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North Sumatra
THE BATAK LAND
The Bataks, a colorful and notoriously forthright and aggressive people, inhabit a cluster of spectacularly beautiful and fertile volcanic basins at the northern end of the Bukit Barisan range – focusing around Lake Toba, with the huge island of Samosir at its center.
There are about six million Batak, more than half of whom live in the high-lands surrounding Lake Toba, divided in a number of distinct Batak societies, each with its own language, style at ceremonial dress and traditions. These are generally grouped under six separate ethnonyms: Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Toba, Angkola and Mandailing.
Despite their geographic isolation, the Batak had regular contact with the outside world. The first clear historical reference to the Batak comes in the 13th century, when the Chinese geographer Zhau Rugua mentions the name Batak, a location on the northeast coat of Sumatra.
The first account of the Batak in English was by Charles Miller, the East India Company botanist at Bengkulu, who visited Batak country in 1772 in the company of the Englishman, Giles Holloway. They 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 writing. Warfare was endemic and hostilities were formally declared.
Prior to colonial rule, Batak villages were fortified with earthen and bamboo walls. The villages consisted of 6 or 7 houses, at least one council house (sopo) and a skull house. Batak houses were built on piles above the ground. The interior was open and quite barren of furniture. 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.
Like the Torajanese of Sulawesi, who share the same ancient heritage, the Batak house was divided into three levels symbolizing a three fold division of the cosmos the underworld, the earth and the upper world. Animals were kept below the house (where they warned against attacks), people live 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 sum moned villagers to feast or council.
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 upper world which had seven levels. And was the home of gods, the middle world belonging to humans and the underworld which was home of ghosts and demons. A high god, Mula Jadi Na Bolon – the Creator-was a remote, mythical being who had a fabulous blue chick-en for a wife and did not concern himself much with human affairs.
Ancestors protect and receive honor from meat sacrificing communities of descendent, called bins.
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 started, 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 undertaking, war or the harvest.
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 Padri War (1816 – 1833), 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 no many Tobanese converted to Islam. All of the Mandating 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 them selves 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 missionaries and today the Toba church is the largest in Indonesia. Benefiting from early mission schools, the Tobanese moved rapidly to fill positions as teachers, medical technicians and office rks in the postcolonial order. As the result they remain disproportionately represented in government and in careers requiring education.
Woven fabrics (Toba ulos, Karo uis) play an important role in traditional Batak society. They’re used not only as clothing, but as important gifts presented on ritual occasions to symbolize and reinforce the bonds existing between related groups of people. The need to exchange traditional fabrics at ceremonies such as weddings, births and funerals is indeed the main reason such cloths continue to be produced today, though one can also see them being worn by village women as shawls or head coverings.
In some areas, weaving has long been a full time occupation practiced by village women who accept commissions from traders and merchants in towns.
One area where such commercial weaving continues to be practiced is along the northwestern shores of Lake Toba, in the so-called sitelu huta (three villages) namely Tongging, Paropo and Silalahi. Although the women of sitelu huta are themselves Toba Bataks, they do not normally produce traditional Toba textiles. For generations they have instead produced fabrics for Karo Batak clients to the north, who had more money to spend on their traditional fabrics and jewelry than the Tobanese.
The patterns woven for the Karo depend on orders, but also on the individual preferences of the weaver. Some older weavers refuse to work with synthetically dyed yams. Toba weavers in Kabanjahe tend to be older than their counterparts in the homeland villages around the lake, and they tend to produce more traditional patterns. Today, however, many of the fabrics produced here employ non-traditional dark red colors – a style of coloring emanating from the Simalungun area. These colors have been popular among the Karo for some time now, and younger Karo often do not even know that their own traditional fabrics were one exclusively dyed with indigo blue.
The Toba women in Kabanjahe also weave their own traditional sitelu huta village patters. Some of these they sell, others are kept aside for their own use, to be distributed among family members after their death.
There is now even an increasing demand for machine-woven fabrics that reproduce traditional Karo motifs using gold and silver threads instead of the traditional dyed colors of indigo and red.
The Simalungun (or Batak Timur) occupy the highlands between Lake Toba and the east coast, today a key plantation region with huge estates producing palm oil, rubber, cocoa and tea. The area is traversed by a 100-km stretch of the Trans Sumatra Highway leading up to Parapat via Pematang Siantar.
The Simalungun and the Karo have much in common, indianizing traits in their dialect, religious practice and script. The Simalungun were, however, originally reputedly cannibals, whereas the Karo were not.
The major Simalungun Mara or clans are distinct from those in the other Batak areas namely Damanik, Sinaga Saragih and Purbo. Islamic influence is strong in areas adjoining the coastal Malay settlements. By the early years of this century, the rajas of Purba and Raya invited Rhenish missionaries into their territories. In 1907, the rajas signed the Korte Verklaring (a short statement) of submission to the Dutch, and in 1908 a colonial administration was established in Pematang Siantar.
Soon after the arrival of the Dutch, Toba migrants began moving into the unoccupied areas, creating vast expanses of irrigated rice fields, a technique quite alien to the Simalungun, who practiced only swidden agriculture. More Toba migrants poured in after national independence in 1945, and today Tobanese comprises a large proportion of the area’s population.
Medan, the capital of the North Sumatra province, with a population over 2 million, is the gateway to Sumatra, is a booming commercial center for the region’s huge oil and agribusiness. Medan originally developed from a tiny village in the 1860s a prosperous colonial city with a population of 60,000 in 1943.
Today Medan is a sprawling and bustling metropolis – its busy streets are lined with new office and shopping blocks and thronged with minibuses and noisy motorized becak that produce voluminous clouds of thick smoke. The pre-independence population of Chinese, Indian, Javanese and Europeans has been swamped by an influx of indigenous Sumatrans, predominantly Bataks, but also Acehnese, Malays and Minangkabau from all over Sumatra and the rest of Indonesia.
Medan is by far the largest city of Sumatra, and the fourth largest in Indonesia, after Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung.
Some 10,000 years ago Neolithic hunters and gatherers of the Hoabihian settled in the swampy estuary areas around what is now Medan, accumulating enormous mounds of discarded shells from the seafood they consumed.
These shell middens provide us with one of the few tantalizing glimpses of Neolithic habitation in western Indonesia. Sadly they have been all but destroyed by commercial lime burners.
By the early second millennium AD –probably even earlier – Arab, Indian and Chinese traders arrived on these coasts in search of valuable aromatic tree resins from the valleys and slopes of the Bukit Barisan – resins such as camphor (kapur barus) and benzoin (kemenyan) much in demand by the people of Asia for medicinal and ritual purposes. Traces of an early trading settlement have been found at Kota Cina near Belawan, the port north of Medan.
Medan, like Jakarta, is a hot and crowded city, and most visitors rush straight through on the way to the cooler and more scenic highlands. On the other hand, Medan has pleasant hotels and well preserved colonial buildings, a lovely palace and mosque, and numerous fascinating temples, markets and ethnic quarters.
Most visitors arrive by air at Polonia International Airport, once the city’s racetrack and before that a Polish-owned tobacco plantation.
The Deli River flows past the northern end of the runway, marked by a line of coconut trees, with the dome-shaped roof of the Sultan of Deli’s palace visible in the distance. Polonia was a fashionable colonial residential neighborhood, and lavish villas still line its broad, shady-boulevards.
The colonial area of Medan is located around the Padang or towns square to the north of Jl. Ahmad Yani, notably the old town hall, the Bank of Indonesia building (formerly de Javaasche Bank), the Bank Negara (formerly the exclusive Witte Societeit club, build in 1879), and Hotel Darma Deli, which incorporates the old Hotel De Boer – made famous by the Ladislao Szekely novel, Tropic Fever, which describes a young European planter in Sumatra in the early years of this century.
The old train station is gone, but the jembatan gantung, or the original suspension bridge over the railway, remains.
On the corner of Jl. Putri Hijau, the colonial era Post Office stands virtually unchanged, with the Nienhuys fountain just outside – dedicated to the man responsible for the Medan area plantation boom.
Directly to the south is Istana Maimoon; the ceremonial palace of the sultans of Deli, with its yellow trim – yellow is the color of Malay royalty – and typical east coast Malay architecture.
The Deli sultans are reputedly descended from Mohammed Daiek Sri Paduka Gocah Pahlawan, a nobleman of Indian descent, appointed governor and first ruler of the state of Deli by the Sultan of Aceh around 1630.
One block to the east across the single track railway, on Jl. Sisingamangaraja (named after the National Hero, powerful Batak priest-king killed by Dutchin 1907), is the Masjid Raya or Great Mosque with its imposing tiled archway, royal burial ground and adjacent kolam or tank across the road.
Nearby Kampung Keling Ql. Zainul Arifin), a busy commercial centre, is the original centre of Medan’s Indian community. Its high-walled Sri Mariamman temple devoted to the goddess Kali was built in 1884. The entrance is topped by a small gopuram (or ornamental pyramidal gateway). The Medan Indian community is mainly descendants of South Indians who came in work on plantations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
East of the railway, centered on Jl. Sutomo, is Medan’s Chinatown, the heart of North Sumatra’s wholesale trade with shops selling everything from heavy machines to toiletries.
Here you can find colorful Chinese and seafood stalls lining Jl. Selat Panjang. Medan can offer a wide variety of delicious food, from roadside food stalls serving basic Padang or Chinese meals, to air-conditioned restaurants serving expensive Chinese and European banquets. During the durian season, heaps of fruit are offered for sale through out the area.
From Medan you can make side trips to Old Deli (Deli Tua), also known as Benteng Putri Hijau or the Fortress of the Green Princess in the ancient site of the Aru court, overlooking the West Bank of Deli River.
Along the way you can stop at the Research Station of the Sumatra Planter’s Association at Kampung Baru – a good example of prewar colonial architecture, and at Taman Margasatwa, Medan’s zoo, to see the Sumatran tiger and range of birds and other animals.
Belawan is some 25 km north of the city. Most of Medan’s new industrial development is sited along the old Belawan road, which was built in the late 19th century and follows the course of the Deli River.
The opening of the Belawan-Medan-Tanjung Muara toll road to the east of the old road means. That much of the heavier traffic can now bypass the Belawan town center.
Nearby Kota Cina is the site of an 11th to 14th century South Indian and Chinese trading settlement, with its adjacent harbor of Paya Pasir. It may be reached from the old Belawan road by turning left of Titipapan (km 16), past the jail on the left and over the Deli River, proceeding about 2 km toward Hamparan Perak and turning right along a track to Rengaspulau and Kota Cina, two typical Malay villages.
About 6 km out of town, you may stopat the Crocodile Farm at Sunggal, the largest in Indonesia, with some 1,500 reptiles package in like sardines.
Bohorok was the former seat of the Kejuruan Langkat, and formed the upper limit of Malay cultural influence on the Wampu River. The Langkat Ulu (Upper Langkat) area is, however, essentially a Karo dusun area with a sizeable number of Javanese settlers who originally came to work on the plantations. The last stretch along the Bahorok River to Bukit Lawang leads through a lovely irrigated rice area.
At Bukit Lawang there are basic bamboo chalets for those who wish to stay overnight by the river at the edge of the forest.
Although the elevation is not high, only about 90 m above sea level, the evenings can be quite cool. Good durian and rambutan are available in season and Tertiary limestone caves are found in the immediate vicinity, with a pre-Tertiary carboniferous formation around Bohorok.
A side trip from Bohorok for the fit and adventurous leads to Pintu Angin, “the Door of the Wind,” – a hole in the limestone walls near the village of Batukatak, about 5 km upstream from Bohorok. An underground river flows nearby.
For eco-tourists and nature-lovers a three hours journey from Medan brings you to the village of Bukit Lawang, where permits to visit the Orangutan Rehabilitation Station(9 km past Bohorok) can be obtained upon showing your passport.
Bohorok and its immediate hinterland lie in the province of North Sumatra, but most of Gunung Leuser National Parks is in the province of Aceh. The park administrative center is at Kutacane in the Alas River valley, a 6-8 hour drive from Medan. Permits can be obtained for entry into the park upon presentation of photocopies of your passport.
Among the alternatives one can set out through the jungle with guides and porters hired at Kotacane. The danger from tigers here is probably exaggerated.
One of the most exciting experience; of the forest is to see and hear a family of white-handed gibbons or the larger black siamangs, as their whooping calls ring out across the hills and valleys. The white handed gibbons call in a series of high yells while the siamangs have a deeper, bubbling whoop backed by a booming sound made by their inflatable throat pouches.
The highway east of Medan through the Deli Serdang coastal area is broad and fast, passing through endless groves of rubber trees and oil palms.
A turnoff at Perbaungan leads north to Pantai Cermin (Mirror Beach), a favourite local holiday and weekend picnic spot, 45 km from Medan, here are caesarian line beaches for swimming and fishing, though incomparable to those along the west coast. About 76 km from Medan you enter the large town of Tebing Tinggi, the east coast rail junction where lines link Pematang Siantar with Medan and Rantau Prapat further the south.
The main road to Pematang Siantai and Toba turns off here and enters the Simalungun area just south of Tebing Tinggi, passing through the enormous government-owned oil palm and cocoa estate of Pabatu. Further along the road is the American-owned Dolok Merangir rubber estate, one of the plantation enterprises still owned by foreign capital. The famous American botanist and ethnographer, Hariey Harris Barlett – author of The Labors of the Datoe worked here in 1918 and again in 1927.
Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra’s second largest city, is the administrative and commercial hub of the Simalungun plantation area, founded by the Dutch early in this century. Colonial houses can be seen amidst the urban clutter, and at 400 m above sea level the climate is notably cooler than on the coast.
The Simalungun Museum on Jl. Ahmad Yani has an interesting collection of pustaka laklak – the bark books in Indic Batak script used by datuk magicians to record their sacred formulae. It also has notable examples of stone Pangulubalang or Simalungun guardian images collected during the 1930s. the Siantar Zoo offers an interesting collection of Sumatran wildlife, and a wide variety of seasonal fruits such as durian, mangoes, mangosteens, rambutan and salak are offered for sale in Siantar’s market.
From Pematang Siantar the road ascends steadily through palm plantations and a vast patch quilt of irrigated sawah. A few traditional houses and tombs appear by the roadside in the broken country around the Toba rim.
Tanah Karo or Karoland – the homeland of the Karo Batak people – is an exceptionally fertile plateau set in the midst of the volcanic Bukit Barisan highlands south of Medan. For some time now this verdant plateau has served as northern Sumatra’s green grocer.
With the construction of a road up from the coast in 1908, European crops such as cabbage, corn, carrots and potatoes were introduced, and Karo farmers began to cultivate market gardens to supply a rapidly growing urban population in the lowlands. For a time even supplying vegetables across the straits to West Malaysia and Singapore.
The Karo people, known among them selves as the merga silima (the five clans) are a distinct cultural entity with their own language, history and tradition. About 300,000 Karo today inhabit the plateau, but at least as many live in the coastal lowland’s to the east, where they have been for centuries. Since 1930s many Karo have migrated further afield to Medan, Jakarta and other urban centers.
About 20 km from Medan, the urban heat and traffic are soon left behind as you begin the climb into the forested foothills of the Bukit Barisan.
About 40 km from Medan, history rebuffs may be interested to stop at a town of Sembahe, where a pathway behind the shops next to the main bridge leads half a km or so up stream to a rubber estate where the first ‘Hoabinhian Sumatralith’ Neolithic stone tool was discovered in 1926.
Several km further on, the Sibalangit Botanic Garden lies overlooking Sembahe and the lowlands.
Ten km before Brastagi on the right is the turn off to Dauyiu and Semangat Gunung – two villages at the base of active Mt Sibayak (2,094 m). Also here is Lau Debuk Debuk (Bubbling Water), a hot sulphur spring regarded as the home of friendly forest spirits. (Notice the offerings of kretek cigarettes left in lengths of split bamboo or palm stems by the edge of the pools). And also a favorite-haunt of friendly locals, who like to enjoy a communal bath after sunset, when the cold air contrasts deliciously with the piping4iot, Milphur-laden water.
Brastagi is a center, of vegetable, flower and fruit farming.
There are many old villages around Brastagi, ranging from very good to not interesting. The most popular Karo tourist village is Lingga 16-km southwest of Brastagi and about 5-km northwest of Kabanjahe. Lingga has a number of rumah adat (some reputed to be 250 years old) but is becoming dilapidated as it is more difficult now to build new adat houses due to the rising cost of timber and manpower.
Guides will happily show you about and explain various facets of Karo life, including the birthing seat on a wooden step by the chiefs house where some women still give birth, attended by the village dukun (medicine man), gripping two handles high above her head. It is possible to stay in the village, and if you care to pay, traditional dances will be performed.
Lake Toba, the jewel of the Sumatran highlands, with its mystical island of Samosir at its center, forms the very heart of the beautiful but often harsh Toba Bataklands. This is the largest lake in Southeast Asia, measuring 100 km long, north to south, and 31 km across, with a surface area of about 1,145 sq km. The island of Samosir alone, inside the lake, is 530 sq km- about the size of Singapore. Toba is also the world’s deepest lake, over 450 m deep, though accurate surveys of the lake floor have yet to be made.
The first town you pass after leaving Brastagi is the district capital of Kabanjahe (Ginger Garden), 14 km to the south of bustling own surrounded by rice fields and market gardens in the very heart of Karoland. This is a crossroads where the highway from Aceh’s Alas Valley meets the Medan highway.
Twenty-four km south Kabanjahe, the road touches the other rim of the Toba basin at Merek, and a side road from here winds down to the lakeshore past a spectacular waterfall known as Sipisopiso (Like a Knife), which shoots out of a cave at the edge of the plateau and plunges 120 meters straight down to a small, gushing stream below. A gazebo provides panoramic views over the village of Tonggingat the lake’s edge.
Fro Merek, the road to Prapat hugs the high rim of the ancient caldera, skirting the lake and brushing the bare slopes of Mt Singgalang (1,863 m) just north of the village of Seribudolok (Thousand Peaks). A turn off to the left here leads down an old Karo trail to Bangunpurba, in the East Coast plantation belt.
Back on the Prapat road, some 4-km past Seribudolok, a side road to the right winds 10 km down to the lakeshore at Haranggaol, a picturesque market village known for its garlic and shallots. A feny crosses over to Samosir from here on Mondays and Thursdays, and there are small hotels, canoes and speedboats with finishing equipment to while away the time as you wait.
At Tigarunggu, 5 km past Pematang Purba, a right-hand turn leads to Prapat via a rough but scenic road that follows a for ested ridge overlooking the lake. At a tiny crossroads at Simarjarunjung is a restaurant with a magnificent view. At Sipintuangin, 3 km further on, there is a side road to the right loading down to Tigaras, another maricet town on the lakeshore with a ferry service over to Samosir.
Prapat occupies a small, rocky Peninsula Justin into the lake, and has recently expanded southward over a ridge into the adjacent village of Ajibata. Indonesia’s first President, Soekarno, was imprisoned in Prapat for several months by the Dutch in early 1949, together with H. Agus Salim and Sutan Syahrir.
Good water-skiing, speedboat trips, paddle craft and tennis are all available here. In the immediate vicinity of Prapat are some interesting geological exposures of granite, fossili ferrous sediments, limestone. Just to the south, in the Naborsahon River valley, are beautiful terraces indicating the previously much high level of the lake Samosir, the Island of the Dead’ in the middle of Lake Toba is a barren and stark remnant of a second powerful explosion that rocked this volcanic cauldron some 30,000 years ago.
The eastern side of the island rises very steeply up from a narrow strip along the lakeshore to a central plateau towering some 780-m above it. The plateau slopes gently back to the southern and western shores of the island and is, dotted with tiny villages that cling precariously to cliff tops pierced by deep ravines.
The Samosir plateau is argely arid with scattered forests, marshes and a small lake. A road of sorts runs all around the edge of the island, but is very rough in places, with some dilapidated and dangerous bridges in the southwest From Paguguran a road links Samosir to the mainland, climbing up a steep escarpment to dramatic 1,800-m heights at Tele that offer a splendid panorama of the lake, with Samosir Island spread out down below.
F.M. Schnitger, author of Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra, visited Samosir in the 1930s and recorded adat housed; stone tombs and burial cists in no less than 26 different villages. Since that time many villages have been abandoned, names of others have changed, and some of the enormous stone sarcophagi which the island is known has been moved from their original resting places so they are not always easy to find. Off the beaten track, time and patience is required to seek out the ancients tombs. But then for many people, a visit to Samosir simply involves an easy ferry ride over to the village of Tomok, where the famous of all Toba Batak sarcophagi lies just a few minutes’ walk from the pier.
Samosir is accessible by regular ferry from the resort of Prapat, a journey of under an hour – but also by less frequent ferries from Haranggaol and Tigaras on the Simalungun shore to the north. The two main landing points on Samosir are Tomok and Tuktuk.
At Tomok, famous for years now as the ‘ gateway to Samosir, ‘ the visitor is greeted by arrow of stalls selling a bewildering array of Batak handicrafts, traditional ulos cloths, carvings, Batak calendars and musical instruments, including the two stringed violin, harwah and the guitar or hasapi. Small hotels and restaurants are nearby.
Directly inland, hidden in a bamboo thicket under ancient banyan tree, is the most famous of the giant Toba sarcophagi. Carved from a single block of stone, the tomb dates from the early 19th century and belongs to a chief of the Sidabutar clan. In front is an enormous, carved singa face, a mythical part buffalo, part elephant like creature.
There are other modem tombs and stones here, including lichen-covered stone ancestor seats dating from 1950, and a modem sarcophagus made a recently as 1979. The adat houses stand in a row opposite, facing away from the lake, with their all-important rice barns in front.
Just to the north of Tomok is the small peninsula of Tuktuk Ni Asu (Dog Peninsula) with its sandy beaches and scores of hotels offering budget accommodation; now a booming resort that is Samosir’s answer to Bali’s Kuta Beach.
Four km to the north of Tuktuk along its narrow, paved road is Ambarita, an attractive village with ancient stone walls that were once topped with a thick pagar or fence of thorny bamboo. Inside are stone seats and modem statuary, the work of a certain Siallagan some 40 years ago.
Some 19 km further north is Simarindo where the elaborately decorated house of Raja Sidauruk has been declared a museum.
Visitors can witness a traditional tortor dance and sigalegale puppet performance here for a fee, complete with a lively gondang sahang unan ensemble. Just opposite is a rocky islet called Pulau Tao with a shallow bay and a small hotel.
About 2 km past Simanindo is Harangmalau, the northernmost point on Samosir. At nearby Situngkir and Sialango an are unusual tombs belonging to the chiefs of Sihaloho.
Several km further on, past Parbaba, is Suhisuhi – site of an ancient sarcophagus and a number of modem cement tombs. To the south at Hutaraja are five old sarcophagi of the Simarmata clan, including that of Raja Ompu Bontormthin the village itself.
Human sacrifice, was apparently once guide common in Toba, used to magically capture and convert the spirit of an unwitting victim into a powerful spirit protector.
A further 5-km on is Pangururan, the sub-district administrative center, where a bridge connects Samosir to the mainland. Just over the bridge, a small road to the right leads up to a popular hot spring on the slopes of Mt Pusuk Buhit (1,981 m), sacred mountain of origin for all Batak peoples. This is where the first ruler, Si Raja Batak, is said to have descended from the heavens. The main road from the bridge winds up to Tele, 900 m above the lake, offering panoramic views back across Samosir. There are many other places of interest spread out in Samosir.
Having explored Samosir, you may want to return to Prapat and travel south to the Uluan region to view a number of fascinating tombs and villages. From Prapat take the smaller back road through Ajibata, which winds steeply up a mountain face behind the resort and affords rewarding views back across the lake.
To the left of the road, 22 km from Prapat, is the village of Hutagaol belonging to the Manurung clan, built in 1935 above an earlier village of the same name.
The area south of here around Porsea is where the 60-m wide Asahan River drains Toba to the east. The river is quickly joined by tributaries from the north (Aek Mandosi) and the south (Aek Bolon), and the alluvial plain formed by these rivers is extremely fertile, dotted with prosperous villages. The road down into the Asahan Valley turns off to the left some 3-km before the town of Porsea. About I km along the road is a fine example of a carved sarcophagus lid belonging to Raja Pabalubis of the Manurung clan.
From here the road descends steeply eastward into the Asahan Valley, where the river enters a narrow ravine with vertical walls 250-m high from the soft volcanic tuff. This is the side of Inalum hydroelectric plan, a Japanese-built complex of 3 dams completed in 1975 at a cost of US$2 billion. The largest such plant in Indonesia, it generates 500 MW of power supply, enabling the plant at Kuala Tanjung on the coast to electrolyze 225,000 tons of aluminium. Access to the road and the falls beyond requires a special permit, obtainable from the Inalum office.
Beyond the plant at Siguragura the ravine narrows to a mere cleft in the rocks and the river plunges over a spectacular 200-m falls into another cleft further down known as Sampuran Harimo (Tiger Falls), whence it plunges once again into the vale of Tangga, through yet another falls. For merly, on the south face of the latter, ascent was by means of a series of ladders, hence the name tangga – meaning ladder. From here the road zigzags down into the Asahan plantation belt by the coast, rejoining the north-south Medan road at Bandar Pulo.
Bordering the lake south and west of Porsea are more fertile sawah dotted with villages. Laguboti, on the Aek Simare between Porsea and Balige, is known for its woodcarving and statues. At Sigumpar Fust west of here is the grave of I.L. Nommensen, the German missionary who almost single-handedly converted the entire Toba Batak population to Christianity at the end of the 19th century.
South of Laguboti, a rough trail leads to Huta Ginjang and the extensive remains of long abandoned fortified villages at an altitude of 1,650 m, with earthen walls and tunnel approaches, which to this day are very poorly documented.
Balige is an important market town at the southern end of the lake, 65 km from Prapat the town has a large pasar (market) built in the traditional Tapanuli style, and is known for its textile production. There is a monument here to the last Batak priest king, Sisingamangaraja XII and to General D.I. Panjaitan, who was murdered in Jakarta in the communist coup of 1965. Two museums are also found here, the Balige Museum and the Sisingamangaraja XII museum. The latter houses a collection of artifacts relating to this national hero, who is buried at Soposumng.
North, Central and South Tapanuli districts, occupy roughly the southern third of the province, bordering Lake Toba to the north and Riau and West Sumatra to the south. North Tapanuli is inhabited by Toba Bataks, while the areas to the south are home to the Angkola and Mandailing Batak, many of whom converted to Islam under intense pressure from Minang Paderi warriors in the 19th century. For the most part this is a rugged but picturesque country, with longitudinal valleys running north south in the Bukit Barisan and a broadening coastal plain to the southeast.
Three mains roads pass through the area. East of the mountains, the Trans-Sumatra Highway traverses the plantation belt south of Tebing Tinggi to Rantau Prapat and Kota Pinang. It then cuts inland across the arid and undulating Padang Lawas plain past Gunung Tua to Padang Sidempuan – the main market town and administrative center of South Tapanuli, known for its salak palm fruits, grown on the slopes of Mt Lubukraya (1,886 m).
Two roads also lead to Padang Sidempuan from the Toba Highlands via Tarutung. One follows tha Batang Toru Valley past Pearaja and Sipirok, joining the east cost route to Pagarutan. Another, more attractive route, drops down to the West Coast at Sibolga.
A small island, 130 km long and 45 km wide, slightly smaller than Bali, Nias lying just 125 km off Sumatra’s West Coast, administratively belonged to the North Sumatra province.
Like any other western island off Sumatra, Nias stands quite apart. Its rugged terrain, malarial climate and warlike population having served to isolate from the mainstream of Sumatra culture for many centuries. As a result, Nias never experienced (he dramatic influx of Indian, Islam and European cultural influences to the degree these were felt in other areas). The islands’ inhabitants have instead followed their own line of development, building on an earlier Austronesia sub-strata of culture which they hold in common with other Indonesian peoples.
Today they are best known for their spectacular tribal art and architecture, a unique style that has fascinated generations of scholars and collectors.
Not much is known about the island’s pre-history, which is a pity, since the inhabitants have been working in durable stone and bronze for a very long time.
Despite the absence of hard archaeological data, the island’s prehistory has nonetheless been the subject of much speculation. Much of it intended to portray Nias as a kind of museum for prehistoric Indonesian civilization.
The most prominent theory put forth by Robert Heine-Geldem in the 1930s, was that the island was populated during the first millennium BC by hill tribes from Assam or Burma, who brought with them a megalithic culture characterized by large stone monuments erected during communal feasts to enhance the status of the aristocracy.
In any event, indigenous oral histories agree on one point, that Nias culture originated in the Gomo River area in the central part of the island. Here the gods descended and begat the humans race, and the Nias People today refer themselves as ono niha or children of the people.
The Dutch assumed control of Nias in 1825, at First continuing the slave trade, thanks to its earlier times, Nias became known as a popular and plentiful source of slaves. From Acehnese sources we learn that there was a European post here in 1626, probably Portuguese, which the Acehnese attacked in order to monopolize the slave trade.
Early attempts were made in the 1830s to Christianize the island, with little success. But the ‘ arrival in 1865 of German Rhenish missionaries Trom Barmen marked the beginning of a major change in Nias society. Within a few years the entire northern part of the island had been converted. Central and South Nias later succumbed not to the Bible but to a combinations of epidemics and brutal policing. Beginning of 1909, religious art was destroyed or confiscated in large quantities in South Nias.
Nias society is strictly hierarchic. The nobility (si ‘ ulu or salawa, ‘that which is high’) do not intermarry with commoners: (the sato or sihono, literally ‘the thousands’ and have certain special privileges. Slaves (sawuyu or harakana) were formerly important as servants and as trade items. They were not considered to be human-and therefore had to live outside the village areas.
The island’s three culture areas-North, Central and South Nias – now display: great differences in language, art and custom. But from a Nias point of view the distinctions are much greater than this, as each region is subdivided into numerous village groups according to ‘(heir lineages). To the ono-niha, culture is thus defined on a village level and each village has its own variations in arts and custom.
To visit Nias now there is a daily SMAC (Sabang Merauke Air-Charter) scheduled charter service from Medan to Gunungsitoli, the capital the kabupaten (district, next below the province level) of Nias.
During the Dutch colonial period Gunungsitoli was the center of Dutch administration and base for early German missionaries. Now, during busy air traffic, in midyear when surfers from many countries around the world coming to the Lagundri Beach in South nias every day there are more than one flights connecting Medan and Gunungsitoli.
The overland distance between Gunungsitoli and Teluk Dalam, which is around 120 km, can be reached through asphalted road by four wheeled minibuses in 4 hours.
The island’s most spectacular area, is the South and its most important village is Bawomataluo, with a massive flight of stairs at the main entrance. It was built in 1888 following the Dutch attacks of 1863. Below it stands’ the newer village of Orahili on the site of the former village destroyed by the Dutch and their allies.
Bawomataluo literally means ‘sun mountain’ and in front of the omo sebua is a circular flagstone known as the fuso newali or ‘village navel’. Close examination reveals a worn circular pattern on it representing the sun.
Smaller but still impressive omo sebua can be found in the villages of Onohondro, Hilinawalo and Hilinawalo Mazingo. The first two are not far from Bawornataluo but the third is quite some distance. None should be attempted unless you are in good physical shape.
Both Onohondro and Hilinawalo played an important role in an ancient renewal ceremony in which a figure of giant tiger representing the ruler was carried on a high platform and then thrown into the Gomo River. This river, named after the one in Central Nias, is near Onohondro and links the inhabitants to their roots in Central Nias. Afterward, the ruler carried on as usual until the next such ceremony was held, 7 or 14 years later.
The ceremony was outlawed by the missionaries in 1912, but has been revived to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day or to welcome high dignitaries.
Among the strong point of Nias is its most beautiful beach of Lagundri, now very popular among surfers from more than 30 countries in the world.
Stone jumping and war dance are usually performed to welcome honorable guests, including tourists.
The Bataks, a colorful and notoriously forthright and aggressive people, inhabit a cluster of spectacularly beautiful and fertile volcanic basins at the northern end of the Bukit Barisan range – focusing around Lake Toba, with the huge island of Samosir at its center.
There are about six million Batak, more than half of whom live in the high-lands surrounding Lake Toba, divided in a number of distinct Batak societies, each with its own language, style at ceremonial dress and traditions. These are generally grouped under six separate ethnonyms: Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Toba, Angkola and Mandailing.
Despite their geographic isolation, the Batak had regular contact with the outside world. The first clear historical reference to the Batak comes in the 13th century, when the Chinese geographer Zhau Rugua mentions the name Batak, a location on the northeast coat of Sumatra.
The first account of the Batak in English was by Charles Miller, the East India Company botanist at Bengkulu, who visited Batak country in 1772 in the company of the Englishman, Giles Holloway. They 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 writing. Warfare was endemic and hostilities were formally declared.
Prior to colonial rule, Batak villages were fortified with earthen and bamboo walls. The villages consisted of 6 or 7 houses, at least one council house (sopo) and a skull house. Batak houses were built on piles above the ground. The interior was open and quite barren of furniture. 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.
Like the Torajanese of Sulawesi, who share the same ancient heritage, the Batak house was divided into three levels symbolizing a three fold division of the cosmos the underworld, the earth and the upper world. Animals were kept below the house (where they warned against attacks), people live 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 sum moned villagers to feast or council.
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 upper world which had seven levels. And was the home of gods, the middle world belonging to humans and the underworld which was home of ghosts and demons. A high god, Mula Jadi Na Bolon – the Creator-was a remote, mythical being who had a fabulous blue chick-en for a wife and did not concern himself much with human affairs.
Ancestors protect and receive honor from meat sacrificing communities of descendent, called bins.
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 started, 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 undertaking, war or the harvest.
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 Padri War (1816 – 1833), 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 no many Tobanese converted to Islam. All of the Mandating 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 them selves 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 missionaries and today the Toba church is the largest in Indonesia. Benefiting from early mission schools, the Tobanese moved rapidly to fill positions as teachers, medical technicians and office rks in the postcolonial order. As the result they remain disproportionately represented in government and in careers requiring education.
Woven fabrics (Toba ulos, Karo uis) play an important role in traditional Batak society. They’re used not only as clothing, but as important gifts presented on ritual occasions to symbolize and reinforce the bonds existing between related groups of people. The need to exchange traditional fabrics at ceremonies such as weddings, births and funerals is indeed the main reason such cloths continue to be produced today, though one can also see them being worn by village women as shawls or head coverings.
In some areas, weaving has long been a full time occupation practiced by village women who accept commissions from traders and merchants in towns.
One area where such commercial weaving continues to be practiced is along the northwestern shores of Lake Toba, in the so-called sitelu huta (three villages) namely Tongging, Paropo and Silalahi. Although the women of sitelu huta are themselves Toba Bataks, they do not normally produce traditional Toba textiles. For generations they have instead produced fabrics for Karo Batak clients to the north, who had more money to spend on their traditional fabrics and jewelry than the Tobanese.
The patterns woven for the Karo depend on orders, but also on the individual preferences of the weaver. Some older weavers refuse to work with synthetically dyed yams. Toba weavers in Kabanjahe tend to be older than their counterparts in the homeland villages around the lake, and they tend to produce more traditional patterns. Today, however, many of the fabrics produced here employ non-traditional dark red colors – a style of coloring emanating from the Simalungun area. These colors have been popular among the Karo for some time now, and younger Karo often do not even know that their own traditional fabrics were one exclusively dyed with indigo blue.
The Toba women in Kabanjahe also weave their own traditional sitelu huta village patters. Some of these they sell, others are kept aside for their own use, to be distributed among family members after their death.
There is now even an increasing demand for machine-woven fabrics that reproduce traditional Karo motifs using gold and silver threads instead of the traditional dyed colors of indigo and red.
The Simalungun (or Batak Timur) occupy the highlands between Lake Toba and the east coast, today a key plantation region with huge estates producing palm oil, rubber, cocoa and tea. The area is traversed by a 100-km stretch of the Trans Sumatra Highway leading up to Parapat via Pematang Siantar.
The Simalungun and the Karo have much in common, indianizing traits in their dialect, religious practice and script. The Simalungun were, however, originally reputedly cannibals, whereas the Karo were not.
The major Simalungun Mara or clans are distinct from those in the other Batak areas namely Damanik, Sinaga Saragih and Purbo. Islamic influence is strong in areas adjoining the coastal Malay settlements. By the early years of this century, the rajas of Purba and Raya invited Rhenish missionaries into their territories. In 1907, the rajas signed the Korte Verklaring (a short statement) of submission to the Dutch, and in 1908 a colonial administration was established in Pematang Siantar.
Soon after the arrival of the Dutch, Toba migrants began moving into the unoccupied areas, creating vast expanses of irrigated rice fields, a technique quite alien to the Simalungun, who practiced only swidden agriculture. More Toba migrants poured in after national independence in 1945, and today Tobanese comprises a large proportion of the area’s population.
Medan, the capital of the North Sumatra province, with a population over 2 million, is the gateway to Sumatra, is a booming commercial center for the region’s huge oil and agribusiness. Medan originally developed from a tiny village in the 1860s a prosperous colonial city with a population of 60,000 in 1943.
Today Medan is a sprawling and bustling metropolis – its busy streets are lined with new office and shopping blocks and thronged with minibuses and noisy motorized becak that produce voluminous clouds of thick smoke. The pre-independence population of Chinese, Indian, Javanese and Europeans has been swamped by an influx of indigenous Sumatrans, predominantly Bataks, but also Acehnese, Malays and Minangkabau from all over Sumatra and the rest of Indonesia.
Medan is by far the largest city of Sumatra, and the fourth largest in Indonesia, after Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung.
Some 10,000 years ago Neolithic hunters and gatherers of the Hoabihian settled in the swampy estuary areas around what is now Medan, accumulating enormous mounds of discarded shells from the seafood they consumed.
These shell middens provide us with one of the few tantalizing glimpses of Neolithic habitation in western Indonesia. Sadly they have been all but destroyed by commercial lime burners.
By the early second millennium AD –probably even earlier – Arab, Indian and Chinese traders arrived on these coasts in search of valuable aromatic tree resins from the valleys and slopes of the Bukit Barisan – resins such as camphor (kapur barus) and benzoin (kemenyan) much in demand by the people of Asia for medicinal and ritual purposes. Traces of an early trading settlement have been found at Kota Cina near Belawan, the port north of Medan.
Medan, like Jakarta, is a hot and crowded city, and most visitors rush straight through on the way to the cooler and more scenic highlands. On the other hand, Medan has pleasant hotels and well preserved colonial buildings, a lovely palace and mosque, and numerous fascinating temples, markets and ethnic quarters.
Most visitors arrive by air at Polonia International Airport, once the city’s racetrack and before that a Polish-owned tobacco plantation.
The Deli River flows past the northern end of the runway, marked by a line of coconut trees, with the dome-shaped roof of the Sultan of Deli’s palace visible in the distance. Polonia was a fashionable colonial residential neighborhood, and lavish villas still line its broad, shady-boulevards.
The colonial area of Medan is located around the Padang or towns square to the north of Jl. Ahmad Yani, notably the old town hall, the Bank of Indonesia building (formerly de Javaasche Bank), the Bank Negara (formerly the exclusive Witte Societeit club, build in 1879), and Hotel Darma Deli, which incorporates the old Hotel De Boer – made famous by the Ladislao Szekely novel, Tropic Fever, which describes a young European planter in Sumatra in the early years of this century.
The old train station is gone, but the jembatan gantung, or the original suspension bridge over the railway, remains.
On the corner of Jl. Putri Hijau, the colonial era Post Office stands virtually unchanged, with the Nienhuys fountain just outside – dedicated to the man responsible for the Medan area plantation boom.
Directly to the south is Istana Maimoon; the ceremonial palace of the sultans of Deli, with its yellow trim – yellow is the color of Malay royalty – and typical east coast Malay architecture.
The Deli sultans are reputedly descended from Mohammed Daiek Sri Paduka Gocah Pahlawan, a nobleman of Indian descent, appointed governor and first ruler of the state of Deli by the Sultan of Aceh around 1630.
One block to the east across the single track railway, on Jl. Sisingamangaraja (named after the National Hero, powerful Batak priest-king killed by Dutchin 1907), is the Masjid Raya or Great Mosque with its imposing tiled archway, royal burial ground and adjacent kolam or tank across the road.
Nearby Kampung Keling Ql. Zainul Arifin), a busy commercial centre, is the original centre of Medan’s Indian community. Its high-walled Sri Mariamman temple devoted to the goddess Kali was built in 1884. The entrance is topped by a small gopuram (or ornamental pyramidal gateway). The Medan Indian community is mainly descendants of South Indians who came in work on plantations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
East of the railway, centered on Jl. Sutomo, is Medan’s Chinatown, the heart of North Sumatra’s wholesale trade with shops selling everything from heavy machines to toiletries.
Here you can find colorful Chinese and seafood stalls lining Jl. Selat Panjang. Medan can offer a wide variety of delicious food, from roadside food stalls serving basic Padang or Chinese meals, to air-conditioned restaurants serving expensive Chinese and European banquets. During the durian season, heaps of fruit are offered for sale through out the area.
From Medan you can make side trips to Old Deli (Deli Tua), also known as Benteng Putri Hijau or the Fortress of the Green Princess in the ancient site of the Aru court, overlooking the West Bank of Deli River.
Along the way you can stop at the Research Station of the Sumatra Planter’s Association at Kampung Baru – a good example of prewar colonial architecture, and at Taman Margasatwa, Medan’s zoo, to see the Sumatran tiger and range of birds and other animals.
Belawan is some 25 km north of the city. Most of Medan’s new industrial development is sited along the old Belawan road, which was built in the late 19th century and follows the course of the Deli River.
The opening of the Belawan-Medan-Tanjung Muara toll road to the east of the old road means. That much of the heavier traffic can now bypass the Belawan town center.
Nearby Kota Cina is the site of an 11th to 14th century South Indian and Chinese trading settlement, with its adjacent harbor of Paya Pasir. It may be reached from the old Belawan road by turning left of Titipapan (km 16), past the jail on the left and over the Deli River, proceeding about 2 km toward Hamparan Perak and turning right along a track to Rengaspulau and Kota Cina, two typical Malay villages.
About 6 km out of town, you may stopat the Crocodile Farm at Sunggal, the largest in Indonesia, with some 1,500 reptiles package in like sardines.
Bohorok was the former seat of the Kejuruan Langkat, and formed the upper limit of Malay cultural influence on the Wampu River. The Langkat Ulu (Upper Langkat) area is, however, essentially a Karo dusun area with a sizeable number of Javanese settlers who originally came to work on the plantations. The last stretch along the Bahorok River to Bukit Lawang leads through a lovely irrigated rice area.
At Bukit Lawang there are basic bamboo chalets for those who wish to stay overnight by the river at the edge of the forest.
Although the elevation is not high, only about 90 m above sea level, the evenings can be quite cool. Good durian and rambutan are available in season and Tertiary limestone caves are found in the immediate vicinity, with a pre-Tertiary carboniferous formation around Bohorok.
A side trip from Bohorok for the fit and adventurous leads to Pintu Angin, “the Door of the Wind,” – a hole in the limestone walls near the village of Batukatak, about 5 km upstream from Bohorok. An underground river flows nearby.
For eco-tourists and nature-lovers a three hours journey from Medan brings you to the village of Bukit Lawang, where permits to visit the Orangutan Rehabilitation Station(9 km past Bohorok) can be obtained upon showing your passport.
Bohorok and its immediate hinterland lie in the province of North Sumatra, but most of Gunung Leuser National Parks is in the province of Aceh. The park administrative center is at Kutacane in the Alas River valley, a 6-8 hour drive from Medan. Permits can be obtained for entry into the park upon presentation of photocopies of your passport.
Among the alternatives one can set out through the jungle with guides and porters hired at Kotacane. The danger from tigers here is probably exaggerated.
One of the most exciting experience; of the forest is to see and hear a family of white-handed gibbons or the larger black siamangs, as their whooping calls ring out across the hills and valleys. The white handed gibbons call in a series of high yells while the siamangs have a deeper, bubbling whoop backed by a booming sound made by their inflatable throat pouches.
The highway east of Medan through the Deli Serdang coastal area is broad and fast, passing through endless groves of rubber trees and oil palms.
A turnoff at Perbaungan leads north to Pantai Cermin (Mirror Beach), a favourite local holiday and weekend picnic spot, 45 km from Medan, here are caesarian line beaches for swimming and fishing, though incomparable to those along the west coast. About 76 km from Medan you enter the large town of Tebing Tinggi, the east coast rail junction where lines link Pematang Siantar with Medan and Rantau Prapat further the south.
The main road to Pematang Siantai and Toba turns off here and enters the Simalungun area just south of Tebing Tinggi, passing through the enormous government-owned oil palm and cocoa estate of Pabatu. Further along the road is the American-owned Dolok Merangir rubber estate, one of the plantation enterprises still owned by foreign capital. The famous American botanist and ethnographer, Hariey Harris Barlett – author of The Labors of the Datoe worked here in 1918 and again in 1927.
Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra’s second largest city, is the administrative and commercial hub of the Simalungun plantation area, founded by the Dutch early in this century. Colonial houses can be seen amidst the urban clutter, and at 400 m above sea level the climate is notably cooler than on the coast.
The Simalungun Museum on Jl. Ahmad Yani has an interesting collection of pustaka laklak – the bark books in Indic Batak script used by datuk magicians to record their sacred formulae. It also has notable examples of stone Pangulubalang or Simalungun guardian images collected during the 1930s. the Siantar Zoo offers an interesting collection of Sumatran wildlife, and a wide variety of seasonal fruits such as durian, mangoes, mangosteens, rambutan and salak are offered for sale in Siantar’s market.
From Pematang Siantar the road ascends steadily through palm plantations and a vast patch quilt of irrigated sawah. A few traditional houses and tombs appear by the roadside in the broken country around the Toba rim.
Tanah Karo or Karoland – the homeland of the Karo Batak people – is an exceptionally fertile plateau set in the midst of the volcanic Bukit Barisan highlands south of Medan. For some time now this verdant plateau has served as northern Sumatra’s green grocer.
With the construction of a road up from the coast in 1908, European crops such as cabbage, corn, carrots and potatoes were introduced, and Karo farmers began to cultivate market gardens to supply a rapidly growing urban population in the lowlands. For a time even supplying vegetables across the straits to West Malaysia and Singapore.
The Karo people, known among them selves as the merga silima (the five clans) are a distinct cultural entity with their own language, history and tradition. About 300,000 Karo today inhabit the plateau, but at least as many live in the coastal lowland’s to the east, where they have been for centuries. Since 1930s many Karo have migrated further afield to Medan, Jakarta and other urban centers.
About 20 km from Medan, the urban heat and traffic are soon left behind as you begin the climb into the forested foothills of the Bukit Barisan.
About 40 km from Medan, history rebuffs may be interested to stop at a town of Sembahe, where a pathway behind the shops next to the main bridge leads half a km or so up stream to a rubber estate where the first ‘Hoabinhian Sumatralith’ Neolithic stone tool was discovered in 1926.
Several km further on, the Sibalangit Botanic Garden lies overlooking Sembahe and the lowlands.
Ten km before Brastagi on the right is the turn off to Dauyiu and Semangat Gunung – two villages at the base of active Mt Sibayak (2,094 m). Also here is Lau Debuk Debuk (Bubbling Water), a hot sulphur spring regarded as the home of friendly forest spirits. (Notice the offerings of kretek cigarettes left in lengths of split bamboo or palm stems by the edge of the pools). And also a favorite-haunt of friendly locals, who like to enjoy a communal bath after sunset, when the cold air contrasts deliciously with the piping4iot, Milphur-laden water.
Brastagi is a center, of vegetable, flower and fruit farming.
There are many old villages around Brastagi, ranging from very good to not interesting. The most popular Karo tourist village is Lingga 16-km southwest of Brastagi and about 5-km northwest of Kabanjahe. Lingga has a number of rumah adat (some reputed to be 250 years old) but is becoming dilapidated as it is more difficult now to build new adat houses due to the rising cost of timber and manpower.
Guides will happily show you about and explain various facets of Karo life, including the birthing seat on a wooden step by the chiefs house where some women still give birth, attended by the village dukun (medicine man), gripping two handles high above her head. It is possible to stay in the village, and if you care to pay, traditional dances will be performed.
Lake Toba, the jewel of the Sumatran highlands, with its mystical island of Samosir at its center, forms the very heart of the beautiful but often harsh Toba Bataklands. This is the largest lake in Southeast Asia, measuring 100 km long, north to south, and 31 km across, with a surface area of about 1,145 sq km. The island of Samosir alone, inside the lake, is 530 sq km- about the size of Singapore. Toba is also the world’s deepest lake, over 450 m deep, though accurate surveys of the lake floor have yet to be made.
The first town you pass after leaving Brastagi is the district capital of Kabanjahe (Ginger Garden), 14 km to the south of bustling own surrounded by rice fields and market gardens in the very heart of Karoland. This is a crossroads where the highway from Aceh’s Alas Valley meets the Medan highway.
Twenty-four km south Kabanjahe, the road touches the other rim of the Toba basin at Merek, and a side road from here winds down to the lakeshore past a spectacular waterfall known as Sipisopiso (Like a Knife), which shoots out of a cave at the edge of the plateau and plunges 120 meters straight down to a small, gushing stream below. A gazebo provides panoramic views over the village of Tonggingat the lake’s edge.
Fro Merek, the road to Prapat hugs the high rim of the ancient caldera, skirting the lake and brushing the bare slopes of Mt Singgalang (1,863 m) just north of the village of Seribudolok (Thousand Peaks). A turn off to the left here leads down an old Karo trail to Bangunpurba, in the East Coast plantation belt.
Back on the Prapat road, some 4-km past Seribudolok, a side road to the right winds 10 km down to the lakeshore at Haranggaol, a picturesque market village known for its garlic and shallots. A feny crosses over to Samosir from here on Mondays and Thursdays, and there are small hotels, canoes and speedboats with finishing equipment to while away the time as you wait.
At Tigarunggu, 5 km past Pematang Purba, a right-hand turn leads to Prapat via a rough but scenic road that follows a for ested ridge overlooking the lake. At a tiny crossroads at Simarjarunjung is a restaurant with a magnificent view. At Sipintuangin, 3 km further on, there is a side road to the right loading down to Tigaras, another maricet town on the lakeshore with a ferry service over to Samosir.
Prapat occupies a small, rocky Peninsula Justin into the lake, and has recently expanded southward over a ridge into the adjacent village of Ajibata. Indonesia’s first President, Soekarno, was imprisoned in Prapat for several months by the Dutch in early 1949, together with H. Agus Salim and Sutan Syahrir.
Good water-skiing, speedboat trips, paddle craft and tennis are all available here. In the immediate vicinity of Prapat are some interesting geological exposures of granite, fossili ferrous sediments, limestone. Just to the south, in the Naborsahon River valley, are beautiful terraces indicating the previously much high level of the lake Samosir, the Island of the Dead’ in the middle of Lake Toba is a barren and stark remnant of a second powerful explosion that rocked this volcanic cauldron some 30,000 years ago.
The eastern side of the island rises very steeply up from a narrow strip along the lakeshore to a central plateau towering some 780-m above it. The plateau slopes gently back to the southern and western shores of the island and is, dotted with tiny villages that cling precariously to cliff tops pierced by deep ravines.
The Samosir plateau is argely arid with scattered forests, marshes and a small lake. A road of sorts runs all around the edge of the island, but is very rough in places, with some dilapidated and dangerous bridges in the southwest From Paguguran a road links Samosir to the mainland, climbing up a steep escarpment to dramatic 1,800-m heights at Tele that offer a splendid panorama of the lake, with Samosir Island spread out down below.
F.M. Schnitger, author of Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra, visited Samosir in the 1930s and recorded adat housed; stone tombs and burial cists in no less than 26 different villages. Since that time many villages have been abandoned, names of others have changed, and some of the enormous stone sarcophagi which the island is known has been moved from their original resting places so they are not always easy to find. Off the beaten track, time and patience is required to seek out the ancients tombs. But then for many people, a visit to Samosir simply involves an easy ferry ride over to the village of Tomok, where the famous of all Toba Batak sarcophagi lies just a few minutes’ walk from the pier.
Samosir is accessible by regular ferry from the resort of Prapat, a journey of under an hour – but also by less frequent ferries from Haranggaol and Tigaras on the Simalungun shore to the north. The two main landing points on Samosir are Tomok and Tuktuk.
At Tomok, famous for years now as the ‘ gateway to Samosir, ‘ the visitor is greeted by arrow of stalls selling a bewildering array of Batak handicrafts, traditional ulos cloths, carvings, Batak calendars and musical instruments, including the two stringed violin, harwah and the guitar or hasapi. Small hotels and restaurants are nearby.
Directly inland, hidden in a bamboo thicket under ancient banyan tree, is the most famous of the giant Toba sarcophagi. Carved from a single block of stone, the tomb dates from the early 19th century and belongs to a chief of the Sidabutar clan. In front is an enormous, carved singa face, a mythical part buffalo, part elephant like creature.
There are other modem tombs and stones here, including lichen-covered stone ancestor seats dating from 1950, and a modem sarcophagus made a recently as 1979. The adat houses stand in a row opposite, facing away from the lake, with their all-important rice barns in front.
Just to the north of Tomok is the small peninsula of Tuktuk Ni Asu (Dog Peninsula) with its sandy beaches and scores of hotels offering budget accommodation; now a booming resort that is Samosir’s answer to Bali’s Kuta Beach.
Four km to the north of Tuktuk along its narrow, paved road is Ambarita, an attractive village with ancient stone walls that were once topped with a thick pagar or fence of thorny bamboo. Inside are stone seats and modem statuary, the work of a certain Siallagan some 40 years ago.
Some 19 km further north is Simarindo where the elaborately decorated house of Raja Sidauruk has been declared a museum.
Visitors can witness a traditional tortor dance and sigalegale puppet performance here for a fee, complete with a lively gondang sahang unan ensemble. Just opposite is a rocky islet called Pulau Tao with a shallow bay and a small hotel.
About 2 km past Simanindo is Harangmalau, the northernmost point on Samosir. At nearby Situngkir and Sialango an are unusual tombs belonging to the chiefs of Sihaloho.
Several km further on, past Parbaba, is Suhisuhi – site of an ancient sarcophagus and a number of modem cement tombs. To the south at Hutaraja are five old sarcophagi of the Simarmata clan, including that of Raja Ompu Bontormthin the village itself.
Human sacrifice, was apparently once guide common in Toba, used to magically capture and convert the spirit of an unwitting victim into a powerful spirit protector.
A further 5-km on is Pangururan, the sub-district administrative center, where a bridge connects Samosir to the mainland. Just over the bridge, a small road to the right leads up to a popular hot spring on the slopes of Mt Pusuk Buhit (1,981 m), sacred mountain of origin for all Batak peoples. This is where the first ruler, Si Raja Batak, is said to have descended from the heavens. The main road from the bridge winds up to Tele, 900 m above the lake, offering panoramic views back across Samosir. There are many other places of interest spread out in Samosir.
Having explored Samosir, you may want to return to Prapat and travel south to the Uluan region to view a number of fascinating tombs and villages. From Prapat take the smaller back road through Ajibata, which winds steeply up a mountain face behind the resort and affords rewarding views back across the lake.
To the left of the road, 22 km from Prapat, is the village of Hutagaol belonging to the Manurung clan, built in 1935 above an earlier village of the same name.
The area south of here around Porsea is where the 60-m wide Asahan River drains Toba to the east. The river is quickly joined by tributaries from the north (Aek Mandosi) and the south (Aek Bolon), and the alluvial plain formed by these rivers is extremely fertile, dotted with prosperous villages. The road down into the Asahan Valley turns off to the left some 3-km before the town of Porsea. About I km along the road is a fine example of a carved sarcophagus lid belonging to Raja Pabalubis of the Manurung clan.
From here the road descends steeply eastward into the Asahan Valley, where the river enters a narrow ravine with vertical walls 250-m high from the soft volcanic tuff. This is the side of Inalum hydroelectric plan, a Japanese-built complex of 3 dams completed in 1975 at a cost of US$2 billion. The largest such plant in Indonesia, it generates 500 MW of power supply, enabling the plant at Kuala Tanjung on the coast to electrolyze 225,000 tons of aluminium. Access to the road and the falls beyond requires a special permit, obtainable from the Inalum office.
Beyond the plant at Siguragura the ravine narrows to a mere cleft in the rocks and the river plunges over a spectacular 200-m falls into another cleft further down known as Sampuran Harimo (Tiger Falls), whence it plunges once again into the vale of Tangga, through yet another falls. For merly, on the south face of the latter, ascent was by means of a series of ladders, hence the name tangga – meaning ladder. From here the road zigzags down into the Asahan plantation belt by the coast, rejoining the north-south Medan road at Bandar Pulo.
Bordering the lake south and west of Porsea are more fertile sawah dotted with villages. Laguboti, on the Aek Simare between Porsea and Balige, is known for its woodcarving and statues. At Sigumpar Fust west of here is the grave of I.L. Nommensen, the German missionary who almost single-handedly converted the entire Toba Batak population to Christianity at the end of the 19th century.
South of Laguboti, a rough trail leads to Huta Ginjang and the extensive remains of long abandoned fortified villages at an altitude of 1,650 m, with earthen walls and tunnel approaches, which to this day are very poorly documented.
Balige is an important market town at the southern end of the lake, 65 km from Prapat the town has a large pasar (market) built in the traditional Tapanuli style, and is known for its textile production. There is a monument here to the last Batak priest king, Sisingamangaraja XII and to General D.I. Panjaitan, who was murdered in Jakarta in the communist coup of 1965. Two museums are also found here, the Balige Museum and the Sisingamangaraja XII museum. The latter houses a collection of artifacts relating to this national hero, who is buried at Soposumng.
North, Central and South Tapanuli districts, occupy roughly the southern third of the province, bordering Lake Toba to the north and Riau and West Sumatra to the south. North Tapanuli is inhabited by Toba Bataks, while the areas to the south are home to the Angkola and Mandailing Batak, many of whom converted to Islam under intense pressure from Minang Paderi warriors in the 19th century. For the most part this is a rugged but picturesque country, with longitudinal valleys running north south in the Bukit Barisan and a broadening coastal plain to the southeast.
Three mains roads pass through the area. East of the mountains, the Trans-Sumatra Highway traverses the plantation belt south of Tebing Tinggi to Rantau Prapat and Kota Pinang. It then cuts inland across the arid and undulating Padang Lawas plain past Gunung Tua to Padang Sidempuan – the main market town and administrative center of South Tapanuli, known for its salak palm fruits, grown on the slopes of Mt Lubukraya (1,886 m).
Two roads also lead to Padang Sidempuan from the Toba Highlands via Tarutung. One follows tha Batang Toru Valley past Pearaja and Sipirok, joining the east cost route to Pagarutan. Another, more attractive route, drops down to the West Coast at Sibolga.
A small island, 130 km long and 45 km wide, slightly smaller than Bali, Nias lying just 125 km off Sumatra’s West Coast, administratively belonged to the North Sumatra province.
Like any other western island off Sumatra, Nias stands quite apart. Its rugged terrain, malarial climate and warlike population having served to isolate from the mainstream of Sumatra culture for many centuries. As a result, Nias never experienced (he dramatic influx of Indian, Islam and European cultural influences to the degree these were felt in other areas). The islands’ inhabitants have instead followed their own line of development, building on an earlier Austronesia sub-strata of culture which they hold in common with other Indonesian peoples.
Today they are best known for their spectacular tribal art and architecture, a unique style that has fascinated generations of scholars and collectors.
Not much is known about the island’s pre-history, which is a pity, since the inhabitants have been working in durable stone and bronze for a very long time.
Despite the absence of hard archaeological data, the island’s prehistory has nonetheless been the subject of much speculation. Much of it intended to portray Nias as a kind of museum for prehistoric Indonesian civilization.
The most prominent theory put forth by Robert Heine-Geldem in the 1930s, was that the island was populated during the first millennium BC by hill tribes from Assam or Burma, who brought with them a megalithic culture characterized by large stone monuments erected during communal feasts to enhance the status of the aristocracy.
In any event, indigenous oral histories agree on one point, that Nias culture originated in the Gomo River area in the central part of the island. Here the gods descended and begat the humans race, and the Nias People today refer themselves as ono niha or children of the people.
The Dutch assumed control of Nias in 1825, at First continuing the slave trade, thanks to its earlier times, Nias became known as a popular and plentiful source of slaves. From Acehnese sources we learn that there was a European post here in 1626, probably Portuguese, which the Acehnese attacked in order to monopolize the slave trade.
Early attempts were made in the 1830s to Christianize the island, with little success. But the ‘ arrival in 1865 of German Rhenish missionaries Trom Barmen marked the beginning of a major change in Nias society. Within a few years the entire northern part of the island had been converted. Central and South Nias later succumbed not to the Bible but to a combinations of epidemics and brutal policing. Beginning of 1909, religious art was destroyed or confiscated in large quantities in South Nias.
Nias society is strictly hierarchic. The nobility (si ‘ ulu or salawa, ‘that which is high’) do not intermarry with commoners: (the sato or sihono, literally ‘the thousands’ and have certain special privileges. Slaves (sawuyu or harakana) were formerly important as servants and as trade items. They were not considered to be human-and therefore had to live outside the village areas.
The island’s three culture areas-North, Central and South Nias – now display: great differences in language, art and custom. But from a Nias point of view the distinctions are much greater than this, as each region is subdivided into numerous village groups according to ‘(heir lineages). To the ono-niha, culture is thus defined on a village level and each village has its own variations in arts and custom.
To visit Nias now there is a daily SMAC (Sabang Merauke Air-Charter) scheduled charter service from Medan to Gunungsitoli, the capital the kabupaten (district, next below the province level) of Nias.
During the Dutch colonial period Gunungsitoli was the center of Dutch administration and base for early German missionaries. Now, during busy air traffic, in midyear when surfers from many countries around the world coming to the Lagundri Beach in South nias every day there are more than one flights connecting Medan and Gunungsitoli.
The overland distance between Gunungsitoli and Teluk Dalam, which is around 120 km, can be reached through asphalted road by four wheeled minibuses in 4 hours.
The island’s most spectacular area, is the South and its most important village is Bawomataluo, with a massive flight of stairs at the main entrance. It was built in 1888 following the Dutch attacks of 1863. Below it stands’ the newer village of Orahili on the site of the former village destroyed by the Dutch and their allies.
Bawomataluo literally means ‘sun mountain’ and in front of the omo sebua is a circular flagstone known as the fuso newali or ‘village navel’. Close examination reveals a worn circular pattern on it representing the sun.
Smaller but still impressive omo sebua can be found in the villages of Onohondro, Hilinawalo and Hilinawalo Mazingo. The first two are not far from Bawornataluo but the third is quite some distance. None should be attempted unless you are in good physical shape.
Both Onohondro and Hilinawalo played an important role in an ancient renewal ceremony in which a figure of giant tiger representing the ruler was carried on a high platform and then thrown into the Gomo River. This river, named after the one in Central Nias, is near Onohondro and links the inhabitants to their roots in Central Nias. Afterward, the ruler carried on as usual until the next such ceremony was held, 7 or 14 years later.
The ceremony was outlawed by the missionaries in 1912, but has been revived to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day or to welcome high dignitaries.
Among the strong point of Nias is its most beautiful beach of Lagundri, now very popular among surfers from more than 30 countries in the world.
Stone jumping and war dance are usually performed to welcome honorable guests, including tourists.