley from sibolga in 1824, but appear to have been carefully restrained from reaching Toba, then considered sacred by the inhabitants. The first European to actually see the lake was the eccentric Dutch linguist, H. N. van der Tuuk, in 1853. Two Boston missionaries. Lyman and Munsen, were less lucky. In the early 1860s they accidentally shot and killed a Batak woman whilst out hunting and were unceremoniously eaten for their pains.
The Batak hinterland came under Dutch control only in the early years of this century, and direct European influence in this area was consequently very brief-coming to an end with the Japanese occupation in 1943. It has commonly been assumed that prior to this time the Batak were an extremely primitive and isolated people. Shocking accounts in the early literature paint them as savage headhunters, cannibals and warriors. This image is rather misleading. The Batak not only possessed their own system of writing and a highly developed culture, but seemed to have had early and prolonged trading links with each other and with the outside world.
The Dairi country just to the west of Toba around Sidikalang, for example, was once rich in benzoin-a form of incense that from time immemorial has been in great demand for ritual purposes all over the East. It has long been an important trade item and is still exported from Tarutung to Java. Rotan from the mountains was also important, and Samosir, formerly known for its weavings, also supplied markets around the lake with distinctive earthenware cooking pots known as hudon.
The Batak hinterland came under Dutch control only in the early years of this century, and direct European influence in this area was consequently very brief-coming to an end with the Japanese occupation in 1943. It has commonly been assumed that prior to this time the Batak were an extremely primitive and isolated people. Shocking accounts in the early literature paint them as savage headhunters, cannibals and warriors. This image is rather misleading. The Batak not only possessed their own system of writing and a highly developed culture, but seemed to have had early and prolonged trading links with each other and with the outside world.
The Dairi country just to the west of Toba around Sidikalang, for example, was once rich in benzoin-a form of incense that from time immemorial has been in great demand for ritual purposes all over the East. It has long been an important trade item and is still exported from Tarutung to Java. Rotan from the mountains was also important, and Samosir, formerly known for its weavings, also supplied markets around the lake with distinctive earthenware cooking pots known as hudon.
Early foreign contacts
Relatively little is known of the early history of the Batak homelands, as tangible archaeological evidence has been diffcult to come by. Sherds of Song, Yuan and Ming stonewares nevertheless indicate that several Karo villages, such as Siberaya near Tiga Panah, were in contact with foreign traders by the end of the second millenium AD. Karo folktales suggest that there were well-armed Indian traders here centuries ago, and a small bronze Krisna image in Tamil style was found at Ajibuhara on the Karo Plateau in 1925.
Then there are the Dravidian connections of the Sembiring Sinyombak-Karo Batak septs who formerly set adrift the remains of their dead at the great Pe'kualuh ceremony held at Siberaya. The Sinyombak are forbidden to eat dog meat, though the reason for this is not entirely clear. According to folklore, it is because a Sinyombak ancestor was saved by his dog. There is, however, a more likely reason-an erstwhile association with Tamil traders from South India who came here seeking camphor and benzoin.
The Sinyombak Karo have an interisting group of family names-Berahmana, Culia, Depari, Keling, Meliyala, Pandya, Tekang and Mukham-which relate mainly to South Indian dynasties or castes, and probably originated from an association with a South Indian trading guild, the Ayyavole, who appeared in northern Sumatra in the 11th century AD. The Ayyavole were one of several Indian trading groups who had their own temples, priests and armies, and operated across political boundaries-supplying rulers and aristocrats with valuable textiles, incense, medicinal and ritual items. An Ayyavole inscription dating from AD 1088 has been discovered on the west coast of North Sumatra near Barus.
Other evidence of South Indian presence is reflected in Karo place names such as Lingga, Cingkem and Kubuculia. A small Batak group to the south of here, the pardembanan, appear to have also exhibited strong Indianized traits. They lived between the Silau and Asahan rivers but have now been completely absorbed by the Simalungun Batak.
In the Padang Lawas area 200 km south of Medan, moreover, there are some impressive remains of the Hindu-Buddhist Panai culture. The most important of these is the brick biaro at Bahal near Gunung Tua, erected between the 10th and 14th centuries. Here too is evidence of external trade with northwest India and China-a village named Senamandala, after the ruling dynasty of Bengal, and a marga or clan named Daulay, after a locality in the northeast Indian district of Orissa.
Magic seems to have played an important role among the Batak in these earlier times, for there are many tales of the orang jadi-jadian, men who could transform themselves at will into majestic tigers-tales which fit in well with the evidence of Tantric Buddhist practices from the archaeological remains.
The Sinyombak Karo have an interisting group of family names-Berahmana, Culia, Depari, Keling, Meliyala, Pandya, Tekang and Mukham-which relate mainly to South Indian dynasties or castes, and probably originated from an association with a South Indian trading guild, the Ayyavole, who appeared in northern Sumatra in the 11th century AD. The Ayyavole were one of several Indian trading groups who had their own temples, priests and armies, and operated across political boundaries-supplying rulers and aristocrats with valuable textiles, incense, medicinal and ritual items. An Ayyavole inscription dating from AD 1088 has been discovered on the west coast of North Sumatra near Barus.
Other evidence of South Indian presence is reflected in Karo place names such as Lingga, Cingkem and Kubuculia. A small Batak group to the south of here, the pardembanan, appear to have also exhibited strong Indianized traits. They lived between the Silau and Asahan rivers but have now been completely absorbed by the Simalungun Batak.
In the Padang Lawas area 200 km south of Medan, moreover, there are some impressive remains of the Hindu-Buddhist Panai culture. The most important of these is the brick biaro at Bahal near Gunung Tua, erected between the 10th and 14th centuries. Here too is evidence of external trade with northwest India and China-a village named Senamandala, after the ruling dynasty of Bengal, and a marga or clan named Daulay, after a locality in the northeast Indian district of Orissa.
Magic seems to have played an important role among the Batak in these earlier times, for there are many tales of the orang jadi-jadian, men who could transform themselves at will into majestic tigers-tales which fit in well with the evidence of Tantric Buddhist practices from the archaeological remains.
Conversions and migrations
Prior to Indonesian independence, the various Batak groups largely remained within their ancestral homelands. The Dutch finnaly annexed the Karolands at the turn of the century and built the first road into the plateau in 1908. The Karo are now largely converted to Christianity and to a lesser degree to Islam, though a number still maintain their ancient pabegu animistic religion.
The Toba were converted to Christianity by German and Dutch missionaries in the late 19th century, while the Mandailing and Angkola groups were largely converted to Islam by fanatical Paderis from Minangkabau during the Paderi Wars of 1816-1832. Today, however, Christians and Muslims live peaceably here in a land dotted with mosques and churches, united by the strong bonds of adat, strongly influenced by old kinship ties.
The breakdown of law and order at the end of the Japanese occupation occasioned a mass exodus from these uplands to the vastly more fertile and largely empty east coast plains, and many Batak have now spread all across Indonesia as teachers, civil servants and businessmen-enjoying vast new economic opportunities that were previously undreamed of.
-THE BATAK
-THE BATAK
Flamboyan Peoples of the Highlands
The colorful but notoriously forthright and aggressive Batak peoples inhabit a cluster of spectacularly beautiful and fertile volcanic basins at the northen end of the Bukit Barisan range-focusing around Lake Toba, with the huge island of Samosir at its center.
The term Batak is probably an abusive nickname given to them by coastal Muslims. It seems once to have been used widely in insular Southeast Asia to vilify pagan, upland peoples; a mountain tribe in the Philippines, totally unrelated to the Sumatran group, shares the same name, and a highland people in Malaysia is called Batek. Because it connotes heathen, pig-eater, cannibal and bumpkin, some Batak group, however-the Toba Batak-have reclaimed the old moniker as an ethnic badge. Batak the are, and proud of it!
Today there are about six million Batak, more than half of whom live in the highlands surrounding Lake Toba. They are divided into quite a number of distinct Batak societies, each with its own language, style of ceremonial dress and traditions, and these are generally grouped under six separate ethnonyms (see diagram below). The various languages fall into three distinct sub-groups-with the Toba, Angkola and Mandailing in one, the Karo and Pakpak in another, and the Simalungun by themselves in a third.
A Toba creation myth portrays Si Raja Batak as the founding patriarch of all Batak peoples, and a mountain to the west of Lake Toba known as Pusuk Buhit ("Central Hill"), as their point of origin. The linguistic pattern does not clearly confirm this, but the Toba Batak who now live in the area around the mountain are indeed the most numerous and visible group.
A Toba creation myth portrays Si Raja Batak as the founding patriarch of all Batak peoples, and a mountain to the west of Lake Toba known as Pusuk Buhit ("Central Hill"), as their point of origin. The linguistic pattern does not clearly confirm this, but the Toba Batak who now live in the area around the mountain are indeed the most numerous and visible group.
Nobles, commoners and slaves
Simalungun and Toba societies were divided into three ranks: nobles, commoners and slaves. Rank was acquired from one's parents and had little to do with wealth or achievement. The Toba raja was indentified by his elaborate tunic and armband made from the shell of the giant mussel Tridacna gigas. (The pre-Islamic Bugis of south Sulawesi and the chiefs of Nias also wore such armbands.)
In the southernt Batak regions, the raja held dominion over several genealogicallyrelated villages. Only married men had a say, though the opinions of older female shamans were greatly respected. Among the Simalungun, slaves were the absolute property of their masters and could be crippled or killed at will. In the south, slaves were protected by adat (customary law), and in Karo society slaves were not a significant category at all, comprising only those who had fallen into debt. Neither among the Karo nor the Pakpak was there any nobility, nor any effective political leaders above that of village chiefs.
All Batak peoples are patrilineal, and their societies are segmented into clans who can theoretically trace their ancestry to a single male through a succession of male descendast. The Simalungun have only four clans, the Karo five, but the other Batak societies have 50 or more. Batak clans are exogamous; that is, marriage is fobidden within the clan, even if no blood relation can be found. A man may have more than one wife, and in the past powerful leaders often had several.
The preferred marriage for a man is in fact with his mother's brother's daughter. The family of the bride is revered as a source of fertility and prosperity. (The Karo call them "the visible god.") A substantial brideprice has to be paid to the bride's family, which occupies an honored place at the wedding and subsequent ceremonies. Complex networks of bride-givers and bride-takers, built up over many generations, provide a sense of identinty for the individual. Despite changes brought on by the spread of education and improved communication since independence, such traditional networks are still very important.
All Batak peoples are patrilineal, and their societies are segmented into clans who can theoretically trace their ancestry to a single male through a succession of male descendast. The Simalungun have only four clans, the Karo five, but the other Batak societies have 50 or more. Batak clans are exogamous; that is, marriage is fobidden within the clan, even if no blood relation can be found. A man may have more than one wife, and in the past powerful leaders often had several.
The preferred marriage for a man is in fact with his mother's brother's daughter. The family of the bride is revered as a source of fertility and prosperity. (The Karo call them "the visible god.") A substantial brideprice has to be paid to the bride's family, which occupies an honored place at the wedding and subsequent ceremonies. Complex networks of bride-givers and bride-takers, built up over many generations, provide a sense of identinty for the individual. Despite changes brought on by the spread of education and improved communication since independence, such traditional networks are still very important.
Trade and Indian influence
Despite their geographic isolation, the Batak had regular contact with the outside world. Salt, cloth and iron were brought into the highlands in exchange for gold, rice, cassia-an inferior kind of cinnamon-and valuable tree resins such as camphor and benzoin. Horses were also bred and exported. Ulos, woven shawls that convey fertility and blessing when presented by bride-givers at weddings, radiated out from the Toba region to the surrounding Batak areas.
Trade between the highlands and the coast was on a large scale. Marsden mentions that at the end of the 18th century, 100,000 bamboo measures of salt were being imported annually to the Tapanuli region. Along these trade routes came Indian influence. The Toba language contains about 175 words of Sanskrit origin, especially calendrical terms, and the vocabulary of magic and divination. Batak writing, chess, spinning , religious ideas and even many clan names are of Indian origin. A modified Indian script was used to produce books about magic and curing written on bark and folded accordion style.
The first clear historical reference to the Batak comes in the 13th century, when the Chinese geographer Zhau Rugua mentions the name Ba'ta, a location on the northeast coast of Sumatra. The first account of the Batak in English was by Charles Miller, the East India Company botanist at Bengkulu, who visited the Batak countries in 1772 in the company of another Englishman, Giles Holloway. He wrote: "They have no king, but live in villages absolutely independent of each other, and perpetually at war with one another: their villages they fortify very strongly with double fences of camphor plank pointed, and placed with their points projecting outward, and between their fences they put pieces of bamboo, hardened by fire and concealed by the grass, which will quickly run through a man's foot."
In his detailed account of the Batak published in 1783, William Marsden astounded his readers with the paradox of a cannibalistic people who possessed a system of writting. Warfare was endemic and hostilities were formally declared. "The first act of defiance is firing, without ball, into the kampong of their enemies. Three days are then allowed for the party fired upon to propose terms of accommodation, and if this is not done, war is then fully declared."
Attacks took place usually around midnight. Captured enemy were put in stocks, unable to stand or to sit, some of them for years-their legs withering from lack of use. If a village was captured, its inhabitants were enslaved and (in Toba) the village was burned.
Public cannibalism
Frequently mentioned in such accounts was the Batak habit of eating people. An Arab text from the 9th century mentions that Sumatra's inhabitants ate human flesh. Marco Polo alluded to the same rumor, as did a series of Portuguese travelers in the 16th century, none of whom actually set foot in Batak territory. Among the Batak, public cannibalism was actually an infrequent from of capital punishment. During one and a half years spent among the Toba Batak (1840-1), the geographer Junghun witnessed only three cases. He left a vivid account of one:
"The captive is bound to a stake in an upright position. A number of fires are lighted, the musical instruments are struck. then the chief draws his knife, steps forward and addresses the people. It is explained that the victim is an utter scoundrel, not a human being at all, but a begu ("ghost") in human form, and the time has come for him to atone for his misdeeds. All draw their knives. The raja cuts off the first piece, being either a slice of the forearm or the cheek, if this be fat enough. He holds up the flesh and drinks with gusto some of the blood streaming from it. Then he hastens to the fire to roast the meat before devouring it. Now all the remaining men fall upon the bloody sacrifice, tear the flesh from the bones and roast and eat it. Some eat the meat raw, or half raw to show off their bravery. The cries of the victim do not spoil their appetites. It is usually eight or ten minutes before the wounded man becomes unconscious, and a quarter of an hour before he dies."
Cannibalism may have seemed more endemic than it actually was because of the fact that many Batak keep the bones of their illustrious ancestors, and these family treasures were often misconstrued as grisly trophies. It may have been in their interests, moreover, to cultivate this unsavory reputation. Rumors of Batak cannibalism no doubt contributed to the region's isolation, helping the Batak maintain control of trade routes into the highlands, and discouraging attempts at conquest by lowland kingdoms. Batak men often hired themselves out as mercenaries, too, and in this role blood-thirsty reputations served them well. The various Batak groups were not equally anthropophagous (the Karo deny that they ever ate human flesh), and while the custom may have persisted as late as the 20th century among the Pakpak, Toba and Simalungun, it was probably rare.
The Batak village
Prior to colonial rule, the Toba Batak lived in villages fortified with earthen and bamboo walls. The village consisted of 6 or 7 houses, at least one council house (sopo) and a skull house. The sopo surpassed even the chief's house in the splendor of its decorations, with rich leaf-and-flower designs carved on its beams. The houses faced one another across a rectangular square. Boys and widowers spent their nights in the sopo; in the south, unmarried girls were guarded by the village chief or slept in a separate house, where they were allowed male visitors. Karo houses were larger (holding as many as eight families), and their villages tended to be larger and more irregular in layout.
Batak houses were built on piles above the ground. The interior was open and quite barren of furniture, but at night mats were let down to provide privacy, Open hearths produced a constant fog of smoke, which in the absence of a chimney was forced to find its way out through the thatched roof.
Early Dutch visitors found these living conditions far from ideal. The scholar Neumann describes a Toba house in the mid-19th century thus: "Soot covers the walss and ceiling, the corners are full of cobwebs, the floors are covered with sirih chews and chicken excrement. The houses are like caves into which the openings in the walls scarcely admit a ray of light. Centipedes and scorpions wander about freely, ants build their runways, cockroaches fly unmolested, and lice lurk all over. When the houses are filled with smoke, one asks oneself how human beings can spend a night in one of them."
Like the Toraja of Sulawesi, who share the same ancient heritage, the Batak house was divided into three levels symbolizing a threefold division of the cosmos-the underworld, the eart and the upperworld. Animals were kept below the house (where they warned against attacks), people lived in the middle and sacred heirlooms were hung under the eaves. Important items were kept in the sopo: the skulls of slain enemy, magical writings incised on bark, and the bronze drum which summoned villagers to feast or council.
Batak houses were built on piles above the ground. The interior was open and quite barren of furniture, but at night mats were let down to provide privacy, Open hearths produced a constant fog of smoke, which in the absence of a chimney was forced to find its way out through the thatched roof.
Early Dutch visitors found these living conditions far from ideal. The scholar Neumann describes a Toba house in the mid-19th century thus: "Soot covers the walss and ceiling, the corners are full of cobwebs, the floors are covered with sirih chews and chicken excrement. The houses are like caves into which the openings in the walls scarcely admit a ray of light. Centipedes and scorpions wander about freely, ants build their runways, cockroaches fly unmolested, and lice lurk all over. When the houses are filled with smoke, one asks oneself how human beings can spend a night in one of them."
Like the Toraja of Sulawesi, who share the same ancient heritage, the Batak house was divided into three levels symbolizing a threefold division of the cosmos-the underworld, the eart and the upperworld. Animals were kept below the house (where they warned against attacks), people lived in the middle and sacred heirlooms were hung under the eaves. Important items were kept in the sopo: the skulls of slain enemy, magical writings incised on bark, and the bronze drum which summoned villagers to feast or council.
Economic life
Every Batak was, and to a large exten still is, a farmer. Rice is the most important crop, followed by maize, potatoes, taro, yams and various vegetables. Coffe, tobacco, cinnamon, coconut and sugar (and earlier indigo) are raised as cash crops. Cattle, buffalo and other livestock are also important. Irrigated land is very valuable because it may be cultivated continuosly, but where thick grasses have taken over, dry fields can be worked with deep hoes between long periods of fallowing. Around the lake, women supplement their income with weaving, and throughout the Batak region men and women transport and sell the region's produce. Rural families who farm and trade, or draw a wage as teachers or bus drivers, are often the most wel-to-do.
Toba villages and the surrounding lands belong to a patrilineal descent group, and women ideally move to their husband's village. In reality a man often lives in his wife's village of more land is available. Land passes to male heirs, but this legal standard often bends to accommodate women's needs. Women inherit land as widows, for example, and may receive it as gifts from parents or brothers, or be granted the lifetime use of fields.
As the population in rural areas expanded, migration became the solution to land shortages, and families increasingly invested in education. Some who move away maintain ownership of land, leaving it to be worked by relatives. The Toba regard their land as a sacred legacy from the primal ancestor or village founder; it must not be sold to outsiders.
Cosmology and magic
Traditional Batak religious beliefs were influenced by Hindu-Buddhist ideas, but as in Bali these rested on an older Austronesian substratum dating back some 5,000 years.
The Toba universe was divided into three. The upperworld, which had seven levels, was the home of gods, the middle world belonged to humans and the underworld was the home of ghosts and demons. A hig god, Mula Jadi Na Bolon-the Creator-was a remote, mythical being who had a fabolous blue chicken for a wife and did not concern himself much with human affairs. Attending more closely were the ancestral spirits, and these remain important for the Toba today.
Ancestors protect and receive honor from meat-sacrificing communities of descendants, called bius. Descendants of a village founder constitute a small bius; larger ones are made up of several villages tracing their origins to still more distant ancestors. In the past, major bius kept their ancestors' bones in hand-hewn stone sarcophagi, some with a stylized singa or "lion" head carved on their face. In recent years, these sarcophagi have been replaced by massive concrete structures and statuary.
Batak medical theory focuses on the condition of the soul. The soul of a healthy person is "hard" and remains firmly in place. Illness befalls someone who has been startled, causing the soul to flee the body. By ritual means, a shaman calls the wandering soul home again and thus "cures" the patient.
Karo shamans (guru) were both men and women, although male guru tended to have a higher status. Women guru were often spirit mediums as well as healers. The Toba shaman (dukun), usually male, was instrumental in communicating with spirits, both good and evil, and was second only to the village chief in importance. He was consulted before any understaking, such as war or harvesting.
The shaman had a magic staff (tunggal panaluan) carved with ancestral figures and used to produce rain and to protect the village against enemies. This staff possessed a "warrior" spirit, the pangulubalang, which was obtained by kidnapping a child from a hostile village. After extracting an oath from the victim, boiling lead was poured down his throat and he died a quick but painful death, thus securing his ghost as an obedient ally. A magical substance made from his entrails was placed in a hole in the center of the staff.
Muslims and Christians
Starting in the early 19th century, the southern Batak began to face increasing pressure from the neighboring Minangkabau areas to convert to Islam. This culminated with the Paderi War (1816-33), when southern Batak succumbed to the burning and looting of West Sumatran Muslims who aimed to spread their faith and control the gold trade.
The war pushed as far north as the Toba region, but not many Toba converted to Islam. All of the Mandailing did, however, and most of the Angkola, and these southern groups began to renounce the name Batak and to dispense with their traditional clan names. Karo who moved to the East Coast similarly converted to Islam and began to consider themselves Malays. In the past, Batak and Muslim were exclusive categories, although today Batak Muslims are better able to reconcile their religious and ethnic identities.
The Batak were an early and obvious target for Christianizing European missions (see "Missionaries") and today the Toba moved rapidly to fill positions as teachers, medical technicians and office clerks in the post-colonial order. As a result they remain disproportionately represented in government and in careers requiring education.
