Singamangaraja And Sultan Ibrahimsyah

Sultan Ibrahimsyah and Sisingamangaraja


Many Toba Batak traditions linked a principal of sacred descent with the coastal kingdoms they remembered – Aceh and Barus. The latter was long recognised as a crucial port for Toba Batak, and therefore some ritual tribute was to be expected.

Joustra was struck by the surprisingly uniform set of traditions about the Barus link with Bakkara and the Singamangaraja line, [M. Joustra, Batak-Spiegel (Leiden: van Doesburgh, 1910), pp. 25-26; Rita Kipp, Dissociated Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993), pp. 215-17; Simon Rae, Breath Becomes the Wind: Old and New in Karo Religion (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1994), pp. 63-4] let’s present it here in the form of the Barus Hilir chronicle edited by Jane Drakard.

This describes the journey of the founder of the Muslim dynasty of Barus Hilir, Sultan Ibrahim, through the Batak territories prior to establishing his kingdom on the coast. First in Silindung, and then at the Singamangaraja’s sacred place of Bakkara, and finally in the Pasaribu territory, the local chiefs pleaded with him to stay and become their king.

At Bakkara he urged the Bataks to become Muslim, because then they would be one people (bangsa) with him and he could stay as king. He therefore ordered to build a mosque for his place to live a life and moved on, but not before fathering a child by a local woman, who became the first Singamangaraja. Singamangaraja resided in the mosque which happened to be the first mosque built in Bakkara in the beginning of 16th century.

In each place agreements were sworn to by both sides, establishing the long-term relationship between upland Batak producers on one hand and coastal Malay traders on the other. These included establishing the ‘four penghulu’ or Raja Berempat or Raja Na Opat of Silindung as a supra-village institution linked to the Barus trade.[Jane Drakard, A Malay Frontier: Unity and Duality in a Sumatran Kingdom (Ithaca: Cornell University]

Since Barus and other ports on the west coast were themselves frequently under Aceh suzerainty, it is not surprising that Aceh also figured in Batak memory. Its ritual preeminence over the Singamangaraja line was acknowledged in various ways in the better known nineteenth century, including the Singamangaraja’s seal and flag, both of which appear modelled on those of the Aceh Sultan (see fig. 1). This link, mythologised in the mysterious Batak progenitor-figure Raja Uti who disappeared to Aceh, may go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century links.

For Parlindungan, however, and the Batak manuscripts of the ‘Arsip Bakkara’ he claims as a source, there was another powerful connection with Aceh in the late 18th century. He claims that these documents reveal a treaty of friendship between the otherwise unknown
Singamangaraja IX and Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Syah, known to have ruled Aceh uneasily from 1781 to 1795.

The treaty purportedly agreed that Singkil was Acehnese, the Uti Kanan (Simpang Kanan?) area Batak, and Barus a neutral zone. But the Acehnese cannon which sealed the deal caused such havoc among some elephants at Bakkara that Singamangaraja IX was killed by one of them. [39 Parlindungan, Tuanku Rao, pp. 486-7]

As so often with Parlindungan’s fanciful stories, there seems to be something of substance in this. In the 1780s, the Singkil area was developed for pepper-cultivation, and the limits of Acehnese control became an urgent concern. Acehnese raided the British outstation of Tapanuli (Sibolga) in 1786, and the British responded by attacking some Acehnese forts.

This was indeed a time, in other words, when Acehnese would have sought to lock Batak suppliers and traders into their networks rather than the British ones.

Let us throw in a further fanciful vignette, if only to further undermine what remains of the idea of Batak “isolation” during the long 18th century. In 1858 a Frenchman or Eurasian called De Molac told a Pondicherry newspaper that in the last quarter of the 18th century “his family settled in the most savage part of Sumatra, established magnificent agricultural establishments there, acquired great influence among the natives and succeeded in reforming their customs”.

The head of the family “had recently been elected chief of the confederation of Bataks, a Malay people whose lands border Dutch possessions and the kingdom of Aceh.” While no doubt largely invented, this story is sufficiently consistent with the supernatural inferences drawn about 19th century visitors to the Batak highlands, including Burton and Ward, Van der Tuuk and Modigliani, that we should not be surprised if such a pattern began earlier.


::Sejarah::    
Maritim Kuno   

Stempel Sisingamangaraja XII   
Si Penjajah Belanda   
Sejarah Mossak   
Ilmi Thifan dan Tuanku Rao   
Krachtologi dan Tuanku Rao   

Kalender Batak   
Palawan   

::Studi::    
Studi Kultur Berpikir Batak  

Bugis dan Peradaban Batak  
Wisata  
Perang Batak   
Diaspora Batak Kuno  
Filsafat Ekonomi Batak  
Studi Politik Batak  

Sejarah Politik Batak Abad 17-19 M  
Batak Dan Tanah Tuhan  
Studi Peta Maritim Batak  
Parmalim, Tasawuf dan Penjajahan   
Akal-akalan Pemekaran (Tapanuli??)   

Pengusaha Hitam dan Pemekaran   

::Tokoh::    
S.Q. Marpaung   
Simatupang   

Ahmad Hosen Hutagalung  
Kamaluddin Lubis  
Syamsuddin Pasaribu   
Zulpan Efensi Pasaribu   
Jefry Simanjuntak   

Rosnaely Lumbantobing   
Hotbonar Sinaga   
Fachruddin Sarumpaet  
Syamsul Arifin Nababan  
Khalifah Effendy Sitorus   

Burhanuddin Napitupulu   
Zulkarnaen Lubis   
Prof. Dr. S.F. Marbun   
Dr. Ibrahim Sitompul   
Patuan Nagari   

SAE Nababan   
Sisingamangaraja XII   
Yusuf Lubis   
Amir Pasaribu   
Biografi 100 Tokoh Batak   

Usman Efendy Capah   
Lembaga Kebudayaan Pakpak   
Billy Marbun   
Sardan Marbun   
Binsar Marbun   

Abdul Wahab Situmeang   
BN Marbun   
Halak Batak Naik Haji   
Arif Marbun   
Rico Marbun   

J.A. MArbun   
Hamdan Simbolon (HIMMSI)   
Syamsu Rizal Panggabean   
Syawal Gultom Mpd   
Prof. Dr. Abdul Muin Sibuea   

Abdul Hamid Marpaung   
Armijn Pane   
Lafran Pane   
Prof. Dr. Agus Salim Sitompul   
Haji Dur Berutu   

Zulkarnanen Damanik   
Zagartua Ritonga   
Ja Endar Muda   
Abdul Wahab Sinambela: Ketua IPAMSU 2005   
IPAMSU   

H AN Sihite: Ulama Humbahas   
Mahadi Sinambela: Sinambela Pertama Jadi Menteri   
Bomer Pasaribu: Menteri Dari Pasaribu   
Baharuddin Aritonang   
H. Ali Jabbar Napitupulu   

Fanin Nurlita Br Nainggolan   
Abdul Hakim Siagian   
Arifin Nainggolan   
Badiuzzaman Surbakti   
Efendy Naibaho   

Rahmad P Hasibuan   
Mutawalli Ginting   
Akmal Samosir   
Timbas Tarigan   
Tosim Gurning   

Syahlul Umur Situmeang   
Chairullah Tambunan   
Parluhutan Siregar   
Dahrun Hutagaol   
Amir Hamzah Samosir   

Chairul Tanjung   
Irsan Tanjung   
Akbar Tanjung   
Feisal Tanjung   
Hariman Siregar   

Syamsir Siregar   
Arifin Siregar: Si Gubernur BI   
Bismar Siregar   
Annisa Pohan   
Drs. M. Sehat Simbolon: Kyai Humbahas   

Anwar Nasution   
Aulia Pohan   
Malim Sultoni Simbolon: Tokoh Sufi Humbahas   
K.H. Zainul Arifin Pohan: Sang Wakil Perdana Menteri   
Burhanuddin Harahap: Sang Perdana Menteri Batak, Pengasas Anti Korupsi   

Zulkifli Lubis: Tokoh Anti Korupsi dan Pendiri Intelijen   
Syeikh Ibrahim Sitompul   
Abdul Wahab Harahap   
Syeikh Ali Akbar Marbun: Tokoh Humbahas   

::Legenda::    
Legenda Dairi  
Homang  
Sitti Djaoerah  
Kitab Si Raja Batak  

Rasul Batak  
Ompu Sabongan Mangolat  
Guru Mangarissan  
Mpu Bada  
Gondang Sabangunan  
Si Sorik  

Dravida  

::Serba-Serbi::    
Silua  
Batak Kuliner  
Mossak  

Naga Padoha  
Podang  
Atlas Cheng Ho  
Forum Batak  
Diktat Kedokteran Batak  
Atlas Kuno Ala Batak  

Topeng  
Rifle  
Teknologi Kertas  
Teori Evolusi Ala Batak  
Patung  
Geografi Batak Kuno  

Ulos  
Farmasi  
Megalitikum  
Cerutu  
Serdang  
Langkat  

Kubu  
Lingga  
Asahan  
DNT  
Arkeologi penyabungan  
Riwayat Raja-raja Mandailing  

Adam Malik  
Matondang  
Biografi Tokoh  
Identitas Mandailing  
Gallery Foto Lama  
Dinasti Pane  

Koin Tarumon  
Kesultanan Tarumon  
Teka-teki Sembiring  

Raja Rum n Batak Mythology

Raja Rum in Batak Mythology


In many Southeast Asian traditions, as well as in Batak tradition, of the fifteenth to centuries, ‘Rum’ features as a mysterious amalgam of powers in the west – conflating Rome, Constantinople, and Alexander the Great.

Traditions of the Peninsula and Sumatra associate Raja Rum, the great king of the West, with Raja Cina (China), the great king of the East. According to one origin myth of Johor, Iskandar Dzul karnain (Alexander the Great) had three sons by the daughter of the King of the Ocean.

After a contest between the three brothers in the Singapore Straits, the eldest went to the West to become Raja Rum, the second East to become Raja Cina, while the third remained at Johor, to begin the later Minangkabau dynasty.[ William Marsden, The History of Sumatra 3rd ed., (London, 1811)]. In the eighteenth century, rulers of Minangkabau styled themselves younger brothers of the rulers of Rum and China.[ Ibid. pp.338-41.]

One Gayo origin myth also goes back to a shipwrecked child of Raja Rum. Among Bataks, his name was still so powerful was still so mythically powerful in 1890 that the Italian traveller Elio Modigliani, having admitted he came from Rome, found himself acquiring follows as the word spread that he was an envoy, or perhaps incarnation of the magically powerful Raja Rum.[ A translation of the relevant section of Elio Modigliani’s Fra I Battachi Indipendenti (1892) is in Witnesses to Sumatra: A Travellers’ Anthology, ed. Anthony Reid (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp.199-209.]
But in the sixteenth century it became clear to Muslim Southeast Asian leaders, at least, that the Ottoman Sultans were this Raja Rum of shadowy memory. Paradoxically it was the Portuguese invasion of the Indian Ocean in 1498 that put Aceh directly into contact with Turkey. In the fifteenth century Sumatra’s pepper had mostly gone to China, and what westward trade there was from Southeast Asia to the Mediterranean, in cloves, nutmeg and other luxury tropical products, was broken up into separate stages.

Sumatrans had then been in direct contact only with South India, while the onward stage
to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ports was in the hands of Arabs and Gujaratis.

Pepper

The Portuguese disrupted Islamic shipping in the years after 1500, and especially attacked ships travelling from India to the Red Sea (Mecca, Cairo). They also conquered Melaka (1511), and greatly interfered with the pepper-producing sultanates on the north coast of Sumatra.

The Muslim traders regrouped around states strong and willing enough to protect them, notably Aceh in Southeast Asia; Calicut in South India; and Turkey, which expanded its control to the Red Sea ports in the reign of Selim I (1512-20).

It became dangerous even for Muslim shippers of the Indian pepper from Kerala to defy the Portuguese predators to reach the Red Sea and hence Cairo, Alexandria and Venice.

Hence an alternative Muslim pepper supply route developed, whereby Gujarati, Arab, Turkish and Acehnese shippers shipped Southeast Asian pepper and other spices directly from Aceh to the Red Sea, without going near areas of Portuguese naval strength in India.

The earliest European reports of such shipments reaching the Red Sea date from around 1530. By the 1560s as much pepper was being shipped that way to Europe as was hauled by the Portuguese around the Cape to Lisbon. Aceh and Turkey shared an economic as well as a religious motive to resist and if possible crush their Portuguese rivals in the pepper trade.

The strongest of the Ottomans, Sultan Suleiman “the Magnificent” (1520-66), was the first to extend Ottoman power into the Indian Ocean. In 1537 he instructed his Governor of Egypt, Suleiman Pasha, to equip a powerful fleet to demolish Portuguese naval power in the Indian Ocean.

This fleet reach Gujarat, and besieged the Portuguese in Diu for a few months of 1538, but achieved nothing militarily. Nevertheless there seem to have been soldiers of this fleet who reached Southeast Asia, since Mendez Pinto refers to them as greatly strengthening Aceh in its wars against Bataks and Portuguese, and also helping Demak in similar wars in Java.

In the 1560s the pepper link was at its peak, and we have Venetian, Turkish, and Acehnese sources all mentioning the envoys who travelled from Aceh to the Red Sea with the pepper ships.

The first well-documented Acehnese mission to Istanbul occurred round 1561-2. In response to this appeal Turkish gunners were sent to Aceh at least by 1564, and were gratefully acknowledged by the Acehnese in a letter recently rediscovered in the Ottoman
archives.

Another embassy, led by an envoy called Husain, which probably covered the years 1566-8, came close to achieving a more spectacular success. The letter he carried, an appeal of January 1566 from the Acehnese Sultan Ala’ud-din al-Kahar to the Caliph, protector of all Muslims, is also preserved in the Ottoman archives. The Aceh ruler acknowledged the safe arrival of eight Turkish gunners sent in response to an earlier request. He appealed repeatedly to the Turkish Sultan to come to the aid of Muslim pilgrims and merchants being attacked by the infidel Portuguese as they traveled to the holy land. “If Your Majesty’s aid is not forthcoming, the wretched unbelievers will continue to massacre the innocent Muslims.”[Naimur Rahman Farooqi, ‘Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556-1748,’ Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1986, pp.267-8.]

After a delay caused by the death of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566, his successor Selim II energetically took up the project of extending Turkish power into the Indian Ocean. In a series of decrees in 1567 he not only ordered a fleet of 15 galleys and 2 barques to be sent to assist Aceh, but also instructed the Governor of Egypt to construct a canal at Suez so that his warships could go back and forth to the Indian Ocean on a regular basis. In the event a serious revolt in Yemen interrupted these plans, the designated fleet was diverted to suppressing it, and only a few guns and gunsmiths appear
to have reached Aceh.[Reid, An Indonesian Frontier, pp.79-87. Also Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce Vol. II (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 146-7.]

Nevertheless these contacts made a big impression in Southeast Asia, and especially in Aceh. In the years following this initiative, a pan-Islamic sense of solidarity against the infidels was probably stronger than at any time before George Bush. Aceh used its Turkish equipment to attack Portuguese Melaka in 1568 and again in 1570 and 1573, the
second time apparently coordinating with the four southern Indian Muslim sultans—Bijapur, Golconda, Bidar and Ahmadnagar—who briefly buried their differences to attack Portuguese Goa. [Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India (3rd ed., Oxford:1958), pp.298-99; Richard Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (Princeton: 1978), pp.83-5] In Maluku at the same time, Sultan Baab Ullah of Ternate (r.1570-83) threw out the Portuguese and launched a crusade against them through the spice islands.


::Sejarah::    
Maritim Kuno   

Stempel Sisingamangaraja XII   
Si Penjajah Belanda   
Sejarah Mossak   
Ilmi Thifan dan Tuanku Rao   
Krachtologi dan Tuanku Rao   

Kalender Batak   
Palawan   

::Studi::    
Studi Kultur Berpikir Batak  

Bugis dan Peradaban Batak  
Wisata  
Perang Batak   
Diaspora Batak Kuno  
Filsafat Ekonomi Batak  
Studi Politik Batak  

Sejarah Politik Batak Abad 17-19 M  
Batak Dan Tanah Tuhan  
Studi Peta Maritim Batak  
Parmalim, Tasawuf dan Penjajahan   
Akal-akalan Pemekaran (Tapanuli??)   

Pengusaha Hitam dan Pemekaran   

::Tokoh::    
S.Q. Marpaung   
Simatupang   

Ahmad Hosen Hutagalung  
Kamaluddin Lubis  
Syamsuddin Pasaribu   
Zulpan Efensi Pasaribu   
Jefry Simanjuntak   

Rosnaely Lumbantobing   
Hotbonar Sinaga   
Fachruddin Sarumpaet  
Syamsul Arifin Nababan  
Khalifah Effendy Sitorus   

Burhanuddin Napitupulu   
Zulkarnaen Lubis   
Prof. Dr. S.F. Marbun   
Dr. Ibrahim Sitompul   
Patuan Nagari   

SAE Nababan   
Sisingamangaraja XII   
Yusuf Lubis   
Amir Pasaribu   
Biografi 100 Tokoh Batak   

Usman Efendy Capah   
Lembaga Kebudayaan Pakpak   
Billy Marbun   
Sardan Marbun   
Binsar Marbun   

Abdul Wahab Situmeang   
BN Marbun   
Halak Batak Naik Haji   
Arif Marbun   
Rico Marbun   

J.A. MArbun   
Hamdan Simbolon (HIMMSI)   
Syamsu Rizal Panggabean   
Syawal Gultom Mpd   
Prof. Dr. Abdul Muin Sibuea   

Abdul Hamid Marpaung   
Armijn Pane   
Lafran Pane   
Prof. Dr. Agus Salim Sitompul   
Haji Dur Berutu   

Zulkarnanen Damanik   
Zagartua Ritonga   
Ja Endar Muda   
Abdul Wahab Sinambela: Ketua IPAMSU 2005   
IPAMSU   

H AN Sihite: Ulama Humbahas   
Mahadi Sinambela: Sinambela Pertama Jadi Menteri   
Bomer Pasaribu: Menteri Dari Pasaribu   
Baharuddin Aritonang   
H. Ali Jabbar Napitupulu   

Fanin Nurlita Br Nainggolan   
Abdul Hakim Siagian   
Arifin Nainggolan   
Badiuzzaman Surbakti   
Efendy Naibaho   

Rahmad P Hasibuan   
Mutawalli Ginting   
Akmal Samosir   
Timbas Tarigan   
Tosim Gurning   

Syahlul Umur Situmeang   
Chairullah Tambunan   
Parluhutan Siregar   
Dahrun Hutagaol   
Amir Hamzah Samosir   

Chairul Tanjung   
Irsan Tanjung   
Akbar Tanjung   
Feisal Tanjung   
Hariman Siregar   

Syamsir Siregar   
Arifin Siregar: Si Gubernur BI   
Bismar Siregar   
Annisa Pohan   
Drs. M. Sehat Simbolon: Kyai Humbahas   

Anwar Nasution   
Aulia Pohan   
Malim Sultoni Simbolon: Tokoh Sufi Humbahas   
K.H. Zainul Arifin Pohan: Sang Wakil Perdana Menteri   
Burhanuddin Harahap: Sang Perdana Menteri Batak, Pengasas Anti Korupsi   

Zulkifli Lubis: Tokoh Anti Korupsi dan Pendiri Intelijen   
Syeikh Ibrahim Sitompul   
Abdul Wahab Harahap   
Syeikh Ali Akbar Marbun: Tokoh Humbahas   

::Legenda::    
Legenda Dairi  
Homang  
Sitti Djaoerah  
Kitab Si Raja Batak  

Rasul Batak  
Ompu Sabongan Mangolat  
Guru Mangarissan  
Mpu Bada  
Gondang Sabangunan  
Si Sorik  

Dravida  

::Serba-Serbi::    
Silua  
Batak Kuliner  
Mossak  

Naga Padoha  
Podang  
Atlas Cheng Ho  
Forum Batak  
Diktat Kedokteran Batak  
Atlas Kuno Ala Batak  

Topeng  
Rifle  
Teknologi Kertas  
Teori Evolusi Ala Batak  
Patung  
Geografi Batak Kuno  

Ulos  
Farmasi  
Megalitikum  
Cerutu  
Serdang  
Langkat  

Kubu  
Lingga  
Asahan  
DNT  
Arkeologi penyabungan  
Riwayat Raja-raja Mandailing  

Adam Malik  
Matondang  
Biografi Tokoh  
Identitas Mandailing  
Gallery Foto Lama  
Dinasti Pane  

Koin Tarumon  
Kesultanan Tarumon  
Teka-teki Sembiring  

Batak And Minang

According to myth, the first Minangkabau came from the volcanic peak Marapi. In one version, the founders arrived during an immense flood, when the part of the peak above water was no larger than an egg. In another, the founders emerged directly from the crater. Their descendants spread first into the three core areas (luhak) in the highlands, and then into the periphery (rantau) of the homeland.

This homeland is bordered by the Batak homeland to the north, the Malay homelands of Riau and Jambi to the east, the Kerintji homeland to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the west. From the thirteenth century onward the Acehnese, whose homeland lies north of that of the Batak, were the dominant sea traders along the west coast of Sumatra. They were a major source of Islamic influence on Minangkabau culture. Minangkabau trade also extended eastward to the Malay-dominated Strait of Malacca. A series of fifth-to-sixteenth century Malay and Javanese trading empires (Melayu, Sri vijaya, Majapahit, and Malacca) strongly influenced the development of Minangkabau society and culture. These empires provided the economic context of Minangkabau emigration, and they provided the cultural inspiration for royal institutions at Pagarruyong, the seat of the Minangkabau king.

According to myth, the first king (Maharajo Dirajo) was a son of Iskandar Zulkarnain (Alexander the Great). Traditional history indicates that a Javanese prince or aristocrat named Adityavarman became the first king, but perhaps as late as the fifteenth century.

Tome Pires of Portugal was, in the sixteenth century, among the first western European travelers to mention the Minangkabau. During the seventeenth century the Dutch traded for gold and black pepper in native ports along the Minangkabau coast. The Dutch East India Company contracted with local rulers for a trade monopoly. By 1641, with the capture of Melaka town, the Dutch dominated much of the trade on the eastern coast of Sumatra as well. Nonetheless, the economy and social structure of Minangkabau society did not change significantly until the nineteenth century, after the Dutch colonial government replaced the Dutch East India Company. The Paderi Wars, a factor spurring development of administrative complexity, began early in the nineteenth century as a local expression of the Wahabi fundamentalist movement in Islam. Initially, the conflict was a Minangkabau affair between adat traditionalists and Islamic fundamentalists; but it developed into an anti-Dutch war, which prompted the development of more comprehensive colonial administration.

Colonial government modified native political structure by defining a new, more elaborate hierarchy of administrative districts and leadership positions, and by adhering strictly to inheritance of offices and ignoring traditional ancillary concerns regarding the size and prosperity of rival kin groups. New civil-service positions and schools that provided the necessary Western education for gaining these positions were opened to the Minangkabau. This produced a new type of Minangkabau elite. Broad economic changes also occurred, beginning in 1847 with the forced delivery of crops for export associated with the development of coffee plantations in the highlands, but changing at the beginning of the twentieth century to rapid expansion of commercial agriculture.

Batak Toba language

The Batak Toba language is an Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian language that originates from Northern Sumatra, in Indonesia, mostly west of Lake Toba. There are approximately 2,000,000 speakers worldwide. There is a traditional Batak Toba script alphabet referenced below.


Name of the language

The name of this language arises from a complex history of ethnic identity in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia. Some refer to the language as "Toba Batak" and others, as "Batak Toba." At first blush the reversal of nouns may seem like a distintion without a difference.

The distinction is illustrated by a jocular comparison to the English language. English, too, uses double-noun phrases. In English, the first noun descends to adjective form. The first remains a noun, whose broad meaning becomes narrowed or described by the adjective. For instance, consider the term Toilet Paper. The Toilet becomes an adjective to qualify the type of paper. Toilet is a plumbing device, and Paper a flat medium of compressed plant fiber. These nouns spoken in the usual order (Paper then Toilet) refer to a delicate paper used to clean the anus before dissolving in water. The same two nouns spoken in the opposite order create an absurd meaning ("Paper Toilet"). Reversed, the term paper qualifies the type of toilet since the first noun descends to adjective form. A paper toilet would hardly provide the material properties necessary to achieve its primary purpose. This absurd image of "Toilet Paper" and "Paper Toilet" reminds us of the importance of adjective descension order in double-noun phrases.

The term Batak refers to a population larger than that which exclusively speaks Batak Toba. There are seven Batak languages attributed to this population. The term Toba refers to the geography surrounding and to the west of Lake Toba. So, whether one prefers to describe the language as "Batak Toba" or "Toba Batak" depends upon whether one intends to depict the geography by the language, or the people by the geography. Both orders are technically correct since they describe the same language, but the inflections are distinctly different.

To complicate matters for English speakers, the Batak Toba language itself uses a reverese noun-adjective descension order. That is, the second noun descends to adjective form and the first remains a noun. Thus in the language itself, the second noun descends to adjective form and the first remains a noun. Hence the term "Batak Toba" refers to a population by their geography of origination. To some, that is more polite than the term "Toba Batak" which seemingly refers to a Geography by the type of people who originated there. But in light of the noun-adjective reversal in English, importance of noun order is lost amid the reversals and it becomes difficult to ascertain which order seems more polite. But to a speaker of the language, the order matters.


References
Batak alphabets, including Batak Toba (published by Simon Ager, author of Omniglot)
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Available online at http://www.ethnologue.com/. Summary at [1].
Truetype font for Batak Toba language (developed by Uli Kozok of the University of Hawaii)
Example translation of Biblical Scripture (published by the Language Museum, a site published by Zhang Hong, an internet consultant and amateur linguist in Beijing China)
Musgrave, Simon. Non-subject Arguments in Indonesian: Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. See page 112 (doc page 101) and reference to Cole, Peter & Gabriella Hermon (2000) Word order and binding in Toba Batak. Paper presented at AFLA 7, Amsterdam
Sejara Indonesia An Online Outline of Indonesia History.

Trumon And OrangUtan

SITUATION AT ORANGUTAN STATION SUAQ BALIMBING CRITICAL; ORANGUTAN VIABILITY IN THE WILD INCREASINGLY QUESTIONABLE

Out-of-control illegal logging threatens the survival of the research station Suaq Balimbing, and its unique population of orangutans. What started on a modest scale in 1998, following the fall of President Suharto and the period of lax law enforcement that ensued, has now burgeoned into a large-scale illegal logging operation so far not stopped by the authorities. This development threatens the survival of a unique orangutan population. Together with similar processes elsewhere, these threats add up to jeopardize the viability of the species in the wild and the ecological functions provided by swamps.

Suaq Balimbing is located on Sumatra’s northwest coastal plain, part of the Leuser Ecosystem, the region in which a program funded jointly by the European Union and the Government of Indonesia is attempting to achieve conservation for sustainable economic development. The critical importance of the Leuser Ecosystem for conservation in Southeast Asia is widely recognized (see the attached brochure on the Leuser Development Programme).

Suaq’s swamp forest may be unappealing to the human visitor, but it harbors unique natural values. It has the highest observed bird and primate diversity in all of northern Sumatra, the highest primate biomass in all of Southeast Asia, contains unique species of fish and animals dependent on fish, and, perhaps most importantly, contains a unique population of orangutans. The orangutans at Suaq Balimbing occur at the highest recorded density, are far more sociable than those recorded elsewhere and have developed a unique, culturally transmitted, technology: they use tools, fashioned anew for each distinct task, to extract honey and insects from tree holes and extract highly nutritious seeds from a fruit protecting them with stinging hairs. Such tool use was suspected on the basis of work with captive animals, but so far unknown from the wild. We now know that culture-based technology is critically dependent on the proper environmental conditions, specifically those that facilitate social tolerance among the animals. Habitat degradation, such as that caused by logging, destroys the conditions maintaining technology in the population and will eventually lead to the extinction of their culture even if the animals themselves manage to survive.

The loss of the study area at Suaq Balimbing will extinguish this research, which is beginning to provide us with a glimpse into our own past. It will also put an end to a major educational effort. In the past five years, many students and scientists have used the facilities of the station. They hail from Indonesian universities (Universitas Indonesia, Universtias Siyah Kuala, Sekola Tinggi Kehutanan), as well as from universities in Great Britain, the USA, the Netherlands. Scientists from Australia, Brazil and the Czech Republic are also due to work at the station. Active field experience in the best sites is essential for the training of field ecologists and land managers.

Survey work and short-term studies of orangutans in other coastal swamps in the vicinity have also shown evidence for high densities and, at one site, tool use. Our studies indicate that the three main swamp areas on Sumatra’s west coast inside the orangutan’s distribution area harbor the world’s most important concentration of orangutans, with an estimated original total number of ca 5,350 individuals. By the end of 1998, we estimated that more than half the animals had been lost since the early-mid 1990s in an accelerating surge of forest drainage and conversion for plantation agriculture and of legal and illegal logging. Forest clearing for agriculture obviously obliterates orangutan populations. However, selective logging, leaving the land forested, also affects them. A single round of selective cutting reduces orangutan density to less than half, and continued timber removal drives the animals locally extinct. Most adult orangutans do not leave areas that are degraded; hence, many succumb to starvation and disease.

The orangutan, Asia’s only species of great ape and one of our closest living relatives, is now threatened with extinction. Occurring only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, its numbers have dwindled to some 10% of those around the turn of the century. Current estimates by Rijksen, Meijaard and colleagues suggest that some 30,000 may still survive on Borneo, scattered over many isolated areas and many in populations of questionable long-term viability, whereas less than 10,000 are thought to remain on Sumatra, mainly in and around the Leuser Ecosystem. However, these estimates were made before the forest fires of 1997-98 devastated or affected several million hectares of forests on Borneo and before the recent wave of illegal logging swept the outer islands of Indonesia following the political upheaval of May 1998.

I would be remiss not to point out that in the continued lack of defense of formally protected areas, extrapolation of the current trends shows that in the coming decade most orangutan populations will become ecologically extinct (i.e. down to a small number of individual survivors), and that even the few major orangutan populations will be reduced to the point that their viability is in serious doubt. Thus, the prospects of orangutan survival are therefore increasingly dire.

Besides offering prime orangutan habitat or harboring many unique species, swamps also provide important ecological services. First, swamp forests capture Carbon, forming the most important terrestrial Carbon sinks. An actively growing peat swamp may sequester as much as 2 tons of C per ha per year, and thus may contain as much as 500 tons of Carbon per ha in each 1m-thick layer of peat. The peat in this region can be 8 m thick in places. Drainage and conversion of peat swamp forest leads to subsidence and a gradual loss of this accumulated Carbon due to oxidation to CO2, and thus contributes disproportionately to the greenhouse effect. Second, in many places swamps help to reduce water pollution, cleaning water as it passes through of both organic and inorganic loads, and provide buffer storage for excess water, thus lessening the impact of flooding on coastal towns and villages. Third, swamps greatly enhance the biomass of fishes in the river channels, and thus potential fish harvests near the mouth of these rivers, which are of importance to coastal communities. Finally, they have an effect on regional climate, tending to reduce the incidence of damaging droughts in areas further inland.

The Indonesian government has recognized the important functions of swamps for biodiversity and ecological services. Although the northernmost Tripa swamp has so far received no formal protection, most of the Kluet-Bakongan swamp is inside a National Park and most of the largest of all, the Trumon-Singkil swamp, has recently been declared a Protected Area. Unfortunately, at the moment protected status is meaningless. Illegal logging is taking place everywhere, endangering the viability of the reserves, and threatening to nip the incipient ecotourism industry in the bud. We must recognize these new realities. Urgent action is needed to avoid losing Leuser’s unique biodiversity and wild orangutans for good.

Rusli Amran

Rusli Amran and the Rewriting of Minangkabau History

by Jeffrey Hadler

Rather than review Rusli Amran’s five books on West Sumatran history, this essay will serve as a brief introduction to Minangkabauist historical debates among so-called amateur historians in Indonesia. (All titles are given in English translation. See Reference list for Indonesian citations.) Most Indonesianists are familiar with the writings of Taufik Abdullah, Deliar Noer, Alfian, Harsja Bachtiar, and other foreign-trained Indonesian scholars of Indonesian history. But there is another group of informal historians whose books were written in an entirely Indonesian context and for an Indonesian audience. These historians deserve our attention.

By the middle of 1961 Minangkabau patriotism was ruined. The PRRI “Revolutionary Government” secessionists, whose three year struggle against the national state had been a protest against the central government’s perceived Javanism and communism, were beaten. Minangkabau people left West Sumatra for Jakarta and Medan, never to return. This was a time of rantau cino, permanent “Chinese” out-migration, when Minangkabau gave their children Javanese names and grumbled that at home in Sumatra “the winners (yang Minang) have all left, what remains are the water buffalo (Ka[r]bau).” Jakarta’s Padang restaurants boomed and migrants from Sumatra, ethnicity withheld, fitted themselves into lives far from ancestral highlands and unhappy memories.


1963 brought another slap to the exhausted Minangkabauists. In his wonderfully bizarre “Tuanku Rao: Hambali Islamic Terror in the Batak Lands (1816-1833),” the Mandailing writer Mangaradja Onggang Parlindungan scoffed,

“Brothers from Minang sangat parah handicapped, karena kepertjajaan mereka akan mythos2 tanpa angka2 tahunan. Mythos Iskandar Zulkarnain Dynasty, Mythos Menang Kerbau, Mythos Bundo Kanduang, Tambo Minangkabau, dlsb., semuanya 100% ditelan oleh Brothers from Minang. Tanpa mereka sanggup selecting-out 2% facta2 sejarah dan kicking-out 98% mythologic ornamentations dari mythos2 itu. Tanpa mereka sedikit pun usaha, mentjarikan angka2 tahunan untuk menghentikan big confusions” (679).

[The Brothers from Minang are severely handicapped due to their belief in ahistorical myths. The myth of Alexander the Great’s dynasty, the myth of the Victorious Buffalo, the myth of the Ur-Mother, the Legend of Minangkabau and the like have been swallowed whole by the Brothers from Minang. They have been incapable of selecting-out the 2% historical facts and kicking-out the 98% mythologic ornamentations within those myths. They have not made the slightest effort to seek out accurate dates and put an end to the big confusions.]

It took the fall of Sukarno and the destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party for the brothers from Minangkabau to answer Parlindungan’s challenge. The first “History of Minangkabau” was published in 1970 and included a self-congratulatory foreword by Parlindungan himself. With accurate dates and a substantial bibliography, the authors synthesized the ethno-mythical history of Minangkabau and the political history of West Sumatra. The great Islamic populist intellectual, Hamka, directly challenged Parlindungan in his 1974 book “‘Tuanku Rao’ Between Fact and Fantasy.” But the most concerted effort to rewrite the history of Minangkabau was undertaken by Rusli Amran, a retired officer of the Indonesian Foreign Service.


Rusli Amran was born in Padang in 1922 and educated in the Dutch, Japanese, and national school systems. During the Revolution he helped found the newspaper Berita Indonesia and in the early 1950s joined the state bureaucracy, first the Ministry of Defense, then Economy, and finally Foreign Affairs. He represented the Republic of Indonesia in Moscow and Paris through the decade when Minangkabau was most alienated from the nationalist project. When Amran retired in 1972 he devoted himself to a massive historical project: the writing of West Sumatran history in a form both comprehensive and accessible to Indonesian students.


Rusli Amran loved the archive. He spent much of the 1970s and 1980s mining the resources in the Netherlands and Jakarta, paying particular attention to research and reports available in nineteenth century Dutch colonial journals. His first of five books, “West Sumatra up to the Plakat Panjang,” is a massive history that includes archaeological sources from the thirteenth century, but is most concerned with the interactions of British, Dutch, and Minangkabau up through the Padri Wars and the “long declaration” (Plakat Panjang) that marked the beginning of intensive Dutch administration in West Sumatra. Amran’s research is rigorous but his style is informal. He is careful to translate all quotations and sources into Indonesian, and titles a chapter on initial European penetration “Masuklah Si Bule,” Enter Whitey. This first book is his most ambitious – almost 700 pages long, with a thorough bibliography and legible facsimile reproductions of archival documents and original source materials. His second book, “West Sumatra Plakat Panjang,” is a continuation of the first and along with translations of Dutch sources contains appendices of data culled from Dutch journals. Both these books make linguistically and logistically difficult Dutch sources easily accessible to Indonesian students of West Sumatran history.


Amran’s third book in the series, “West Sumatra: The Anti-Tax Rebellion of 1908,” closes his history of the coffee cultivation system and nineteenth century colonial exploitation with a study of reactions to the imposition of a money tax. His fourth book is a break with the narrative – a quirky tribute to his hometown of Padang that mixes archival and anecdotal sources to focus on personal histories and studies of the Eurasian community and the role of the Javanese. He also includes an impressive collection of reproduced photographs. This work in many ways anticipates much of the current scholarship on race and social change in the colonial period. Amran’s insistence on using the name “West Sumatra” rather than the ethnically-defined “Minangkabau” in all of his writings reinforces his important interpretation of West Sumatra as a multi-ethnic society and its history as one of interactions among Europeans, Chinese, Javanese, Batak, and Minangkabau. Amran’s final book, published after his death in 1996, is a collection of essays entitled “Old Tales from the Pages of History.” These essays are wonderful explorations into some of the stranger figures and moments in West Sumatran history and make for light and stimulating reading.


As important as Rusli Amran’s writings is another extraordinary act of generosity. While undertaking archival research, he photocopied every available journal article and manuscript relating to West Sumatra. This is an enormous collection of documents. Amran then made multiple copies of this collection and deposited them in three locations in West Sumatra: the library of the Literature and Humanities Division of Andalas University in Limau Manis; the reading room of the West Sumatran Arts Council in the Abdullah Kamil Building in Padang; and the Center for Documentation and “Inventorization” of Minangkabau Culture in Padang Panjang. Through Amran’s efforts students of West Sumatran history have access to books that provide lucid and unpretentious introductions to the colonial period. And they also have access to the primary sources without having to travel to the Netherlands or even Jakarta. Finally, Rusli Amran’s widow has established the Yayasan Rusli Amran in Jakarta to house a study and documentation center and to support research into West Sumatran history. While largely unknown internationally, Rusli Amran has done much to foster the study of Minangkabau history in Indonesia. His books are well worth reading.



The author is assistant professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.


References


Parlindungan, Mangaradja Onggang. 1963. Pongkinangolngolan Sinambela gelar Tuanku Rao: Terror Agama Islam Mazhab Hambali di Tanah Batak 1816-1833. Jakarta: Penerbit Tandjung Pengharapan.

Mansoer, M.D. et al. 1970. Sejarah Minangkabau. Jakarta: Bhratara.

Hamka. 1974. Antara Fakta dan Khayal “Tuanku Rao.” Jakarta: Bulan Bintang.

Amran, Rusli. 1997. Cerita-Cerita Lama Dalam Lembaran Sejarah. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.

Amran, Rusli. 1988. Sumatra Barat Pemberontakan Pajak 1908: Bag. Ke-1, Perang Kemang. Jakarta: Gita Karya.

Amran, Rusli. 1988. Padang Riwayatmu Dulu. Revised edition. Jakarta: C.V. Yasaguna.

Amran, Rusli. 1985. Sumatra Barat Plakat Panjang. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan.

Amran, Rusli. 1981. Sumatra Barat Hingga Plakat Panjang. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan.

Weaving

The Batak people of Northern Sumatra have a history of weaving Ulos ni tondi (Cloth of the Soul) for ritual & ceremonial purposes that dates back to their earliest history. Batak myth tells that Lake Toba is the centre of the Earth & that the Batak are descendants of the first humans. The Toba Batak People live on Samosir Island & around the shores of Lake Toba. Weaving is still a vital and imporant part of the batak way of life.

Traditional Toba Batak Ulos (cloth) is hand made on a body tension (back strap) loom using hand dyed thread. Often villages produce only one or two Ulos designs, slight variations are seen between weavers. Some pieces have limited availability. Natural dyes are used in combination with commercial dyes. Twinning & braiding are techniques specifically used by the Batak. Women are the traditional weavers, children and men assist in twinning and spooling. Ulos have ritual & ceremonial meaning and are worn as head, shoulder or hip cloths. Batak people are proud of and cherish their own personal Ulos and weaving traditions.

Today you can see a fabulous array of personal Ulos being worn at ceremonies and celebrations, or being used as everyday carrying cloths and clothing.

Parbaringin: Its Role In Batak Society

The role of the parbaringin priesthood in Toba Batak society in Sumatra; Indonesia.

by
Johann Angerler

This project aims to investigate the complex relationship between ritual, ritual specialists, social organization and the economic and ecological problems faced by Toba Batak society in precolonial times. Research will be carried out into the history of the parbaringin a hereditary and hierarchical priestly organization, specialized in agricultural rituals. In literature their role in society is usually seen as a religious one. But after research among the Toba Batak over a period of one and a half years, I conclude that in certain areas the parbaringin's role in society went far beyond the religious sphere.

Precolonial Toba Batak society is regularly described as being stateless, organized segmentarily and as having a relatively democratic social system. In fact, if one looks at the modern kinship system, this society does seem democratic. Kinship occupies a dominant position among the Toba Batak. To an observer from outside, it seems that every relationship within Toba Batak society is determined by the rules of their kinship system, the so called asymmetric alliance system: Every individual is by birth integrated into the patrilineal, segmental lineage system (lineage or clan is called marga); the individual can actualize the membership to a marga segment of different order, according to descendancy.

For instance as a descendant of one's grandfather, of one's great-grandfather, or even of the marga (founder) and into the system of marriage alliances dalihan na tolu, the "three cornered cooking" is the Toba Batak metaphor to describe a triadic relationship: any ego group is in an inferior position to a bridegiver group and in a superior position to a bridetaker group). The alliance system is supposed to give stability to the society and to work in favour of equality. In the past, a number of very strong mechanisms of redistribution (so the duty of bridetakers to help their bridegivers materially, but also the duty for help between lineage mates) always prevented the formation of a permanently richer stratum of nobility in Toba Batak society. Precolonial Toba Batak society can indeed be characterized as a relatively egalitarian system (if one disregards the relatively small number of slaves and the inequality between the sexes). A bridegiver is no doubt inferior to his bridegiver and obliged to serve him, but in turn he always has his bridetakers who will serve him if necessary.

But can it be said that all political processes within this society took place on the level of the kinship system? It is difficult for outside observers to perceive the political structures. So it is no wonder that historians and anthropologists have held the view Toba Batak did not need any state because their kinship system provided them with whatever they needed. As far back as our historical knowledge reaches, Toba Batak were never united.

But in the many fertile valleys of North Sumatra thousands of people lived together, cultivating rice for at least some twenty generations on artificially irrigated fields. Artificial irrigation requires co-operation for the construction of the irrigation system and for its maintenance. And positive understanding among the inhabitants of one irrigation area is needed in order to ensure peaceful and just distribution of the available irrigation water. Dissension, armed conflicts and feuds could have devastating effects on the agriculture and cause famines.

Was the stateless Toba Batak society able to avoid this danger because of the alliance system? Historical reality shows that Toba Batak society, despite the stabilizing effect of the alliance system, was susceptible to conflict. There were conflicts among different groups which had no alliance relationship and there were also conflicts between rival segments of one marga. Even between brothers exasperated conflicts flared up. Often myths of origin begin with the history of conflicts between brothers.

To my question about the reasons for armed conflicts which are historically known to have taken place (old people know the history of their marga very well), people told me most often: "dispute about water". There is no sign that kinship structure alone could provide enough stability for undisturbed agricultural work. However, in coherent irrigation areas different marga, with and without alliance connections had to live together and to share the water in a way that everybody received sufficient supply.

The role and the functions of the parbaringin becomes much more understandable if the above-mentioned problems, which confronted society, are considered. It is my opinion that it was due to the parbaringin; and their symbolic system that the territorial organizations of the stateless Toba Batak could reach enough stability to successfully conduct artificial rice field irrigation. By means of their broad knowledge and their clever handling of the ritual as their most important instrument, they could influence economic and political processes.

The parbaringin had an important share of power in local territorial organizations, but they were not real rulers. They were not allowed to use any weapons, they were immune from any attack and they never went to war. They lived from their own land and that they held ex officio. To cover the costs of the rituals they collected contributions from the society. Through number of taboos they were controlled by the society and this prevented them from becoming real rulers. They remained members of a political system which was based on the separation of powers and which gave its functionaries only as much power to exercise as was necessary to fulfill their tasks to the benefit of the society. The parbaringin's tasks were not only of religious nature, they also organized irrigation work, and many other kinds of communal work and they regulated the annual agricultural cycle.

Their wives, the paniaran, also fulfilled important tasks especially for women, but also for the whole society. By her marriage to a parbaringin a parbaringin's wife entered the paniaran organization, which was female led and independent of the male parbaringin organization.

Although the Protestant mission saw the parbaringin as competitors in religious matters and the Dutch colonial government forbade their rituals, they did not disappear immediately. In remote areas much of their knowledge survived and their rituals were still performed until the end of Dutch colonial government.

After Indonesian Independence internal Batak power struggle overthrew their position of influence in society. Parbaringin organizations ceased to exist. Today only individuals, old people, still keep the special knowledge of the parbaringin. To let these old people narrate, to explain their view of the world and society and getting a lively idea of what it meant to be parbaringin or paniaran in Toba Batak society, also is a main aim of this project.

Population

The term Batak designates any one of several groups inhabiting the interior of Sumatera Utara Province south of Aceh: Angkola, Karo, Mandailing, Pakpak, Simelungen, Toba, and others. The Batak number around 3 million. Culturally, they lack the complex etiquette and social hierarchy of the Hinduized peoples of Indonesia. Indeed, they seem to bear closer resemblance to the highland swidden cultivators of Southeast Asia, even though some also practice padi farming. Unlike the Balinese, who have several different traditional group affiliations at once, or Javanese peasants affiliated with their village or neighborhood, the Batak orient themselves traditionally to the marga, a patrilineal descent group. This group owns land and does not permit marriage within it. Traditionally, each marga is a wife-giving and wife-taking unit. Whereas a young man takes a wife from his mother's clan, a young woman marries into a clan where her paternal aunts live.

When Sumatra was still a vast, underpopulated island with seemingly unlimited supplies of forest, this convergence of land ownership and lineage authority functioned well. New descent groups simply split off from the old groups when they wished to farm new land, claiming the virgin territory for the lineage. If the lineage prospered in its new territory, other families would be invited to settle there and form marriage alliances with the pioneer settlers, who retained ultimate jurisdiction over the territory. Genealogies going back dozens of generations were carefully maintained in oral histories recited at funerals. Stewardship over the land entailed spiritual obligations to the lineage ancestors and required that other in-migrating groups respect this.

The marga has proved to be a flexible social unit in contemporary Indonesian society. Batak who resettle in urban areas, such as Medan and Jakarta, draw on marga affiliations for financial support and political alliances. While many of the corporate aspects of the marga have undergone major changes, Batak migrants to other areas of Indonesia retain pride in their ethnic identity. Batak have shown themselves to be creative in drawing on modern media to codify and express their "traditional" adat. Anthropologist Susan Rodgers has shown how taped cassette dramas similar to soap operas circulate widely in the Batak region to dramatize the moral and cultural dilemmas of one's kinship obligations in a rapidly changing world. In addition, Batak have been prodigious producers of written handbooks designed to show young, urbanized, and secular lineage members how to navigate the complexities of their marriage and funeral customs.

Batak Faith

Batak religion is found among the Batak societies around Lake Toba in north Sumatra. It is ethnically diverse, syncretic, liable to change, and linked with village organisations and the monotheistic Indonesian culture.
Myths and rituals focus on rice cultivation and the local kinship system. These two spheres are integrated into a cosmological order represented in religious art forms, dance, oratory, and gift-giving ceremonies.

The kinship system is based on marriage alliances linking lineages of patrilineal clans called marga. There are holy ritually superior wife-providing lineages and mundane ritually inferior wife-receiving lineages. This marriage system is an important part of Batak religion and involves hours of ritual oratory.
There is an upper world inhabited by gods, a middle world lived in by men, and a lower world that is the home of a dragon. The creator is Mula Jati, who links the three worlds and is Lord of the Universe. Mula Jati is both good and evil, male and female.

Belief in complementary opposites such as life and death, humans and animals, masculinity and femininity, village and forest, warfare and farming, metal and cloth, permeate the religion and commonly occur in myths and rituals. These opposites are thought to have once been one and ritual attempts to unite the opposites for a moment to release power from the centre. For example, ritual gift exchanges at weddings between the bride-giving and bride-receiving factions increases fertility in the marriage.

There are extensive soul concepts. If a soul is startled it can escape from the head and wander in the countryside. Soul-capture ceremonies performed by datu or guru, diviner-sorcerers, bring the soul back to the body. These datu also protect the village during war, epidemic, and crop failure by means of sacrificial rituals, occult knowlege, and divination with the use of the Hindu zodiac and magic tables.
It is debated whether there was occasional ritual cannibalism. Marco Polo wrote in 1292 that the Batak ate their parents when they became too old for work, and Raffles in the nineteenth century stated that for certain crimes a criminal would be eaten alive.

Indian influence can be detected in the religion and its art. The Batak came into contact with both Hinduism and Buddhism.
Batak religion is bound up with Islam and Christianity and the majority of Batak are Muslim or Christian. Contact with the monotheistic religions differs greatly from one Batak society to another.

History Origin myths of the Toba Batak are of Si Raja Batak, the first human, who was born on a holy mountain near Lake Toba. He had two sons, Guru Tateabulan and Raja Isumbaon, who were the fathers of the ancestors of the major Toba patrilineal clans. Other related myths are of the origin of farming and weaving, and clans are associated with certain valleys and uplands.

The Batak encountered Indian religions at an early period through trading colonies near Barus and a temple community near Portibi. There was also influence coming from the indianised ancient kingdoms of south Sumatra.
Batak religion practised before the early nineteenth century was related to the indigenous religions of the Dayaks in Kalimantan, highland societies in Sulawesi, and the people of eastern Indonesia.

Contact with Islam and Christianity varied considerably in the Batak societies. In the 1820's Islam came to the southern Angkola and Mandailing homelands, and in the 1850's and 1860's Christianity arrived in the Angkola and Toba region with Dutch missionaries and the German Rheinische Mission Gesellschaft. The first German missionary, Nommensen, arrived in 1861 with only a Bible and a violin. Nommensen caused the Dutch to stop Batak communal sacrificial rituals and music, which was a major blow to the traditional religion. These early conversions included large numbers of slave descendents. Karo has many animists, with conversions only in the 1930's. Dutch colonial policy favoured Christian villages. Such a background of conversion has left southern Batak Christianity filled with disputes by different factions. In 1965 the national government identified Indonesian patriotism with belief in a monotheistic religion. This has accelerated the number of converts to Islam and Christianity.

Pre-monotheistic Batak religion cannot be reconstructed in detail from available evidence since Islam and Christianity have thoroughly reshaped village ritual and folk memories.

At the time of the Suharto regime a number of class and ethnic based new denominations split from the parent church of the German-sponsored missionary church, the HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan). In areas with both Muslims and Christians, church members align with Muslims along class lines.
An important area of present and future dynamism is the meeting ground of adat, village custom, and monotheism. In Muslim Mandailing and Christian Toba, adat is seen as conflicting with monotheism, while in Angkola the common heritage of the adat is emphasised over monotheistic differences and the village ritual in adat leads to much syncretism.

Symbols The cosmological order is represented in religious art forms. The gable ends of traditional houses are richly decorated with the cosmic serpent Naga Padoha carved in wood or in mosaic, lizards, double spirals, female breasts, and the head of the singa, a monster with protruding eyes that is part human, part water buffalo, and part crocodile or lizard. Other wooden sculptures, dances, ritual speeches, and gift-giving ceremonies reflect this cosmological order. Even the layout of the village symbolises the Batak cosmos. Many of these symbols found in wooden sculptures are magic signs or fertility symbols, such as female breasts.
Other symbols of Batak mythology include the baringin or banyan tree as the cosmic tree uniting the levels of the Batak cosmos, the hornbill, aboriginal boy-girl twins, star constellations, magic numbers, and the magic colours red, white, and black.

Besides the traditional houses, these symbols are found on textiles, funerary masks, boats with hornbill figureheads, the wooden staffs of datu, and megalithic monuments.

Adherents There are six major Batak societies around Lake Toba. These are the Toba Batak, Karo Batak, Pakpak and Dairi Batak, Simelungun Batak, Angkola and Sipirok Batak, and the Mandailing Batak. The Toba Batak are the only society which identifies strongly with being Batak.
Pemekaran

Pemekaran

13 Mar 07 21:22 WIB
Pemekaran Tidak Mutlak
Tingkatan Kesejahteraan Rakyat
P. Sidimuan, WASPADA Online


Prof. Ir. Sukaria, pakar tekhnik dan manajemen USU Medan mengatakan, pemekaran kabupaten bukanlah indikator mutlak terhadap peningkatan kesejahteraan rakyat. Tetapi faktor terpenting untuk menuju kemakmuran adalah melibatkan masyarakat dalam proses pembangunan. "Masyarakat harus turut serta sebagai pelaku pembangunan sehinggga hasilnya tepat sasaran. Manfaatnya juga secara langsung bisa dirasakan mereka dan tidak tergantung pada banyaknya wilayah kabupaten," katanya.
Ungkapan itu menanggapi wartawan di P. Sidimpuan yang meminta pendapatnya tentang maraknya aksi pro kontra atas rencana pemekaran wilayah Kab. Tapanuli Selatan. Profesor yang ditemui di Siais dalam rangka penandatanganan MoU antara USU dengan Pemkab Tapsel itu mengakui, saat ini gejala euphoria politik di kalangan politisi dan elit-elit politik daerah sangat tinggi. 'Kehendak rakyat' selalu dijadikan isu sentral untuk memuluskan keinginan mereka.

Ditanya apakah pemekaran daerah dapat meningkatkan DAU, dia membantah. Karena untuk mendapatkan DAU dari pusat sudah ada rumusnya, termasuk berdasarkan luas wilayah dan jumlah penduduk. Katanya, sudah banyak daerah pemekaran di Indonesia, tetapi kesejahteraan masyarakatnya masih jauh dari harapan. Seperti halnya Kab. Pakpak Barat, Humbahas, Tobasa di Sumatera Utara. Khusus untuk Tapsel, Sukaria berpendapat, ketertinggalan selama ini disebabkan faktor kesalahan manajemen para pemangku kebijakan. Utamanya dalam menjalankan strategi kebijakan pro rakyat. "Banyak kebijakan pembangunan tidak menyentuh kepentingan masyarakat," sebut Prof. Sukaria yang mengaku pernah terlibat penyusunan konsep dan proposal pengusulan Provinsi Tapanuli itu.

Dia mengimbau, sebelum melakukan atau mengajukan pemekaran, harusnya terlebih dahulu dilakukan kajian ilmiah. Sehingga usulan pemekaran bisa segera terealisasi dan tanpa hambatan. "Pemerintahan pusat juga jangan melakukan kesalahan total dalam menyikapi euphoria pemekaran."

Kepentingan
Mengenai pemekaran terkait kepentingan para elite politik, Prof. Sukaria mengatakan memang kebanyakan proses pemekaran di daerah lebih bernuansa politis daripada pertimbangan ilmiah. Bisa jadi karena didorong rasa ingin menguasai ketimbang dikuasai. Kepada pemerintah pusat, diminta berhati-hati dan seksama menentukan jadi tidaknya pemekaran suatu daerah dengan mempertimbangkan faktor-faktor objektif. Sehingga tidak serta merta tunduk dengan desakan kelompok politisi.

Di akhir pembicaraan, Prof. Sukaria mengaku langkah-langkah yang dilakukan Pemkab Tapsel sangat baik sekali. Seperti halnya membuka kawasan terisolir ke 'dunia luar'. Karena hal ini merupakan langkah tepat untuk mendongkrak perekonomian masyarakat pedesaan. "Yakinlah jika sarana transportasi sudah lancar, pertumbuhan ekonomi masyarakat akan serta merta meningkat. Karena hasil produksi pertanian bisa dipasarkan dengan cepat."