SWFs: Enemies of the state?

Sovereign funds are buying into businesses around the globe, but the backlash is beginning to take hold.

They control more than $2.2 trillion in a handful of funds sprinkled around the world, their cash coming from everything from diamonds to oil, phosphates to foreign exchange reserves. By some estimates, they now control more money than the global hedge fund and private equity industries combined. Yet, so far at least, sovereign wealth funds, the massive, state-controlled investment funds being set up by countries including China and Qatar, have not been given anything like the same treatment that other rising financial powerhouses have. Buyout barons have been hauled over the coals by politicians here and in America. Hedge funds are trying to head off a regulatory clampdown after having drawn the ire of the leaders of the G8, who issued calls for new rules governing the $1.7bn industry this past summer.

All the while, sovereign wealth funds, or SWFs, have been growing into a major new force that threatens to eclipse them both. They have managed to do so with relatively little of the flack that one might expect for a sector of its size and makeup. Until now.

Several high-profile deals, from Qatar's pursuit of J Sainsbury, its and Dubai's moves to take over half of the shares in the London Stock Exchange, and China's purchase of a $3bn (£1.48bn) stake in US buyout giant Blackstone, have, finally, piqued the attention of politicians and regulators, who have started to clamour for greater disclosure from the often-opaque groups.

When the finance ministers of the G7 nations meet later this week, the US, with the support of Japan and Germany, is expected to call for increased transparency from the sector. Japan's Finance Minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, said yesterday: "There are a variety of uncertain aspects in what those funds are doing. There will be debates in terms of their transparency."

SWF's have been around since the 1950's, but it will be the first time that they will make onto the G7 agenda. So why all the fuss?

Gerard Lyons, the chief economist at Standard Chartered, has predicted that these funds could grow to control $13.4 trillion in the next decade, up from the $2.2 trillion they hold today. Fed by record oil prices and America's ballooning current account deficit, central bank reserves in countries in the Middle East and Asia have exploded to levels far beyond the minimum thresholds necessary to protect their currencies. Increasingly, they are looking to invest the excess outside their borders. The super seven SWF's, as Mr Lyons terms them, include those of Abu Dhabi, Singapore (it has two), Norway, Kuwait, China, and Russia, which together hold an astonishing $1.8 trillion.

The backlash against them is growing because of their increased interest abroad, where they are swooping on listed, high-profile companies with increasing frequency. "There are some long-time funds but they have been run by countries... like Singapore or Norway. But the new breed look very different," said Katinka Barysch, a deputy director of the Centre for European Reform. "Some of them are run by oil-producing countries that are not market economies and are not democratic and it is not clear how they are run or what their priorities are. It's legitimate to have a debate about this."

There is also a pervading sense that their growing ambitions portend a reordering of the global economic order. Ms Barysch said: "As rich countries we have always thought of these places as developing nations, and the relationship has been one in which we give them money and aid. But is just no longer the case."

Merrill Lynch predicted that these funds, which have traditionally been partial to safe-haven investments like American Treasury bills, will make "a massive shift into riskier assets". In practical terms that means investments in foreign, public companies as well as in private equity groups and hedge funds. China alone has set aside an initial $200bn nest egg for its nascent fund, the China Investment Corporation, which was formally set up just three weeks ago.

The issues most likely to cause them problems will revolve around national security and companies governments deem to carry a strategic interest, such as energy providers.

There have already been flashpoints, most notably in the US, where the government forced Dubai Ports World to get rid of the US sites controlled by P&O before its acquisition of the latter could go through. This was due to worries that these entry points to the country would be controlled by a Middle Eastern government.

Given that the protectionist wind in America is blowing even stronger, the UK's laissez faire attitude toward foreign investment means that SWF's will continue to look here as a first port of call.

Deep pockets: the leading state-backed investment funds

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

The largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with $625bn (£308bn) under its control, it maintains a remarkably low profile for its size. No one knows the exact amount it has. Set up in 1976, it has never declared the value. Last month it bought a stake in US buyout giant Carlyle, following an investment in another US private equity giant.

China Investment Corporation

The newest fund on the global scene only came into being last month. The government has transferred $200bn to get the fund started, but some are predicting that it could triple that within two years. Before it was formed it bought a 10 per cent stake in Blackstone, ahead of the US buyout firm's flotation. It is headed by Lou Jiwei, the former vice-minister of finance.

Temasek (Singapore)

The world's seventh largest fund is chaired by Ho Ching, the wife of the Prime Pinister. It was started in 1974 and controls $108bn. Seen as one of the sector's most transparent, it has holdings in Standard Chartered, Barclays, Bank of China and Singapore Airlines. The firm is run by New Zealander Simon Israel and operates separately from GIC, its other SWF.

Qatar Investment Authority

Started two years ago. Led by the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, the fund has $60bn under management. Delta Two, a UK fund backed by it, is close to launching an offer for J Sainsbury. It recently bought stakes in the London Stock Exchange and Sweden's OMX, the latter's prospective merger partner. The QIA could try to engineer a full takeover for both.

Dubai International Capital

Controlled by the ruling family, DIC has become one the most active buyers of UK assets. Its holdings include Travelodge, Doncasters and Merlin, owner of Madame Tussaud's. It has minority stakes in HSBC and European aerospace giant EADS. Istithmar, another Dubai fund, owns New York fashion chain Barneys and has a stake in Standard Chartered.

BLU: Indonesia's Sovereign Wealth Funds Is On The Move

Dibentuk Badan Investasi

Paket Kebijakan Infrastruktur Dipastikan Tidak Akan Tuntas Sesuai Jadwal

Jakarta, Kompas - Pemerintah membentuk sebuah badan investasi berbentuk Badan Layanan Umum atau BLU sebagai pengelola modal induk pembangunan infrastruktur. Kebijakan ini dilakukan agar penggunaan modal induk yang dianggarkan sebesar Rp 2 triliun per tahun dapat didistribusikan secara lebih terarah.

Direktur Jenderal Perbendaharaan Negara Mulia P Nasution mengungkapkan hal tersebut usai mengikuti Workshop Pembiayaan Proyek Infrastruktur Menggunakan Instrumen Islam di Jakarta, Selasa (29/8).

Menurut Mulia, pembentukan badan investasi tersebut akan ditetapkan dalam sebuah peraturan pemerintah tentang pola investasi pemerintah. Badan ini berada di bawah pengawasan Ditjen Perbendaharaan Negara.

"Total anggaran yang diusulkan dalam Rancangan APBN Perubahan (RAPBN-P) 2006 sebesar Rp 2 triliun dan sudah disetujui Panitia Kerja DPR. Di RAPBN 2007, kami mengusulkan lagi Rp 2 triliun, jadi akan ada modal awal Rp 4 triliun," katanya.

Modal awal tersebut, ujar Mulia, harus dialokasikan untuk dana penjaminan sebesar Rp 500 miliar per tahun dan pembentukan lembaga pembiayaan infrastruktur oleh Badan Pengawas Pasar Modal (Bapepam) yang diperkirakan memerlukan modal awal Rp 600 miliar. Selain itu, dana tersebut juga akan dialokasikan untuk membebaskan lahan sekitar Rp 400 miliar, serta pengembangan bahan bakar nabati yang jumlahnya ditetapkan kemudian.

"Kami menyediakan dana jaminan di tahun 2006 Rp 500 miliar. Namun, dana itu hanya akan digunakan jika risiko yang dijamin telah terjadi. Namun, jika risikonya tidak timbul, maka dana itu akan dialihkan ke 2007. Kondisi itu memungkinkan, karena BLU tidak mengharuskan pengembalian sisa anggaran ke kas negara. Kami optimis ada kenaikan modal awal karena Bank Pembangunan Islam (IDB) berkomitmen menyediakan Rp 5 triliun," katanya.

Sementara itu, Deputi Menko Perekonomian Bidang Pengembangan Infrastruktur Suyono Dikun mengatakan, Paket Kebijakan Pengembangan Infrastruktur dipastikan tidak akan tuntas seluruhnya hingga akhir tahun 2006. Kondisi itu disebabkan beberapa rencana kebijakan tidak akan selesai sesuai jadwalnya, antara lain pembahasan empat Rancangan Undang-undang (RUU) tentang transportasi dan sebuah RUU Badan Usaha Milik Daerah (BUMD).

"Sampai akhir tahun, saya perkirakan tingkat penyelesaiannya maksimal hanya 80 persen dari seluruh rencana tindak (total sebanyak 153 kebijakan). Kenyataannya memang tidak akan selesai, antara lain disebabkan tidak sesuai dengan jadwal pembahasan di DPR," katanya.

Keempat RUU di bidang transportasi tersebut adalah RUU Lalu Lintas Angkutan Jalan, RUU Perkeretaapian, RUU Pelayaran, serta RUU Penerbangan.

Sovereign-wealth funds too big to ignore

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The government-run investment pools known as sovereign wealth funds aren't new, but they're growing fast, causing heartburn for politicians and policymakers and leading to calls for the funds and their government masters to clarify their practices and intentions.

The concerns were pushed into the headlines Friday when finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations sat down with representatives of some of the biggest funds to urge them to increase transparency and adopt a set of "best practices."

Ex-Fed Chief Alan Greenspan says there's no reason why the adjustment in the current account deficit should have a major impact on the real economy and employment.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Saturday the G7 wants the International Monetary Fund to develop guidelines for the funds and argued that a set of best practices would help tamp down the potential for a protectionist backlash in countries where the funds invest.

"Best practices would provide multilateral guidance to new funds on how to make sound decisions on how to structure themselves, mitigate any potential systemic risk, and help demonstrate to critics that SWFs can be constructive, responsible participants in the international financial system," Paulson said. See full story on Paulson.
Why the attention now?

Rapid growth

Buoyed largely by growing oil profits and foreign exchange reserves, funds controlled by governments in the Middle East and Asia have grown rapidly in recent years.
Merrill Lynch, in a recent research paper, estimated sovereign funds now control around $1.9 trillion in assets. And they're growing fast, with the potential to surge to about $7.9 trillion by 2011, according to the report. Morgan Stanley estimated earlier this year that the funds could swell to $12 trillion by 2015.

Their current size exceeds the scope of the world's hedge funds, which are estimated to hold around $1.5 trillion in assets.

No doubt, part of the nervousness surrounding the sovereign funds in the developed world stems from the potential for a political backlash against foreign-government ownership of major companies.

Nasser Al Shaali, CEO of the Dubai International Financial Center, acknowledged that the growing influence of sovereign funds from the developing world is "a bit unnerving for the powers that be."

But any effort to establish best practices shouldn't single out the sovereign funds, he said in a panel discussion Saturday hosted by the Institute of International Finance, but should apply to all forms of cross-border investment. Focusing only on the funds merely stirs up unfounded concerns about intent, Shaali said.

Some U.S. politicians squawked when China's recently launched State Foreign Exchange Investment Corp. bought non-controlling shares in private-equity giant Blackstone, and also quailed at government-owned Dubai Borse's acquisition of a stake in the Nasdaq stock market.

Profits or politics?

European Union officials had raised warning flags ahead of the G7 meeting, saying they fear some funds may aim to pursue political objectives rather than profits.
Such concerns were further underlined by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in a Financial Times op-ed earlier this year that questioned whether some funds would act in the same interests of traditional shareholders.

"The logic of the capitalist system depends on shareholders causing companies to act so as to maximize the value of their shares," Summers wrote. "It is far from obvious that this will, over time, be the only motivation of governments as shareholders. They may want to see their national companies compete effectively, or to extract technology or to achieve influence."

Others say worries are overblown.

Some of the biggest funds, including the Norwegian fund and Singapore's Temasek Holdings, routinely purchase non-controlling shares in enterprises -- a method that could serve as a solid model for some of the newer funds that have been stoking worries, said Roger Kubarych, chief economist at UniCredit.
At the same time, some large funds, including a Kuwaiti fund, often do take controlling shares and have shown themselves to be responsible stewards, he said.



Two Taiwanese Arrested In Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Authorities seized US$440 million (€310 million) worth of amphetamines in a raid on an illegal factory in eastern Indonesia and arrested six people, including two Taiwanese, the national police spokesman said Tuesday.

The drugs were destined for markets in Taiwan and mainland China, said Maj. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto, adding that the bust at the weekend was made with help from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and the United States.


At least 568 kilograms (1,250 pounds) of amphetamines valued at US$440 million (€310 million) were seized from laboratories on Batam island, together with several tons of raw drug-making chemicals, he said.

The two Taiwanese and the four Indonesians arrested will be charged with violating drug laws - a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death, he said.

Amphetamines are widely used across Indonesia. In recent years, criminal gangs have taken advantage of the country's poor law enforcement and rampant corruption to produce the drug for export.
Antara Basyral Dan Mula Harahap

Antara Basyral Dan Mula Harahap

Belakangan ini muncul tokoh blog yang sangat kontroversial dan mencerahkan, khususnya dalam topik-topik yang berhubungan dengan Batak dan sekitarnya. Pertama adalah Basyral Hamidy Harahap dan yang kedua adalah Mula Harahap.

Tanpa merendahlan para blogger Batak yang lain, tampaknya kedua tokoh, yang ntah kenapa sama-sama marga Harahap, ini merupakan dua blogger yang paling banyak dikunjungi para netter.

Baru??? sebenarnya tidak. Basyral Hamidy sendiri merupakan orang lama atau stok lama yang kemudian menjadi sangat dikenal oleh para netter pemula karena tulisan-tulisan mereka mulai di online kan. Demikian juga dengan Mula Harahap. Melihat dari tulisan-tulisannya tampaknya beliau ini adalah seorang pertapa suci yang mengerti betul dengan berbagai tema-tema sosial, teologi dan lain sebagainya.

Bila melihat keduanya, tampak terlihat berbagai macam kesamaan. Marilah kita tidak membahas perbedaanya, karena perbedaan yang paling mencolok adalah bahwa Bayral Hamidy memakai domain sendiri sementara Mula Harahap memakai domain wordpress.

Persamaan pertama adalah kedua-duanya sama-sama cendikiawan ulung, bijaksana dan sangat mapan dalam menuliskan alur-alur pemikirannya.

Persamaan kedua mungkin adalah yang tak terbantahkan adalah kedua-duanya sama-sama marga harahap. Hanya saja mungkinkah ada perbedaan antar keduanya seperti orang-orang Siregar atau Hasibuan yang terbelah menjadi yang satu Toba dan yang lain Mandailing?

Persamaan ketiga adalah bahwa keduanya merupakan tokoh multikulturalisme Batak. Sebuah sisi budaya yang hampir punah di kalangan generasi Batak. Keduanya sama-sama melihat bahwa ada sesuatu yang "aneh" dengan isu Provinsi Tapanuli yang manipulasi menjadi beribukota di sebuah kecamatan dari dapa disebuah kotamadya.

Persamaan keempat, kelima dan seterusnya tentunya silahkan melihat blog masing-masing. Mungkin saja akan banyak lagi persamaan-persamaan yang anda temukan.

The Portibi Temple

The South Tapanuli area is the mostsouthern part on North Sumatera, bordering with the province of west Sumatera and Riau. This region has population of arround 900.000 people, known as the Batak Mandailing Angkola.

Padang Sidempuan is the capital city of South Tapanuli. This town is also called ‘Kota Salak’ it lies on the tourist route from West Sumatera to North Sumatera( and vice versa) and thus all overland tour buses shall pass PADANG Sidempuan. As the scenery here is quite beautiful, many domestic and foreign tourist stop over in this region. Some of the interisting tourist objects here are : Portibi Tample, Dolok Simagommago, Pakantan, Husor Tolong, Sibanggor and Adian Lagun Roha.

• Sipirok Town
Sipirok is a small town that has undergone intensive renovation. The views are beautiful here. There is a jungle area and good hotel at Tor Sihobi. The district is famed for at’s ceramic and traditional Batak clothes.

• Portibi Temple
Here one can find the historical remains of a temple from the Hindu Kingdom of Panai, dating 10 A.D. located 78 kms from or 518 kms from Medan, it can be reached by bus or taxi.

• Penyabungan Tonga Village
It is situated 72 kms from Padang Sidempuan. One can see here traditional houses of the Batak Mandailing.

Sejarah Tragis Raja Humabon

Selama masa kolonial, Spanyol menerapkan politik devide and rule (pecah belah dan kuasai) serta mision-sacre (misi suci Kristenisasi) terhadap orang-orang Islam. Bahkan orang-orang Islam di-stigmatisasi (julukan terhadap hal-hal yang buruk) sebagai "Moor" (Moro).

Artinya orang yang buta huruf, jahat, tidak bertuhan dan huramentados (tukang bunuh). Sejak saat itu julukan Moro melekat pada orang-orang Islam yang mendiami kawasan Filipina Selatan tersebut.

Secara geografis wilayah Filipina terbagi menjadi dua wilayah kepulauan besar, yaitu utara dengan kepulauan Luzon dan gugusannya serta selatan dengan kepulauan Mindanao dan gugusannya. Muslim Moro atau lebih dikenal dengan Bangsa Moro adalah komunitas Muslim yang mendiami kepulauan Mindanao-Sulu beserta gugusannya di Filipina bagian selatan.

Sejarah masuknya Islam

Islam masuk ke wilayah Filipina Selatan, khususnya kepulauan Sulu dan Mindanao pada tahun 1380 M. Seorang tabib dan ulama Arab bernama Karimul Makhdum dan Raja Baguinda tercatat sebagai orang pertama yang menyebarkan ajaran Islam di kepulauan tersebut. Menurut catatan sejarah, Raja Baguinda adalah seorang pangeran dari Minangkabau (Sumatra Barat).

Ia tiba di kepulauan Sulu sepuluh tahun setelah berhasil mendakwahkan Islam di kepulauan Zamboanga dan Basilan. Atas hasil kerja kerasnya juga, akhirnya Kabungsuwan Manguindanao, raja terkenal dari Manguindanao memeluk Islam. Dari sinilah awal peradaban Islam di wilayah ini mulai dirintis.

Pada masa itu, sudah dikenal sistem pemerintahan dan peraturan hukum yaitu Manguindanao Code of Law atau Luwaran yang didasarkan atas Minhaj dan Fathu-i-Qareeb, Taqreebu-i-Intifa dan Mir-atu-Thullab. Manguindanao kemudian menjadi seorang Datuk yang berkuasa di propinsi Davao di bagian tenggara pulau Mindanao. Setelah itu, Islam disebarkan ke pulau Lanao dan bagian utara Zamboanga serta daerah pantai lainnya. Sepanjang garis pantai kepulauan Filipina semuanya berada dibawah kekuasaan pemimpin-pemimpin Islam yang bergelar Datuk atau Raja.

Menurut ahli sejarah kata Manila (ibukota Filipina sekarang) berasal dari kata Amanullah (negeri Allah yang aman). Pendapat ini bisa jadi benar, mengingat kalimat tersebut banyak digunakan oleh masyarakat Islam sub-kontinen (anak benua India).

Masa Kolonial Spanyol

Sejak masuknya orang-orang Spanyol ke Filipina, pada 16 Maret 1521 M, penduduk pribumi telah mencium adanya maksud lain dibalik "ekspedisi ilmiah" Ferdinand de Magellans. Ketika kolonial Spanyol menaklukan wilayah utara dengan mudah dan tanpa perlawanan berarti, tidak demikian halnya dengan wilayah selatan. Mereka justru menemukan penduduk wilayah selatan melakukan perlawanan sangat gigih, berani dan pantang menyerah.

Tentara kolonial Spanyol harus bertempur mati-matian kilometer demi kilometer untuk mencapai Mindanao-Sulu (kesultanan Sulu takluk pada tahun 1876 M). Menghabiskan lebih dari 375 tahun masa kolonialisme dengan perang berkelanjutan melawan kaum Muslimin. walaupun demikian, kaum Muslimin tidak pernah dapat ditundukan secara total.

Selama masa kolonial, Spanyol menerapkan politik devide and rule (pecah belah dan kuasai) serta mision-sacre (misi suci Kristenisasi) terhadap orang-orang Islam. Bahkan orang-orang Islam di-stigmatisasi (julukan terhadap hal-hal yang buruk) sebagai "Moor" (Moro). Artinya orang yang buta huruf, jahat, tidak bertuhan dan huramentados (tukang bunuh).

Sejak saat itu julukan Moro melekat pada orang-orang Islam yang mendiami kawasan Filipina Selatan tersebut. Tahun 1578 M terjadi perang besar yang melibatkan orang Filipina sendiri. Penduduk pribumi wilayah Utara yang telah dikristenkan dilibatkan dalam ketentaraan kolonial Spanyol, kemudian di adu domba dan disuruh berperang melawan orang-orang Islam di selatan.

Sehingga terjadilah peperangan antar orang Filipina sendiri dengan mengatasnamakan "misi suci". Dari sinilah kemudian timbul kebencian dan rasa curiga orang-orang Kristen Filipina terhadap Bangsa Moro yang Islam hingga sekarang. Sejarah mencatat, orang Islam pertama yang masuk Kristen akibat politik yang dijalankan kolonial Spanyol ini adalah istri Raja Humabon pada abad ke-16 dari pulau Cebu, kemudian Raja Humabon sendiri dan rakyatnya.

Saat Magellan sampai pada 17 Maret 1521 di kepulauan Filipina . Raja Kolambu, seorang Raja Muslim yang telah dibaptis di Mazzaua, Mindanao, telah menunjukkan arah ke pulau Cebu, di mana Magellan boleh berdagang dan boleh dapat tanah. Oleh itu Magellan menuju ke pulau Cebu dan dengan bantuan jurubahasa Enrique Melaka, seorang Melayu yang menjadi salah satu awak kapal tersebut. Di sanalah dia berjumpa dengan Raja Humabon.

Raja Humabon sendiri tidak dapat mengungkapkan rasa gembiranya saat seorang anaknya yang sakit berhasil diobati oleh orang Spanyol. Di depannya sendiri, dia beserta istrinya yang terlebih dahulu berhasil dibaptis dan sekitar 800 rakyatnya, dibaptis dan menjadi pengikut setia Spanyol dalam memerangi penduduk muslim lainnya.

Namun, selang beberapa waktu, sebuah perselisihan yang disebabkan oleh perkara wanita, membuat Raja Humabon berbalik menyerbu penjajah Spanyol ini. "The Cebuanos killed 27 Spaniards in a skirmish and the Spaniards, deciding to resume their explorations, departed Cebu."

Kebaktian pertama dilakukan di Pulai Limasawa pada sebuah perayaan Paskah pada tanggal 31 Maret 1521, yang dihadiri oleh Raja Awi dan Raja Kolambu, dua raja lokal muslim yang telah dibaptis. Dipimpin oleh Pastor Pedro de Valderrama, seorang pastor dalam kapal laut Magellan.

Raja Humabon adalah putera dari Sri Bantug Lamay. Sementara Sri Bantug Lamay adalah anak dari Sri Bataugong. Sri Bataugong, menurut sejarah adalah, seorang muslim Majapahit yang terkenal dengan pengajaran ilmu pengetahuan, khususnya ilmu beladiri.

Sri Bataugong mempunyai sahabat seperguruan yang bernama Datu Mangal yang menjadi penguasa di pulau Mactan. Anak dari Datu Mangal inilah yang bernama Raja Lapu-lapu yang kemudian hari berseteru dengan Raja Humabon yang telah kristen bersama pasukan Spanyol pendukungnya.

Sayangnya pasukan Spanyol yang dipimpin oleh Magellan dapat dikalahkan oleh Raja Lapu-lapu. Mayat Magellan, kata sejarah, masih hilang sampai sekarang.

Mass Baptism: Christianization' Strategies Employed by the Spanish

Professor Susan Russell
Department of Anthropology

CHRISTIANITY IN THE PHILIPPINES



Recommended References: Fenella Cannell, 1999, Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

David J. Steinberg, 1982, The Philippines: A Singular and a Plural Place. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

There is only one predominantly Christian country in all of Asia. The Philippines is approximately 85 percent Christian (mostly Roman Catholic), 10 percent Muslim, and 5 percent 'other' religions, including the Taoist-Buddhist religious beliefs of Chinese and the 'indigenous' animistic beliefs of some peoples in upland areas that resisted 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. The purpose of this lecture is to explain how a small number of Spaniards converted the bulk of the Philippine population to Christianity between the mid-1500s and 1898--the end of Spanish rule. It also discusses some of the variety of forms of Christianity practiced today in the Philippines.

Historical background:

In the 1500s, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan encountered the Philippines while sailing under the flag of Spain in search of a western route to the East Indies, the source of the spice trade. He and his men landed on the island of Cebu in the central Philippines.

At this time period, almost nothing was known of the Philippines, and so our sources of information about pre-Hispanic societies in the country date from the early period of Spanish contact. Most Philippine communities, with the exception of the Muslim sultanates in the Sulu archipelago and Mindanao, were fairly small without a great deal of centralized authority. Authority was wielded by a variety of individuals, including 1) headmen, or datu; 2) warriors of great military prowess; and 3) individuals who possessed spiritual power or magical healing abilities.

The absence of centralized power meant that a small number of Spaniards were able to convert a large number of Filipinos living in politically autonomous units more easily than they could have, say, converted people living in large, organized, complex kingdoms such as those Hinduized or (later) Theravada Buddhist-influenced kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia and on the island of Java in Indonesia. The Spanish were unsuccessful in converting Muslim Sultanates to Christianity, and in fact warred with Muslim Filipinos throughout their 300 year colonial rule from 1521 - 1898. Nor did they successfully conquer certain highland areas, such the Luzon highlands, where a diverse array of ethno-linguistic groups used their remote, difficult mountainous terrain to successfully avoid colonization.

Magellan's arrival in Cebu represents the first attempt by Spain to convert Filipinos to Roman Catholicism. The story goes that Magellan met with Chief Humabon of the island of Cebu, who had an ill grandson. Magellan (or one of his men) was able to cure or help this young boy, and in gratitude Chief Humabon allowed 800 of his followers to be 'baptized' Christian in a mass baptism. Later, Chief Lapu Lapu of Mactan Island killed Magellan and routed the ill-fated Spanish expedition. This resistance to Western intrusion makes this story an important part of the nationalist history of the Philippines. Many historians have claimed that the Philippines peacefully 'accepted' Spanish rule; the reality is that many insurgencies and rebellions continued on small scales in different places through the Hispanic colonial period.

After Magellan, the Spanish later sent the explorer Legaspi to the Philippines, and he conquered a Muslim Filipino settlement in Manila in 1570. Islam had been present in the southern Philippines since some time between the 10th and 12th century. It slowly spread north throughout the archipelago, particularly in coastal areas. Had it not been for Spanish intervention, the Philippines would likely have been a mostly Muslim area.

'Christianization' Strategies Employed by the Spanish:

Early Spanish Chapel, Luzon

In little more than a century, most lowland Filipinos were converted to Roman Catholicism. There are a number of reasons why Spanish missionaries were successful in this attempt:

1. Mass baptism - the initial practice of baptizing large numbers of Filipinos at one time enabled the initial conversion to Christianity. Otherwise, there is no way that such a small number of Spanish friars, or Catholic priests, could have accomplished this goal. It is said that many Filipinos associated baptism with their own indigenous 'healing rituals', which also rely on the symbolism of holy water--very typical of Southeast Asian societies.

2. Reduccion policies - in areas where Filipinos lived scattered across the landscape in small hamlets, the Spanish military employed a resettlement policy that they had used successful in Central and Latin America. This policy was called reduccion, and essentially meant a forced relocation of small, scattered settlements into one larger town. The policy was designed for the convenience of administration of the Spanish colony's population, a way for a small number of armed Spanish constabulary to control more easily the movements and actions of a large number of Filipinos. It was also designed to enable Spain to collect taxes from their Christianized converts. Throughout Spanish rule, Christianized Filipinos were forced to pay larger taxes than indios, or native, unChristianized peoples.

The reduccion policy also made it easier for a single Spanish Catholic friar to 'train' Filipinos in the basic principles of Christianity. In reality, the policy was successful in some areas but impossible to enforce. Spanish archives are full of exasperated colonial officials complaining about how such settlements were 'all but abandoned' in many cases after only a few weeks.

3. Attitude of the Spanish clergy in the early phase - Spanish friars were forced to learn the native language of the peoples they sought to convert. Without schools that trained people in Spanish, the Spanish friars had no choice but to say Christian mass and otherwise communicate in the vernacular languages of the Philippines. There are over 200 native languages now; it is unknown how many existed in the beginning of Spanish rule.

In the first half, or 150 years of Spanish rule, friars often supported the plight of local peoples over the abuses of the Spanish military. In the late Spanish period, in contrast, Spanish priests enraged many Filipinos for failing to a) allow otherwise 'trained' Filipino priests to ascend into the higher echelons of the Catholic Church hierarchy in the Philippines; b) return much of the land they had claimed as 'friar estates' to the Philippine landless farmers; and c) recognizing nascent and emerging Filipino demands for more autonomy and a greater say in how the colony was to be managed.

4. Adaptation of Christianity to the local context - Filipinos were mostly animistic in their religious beliefs and practices prior to Spanish intervention. In most areas they revered the departed spirits of their ancestors through ritual offerings, and also believed in a variety of nature spirits. Such beliefs were central to healing practices, harvest rites, and to maintaining a cosmological balance between this world and the afterlife. Spirits were invisible, but also responsible for both good and bad events. Spirits could be blamed for poor harvests, illness, and bad luck generally. Yet Filipinos believed that proper ritual feasting of the spirits would appease them, and result in good harvests, healthy recovery of the ill, and the fertility of women.

The legacy of Spanish conquest and colonial rule in the Philippines, as is true of all colonial attempts to 'master' or manage indigenous populations, is mixed. On the one hand, Spanish clergy were very destructive of local religious practices. They systematically destroyed indigenous holy places and 'idols', or statues and representations of indigenous spirits, gods or goddesses. They also tried to stamp out all examples of native scripts and literature for fear that Filipinos were using exotic symbols to foment rebellion. The Spanish also imposed new 'moralities' on Filipinos by discouraging slave holding, polygamy, gambling, and alcohol consumption that were a natural part of the indigenous social and religious practices.

At the same time, Hispanic rule left a legacy of syncretic, rather than totally destructive, elements. Spanish clergy introduced some very European features of Catholic practice that blended well with indigenous ritual practices. Spanish Catholic priests relied on vivid, theatrical presentations of stories of the Bible in order to help Filipinos understand the central messages of Christianity. Today, this colonial legacy lives on whenever Filipino Catholics re-enact through religious dramas the passion of Christ, or Christ's martyrdom, during Holy Week.

The beginning of a Pasyon play, Manila Christ and two disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane

The Devil tempts Christ

Christ is led away by Roman soldiers


The Crucifixion of Christ and Two Thieves

Other Filipino ceremonies also mark the Christian calendar, such as during the rituals surrounding death. Death is always an occasion that marks a society's traditions, and in the Philippines funerals are usually accompanied by somber village processions and music, essential parts of Roman Catholic ritual practice. Filipino indigenous religious beliefs traditionally celebrated rice planting and harvesting times, the death anniversaries of departed ancestors, and these have been blended in meaning and timing with Catholic rites such as All Saint's Day and Fiesta de Mayo. In this kind of religious syncretism, blending the rites and meaning of two totally separate societies, the outcome is often a surprise rather than a foregone conclusion.

On October 31, for example, children in rural villages in the Philippines often go house to house asking for small sums of money--a traditional almsgiving. Filipino families also spend much of the evening visiting their ancestral graves, showing respect and honor to their departed relatives by feasting and offering prayers. In contrast, American children honor October 31 as 'Halloween', or the night of the dead, going house to house and asking for treats. Christian families in the U.S. do not consider this occasion a time to 'visit' and feast with their departed ancestral or kindred spirits. In the U.S., the proper time to 'visit or honor the departed spirits' is Memorial Day at the end of May. In the U.S., too, it is considered unseemly to 'feast' or celebrate one's dead relatives by having picnics in cemeteries.

Similarly, Filipinos set up small altars and chapels decorated with flowers in the spring during the Fiesta de Mayo, or festival of May 5 (traditionally a Mexican holiday celebrating their revolution). Every Catholic town in the Philippines celebrates an annual barangay, or 'barrio', fiesta in honor of their patron Catholic saint. During this period, there are large processions and parades throughout the town, with the saints, the mayordomo or sponsor of the fiesta, and school children marching through the settlement to band music or music played on a videocassette. In addition, each family visits other neighbors and relatives to share home-cooked, special 'feast' foods during the fiesta. In many coastal or riverine communities, fishers celebrate by carrying the image of the patron saint on boats in a fluvial procession to bless the waters and fish. The sacred days of the Roman Catholic calendar also affect traditional livelihoods. For example, Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified, even today is considered a 'taboo' day for fishermen. It is an omen of terrible fates, and fishers fear for their lives if they go out fishing on that day. In the past, every Friday was deemed to be a risky day to go fishing, but these beliefs have been modified over time.

Flores de Mayo, Batangas

The Roman Catholic emphasis on godparents became known as compadrazgo, which celebrates the alliance of two families in marriage. The godparent institution is a common and important institution in countries like the Philippines (and Malaysia) where marriages traditionally were arranged between families. In these areas, long before the advent of Islam or Christianity, it was considered customary and desirable for the heads of two friendly families to cement their 'alliance' by arranging an appropriate marriage for their children--in many cases while their children were still very young. The goal of such arrangements was to ensure that each family's child (and eventual married couple) would always have concerned advice and support from all of their affinal (or in-law) relatives as well as blood relatives so as to enable them to establish themselves firmly in the future.

Next...

Lapu-lapu Dan Tiga Opsi Sektarian

A. Syafii Maarif: Lapu-Lapu

Sewaktu memegang mata kuliah sejarah Asia Tenggara pada jurusan sejarah IKIP Jogjakarta sekitar 30 tahun yang lalu, saya sudah mengenal nama Lapu-Lapu (1490?-1560?), seorang pahlawan Muslim di Pulau Maktan, Sebu, Filipina. Sebagai penguasa Maktan, Lapu-Lapu pernah diancam oleh Ferdinand Magellan (1480?-1521), pelaut pengeliling dunia, petualang, prajurit, kelahiran Portugis warga negara Spanyol yang mendarat di pulau itu dalam perjalanan ke Timur mencari rempah-rempah.

Sewaktu memegang mata kuliah sejarah Asia Tenggara pada jurusan sejarah IKIP Jogjakarta sekitar 30 tahun yang lalu, saya sudah mengenal nama Lapu-Lapu (1490?-1560?), seorang pahlawan Muslim di Pulau Maktan, Sebu, Filipina. Sebagai penguasa Maktan, Lapu-Lapu pernah diancam oleh Ferdinand Magellan (1480?-1521), pelaut pengeliling dunia, petualang, prajurit, kelahiran Portugis warga negara Spanyol yang mendarat di pulau itu dalam perjalanan ke Timur mencari rempah-rempah.

Lapu-Lapu disuruh memilih tiga opsi: taat kepada Raja Spanyol, mengakui raja Kristen sebagai tuannya, dan bayar upeti. Jika tiga opsi dipenuhi, Lapu-Lapu dan pengikutnya akan diperlakukan sebagai teman; tetapi bila tidak, pedang Magellan akan menebas kepala mereka. Jawaban Lapu-Lapu tegas: "Mari kita bertempur." Padahal, senjata yang dimiliki hanyalah bambu runcing dan panah beracun. Pertempuran sengit tidak dapat dielakkan. Magellan dan banyak pasukannya terbunuh dalam pertempuran pada 27 April 1521 itu, sedangkan mayatnya entah di mana. Lapu-Lapu tidak mau menyerahkan kepada pihak penyerang yang masih hidup, sekalipun telah ditawari hadiah besar.

Episode di atas diabadikan oleh Antonio de Pigafetta, seorang Italia, sekretaris Magellan dalam petualangannya mengelilingi dunia. Informasi di atas saya kutip dari tulisan Alan Villiers, marinir Australia yang pernah menapaki perjalanan panjang Magellan dari Spanyol ke timur pada tahun 1970-an di bawah judul "Magellan: A Voyage into the Unknown Changed Man's Understanding of his World" (Lih. Microsoft Encarta 2006, hlm. 1-9).

Raja Kristen yang tersebut dalam opsi di atas bernama Humabon, penguasa Sebu yang telah dibaptis oleh Magellan bersama 800 pengikutnya, lalu diajak memerangi Lapu-Lapu. Sekalipun Magellan mati terbunuh dan tulang belulangnya entah disimpan di mana oleh Lapu-Lapu, jasa terbesarnya adalah menjadikan Filipina sebagai bangsa berpenduduk mayoritas Katolik sampai hari ini. Lapu-Lapu? Diakui sebagai Pahlawan Filipina yang pertama melawan imperialisme Barat, dan sebuah kota di Maktan dinamakan Kota Lapu-Lapu.

Seorang pembersih hotel Shangri-La di pulau itu, Crisanto, dari sekte Kristen non-Katolik, begitu bangga menceritakan kepada saya dan istri tentang kehebatan Lapu-Lapu, sewaktu kami menginap di hotel itu pada 13-16 Maret 2006 dalam rangka menghadiri "Cebu Dialogue on Regional Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, Development and Human Dignity" (Dialog Sebu tentang Kerja Sama Lintas Agama untuk Perdamaian, Pembangunan, dan Martabat Manusia). Rupanya karyawan hotel ini juga berpendirian bahwa imperialisme harus dilawan karena tidak sesuai dengan prikeadilan dan prikemanusiaan. Itulah sebabnya Lapu-Lapu disanjungnya, sekalipun berlainan agama. Jika saya semula hanya ingat tahun pertempuran 1521, Crisanto langsung menyebutkan bulan dan tanggalnya.

Dialog Sebu dilangsungkan di Hotel Shangri-La, dibuka oleh Presiden Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dan pidato oleh Perdana Menteri Selandia Baru, Helen Clark. Diikuti oleh sekitar 150 peserta dari 15 negara Asia Tenggara dan Pasifik, sebagai kelanjutan Dialog Jogjakarta pada Desember 2004 dengan inisiator pertama Australia, Indonesia, dan Selandia Baru. Amat berbeda dengan suasana kedatangan Magellan yang mengancam Lapu-Lapu, Dialog Sebu berlangsung mulus, beradab, dan penuh persaudaraan lintas agama. Dalam sidang pleno terakhir, saya bahkan mengusulkan agar diadakan pula dialog antara komunitas agama dan komunitas nonagama, bahkan dengan komunitas ateis. Tokh semuanya adalah penduduk sah dari planet bumi yang tunggal ini. Tentu usul ini bersifat kontroversial, tetapi ada juga yang memperhatikan.

Alasan saya adalah jika perdamaian dunia hendak diwujudkan, sekalipun susah sekali, maka dialog semestinya tidak hanya antara orang beriman. Dengan kaum ateis pun dialog perlu dilakukan, dengan syarat masing-masing pihak bersedia untuk saling menghargai dalam posisi yang sama, bukan untuk saling menghancurkan. Jelas ini tidak mudah, tetapi bukan mustahil, jika filosofi yang kita pakai adalah: "Umat manusia itu adalah satu komunitas (ummatan wahidah)."

Akhirnya, jika Magellan tidak sampai ke Filipina, tentu sebagian besar penduduk Filipina adalah Muslim. Pertanyaannya adalah: sekiranya itu yang berlaku, apakah keadaan Filipina yang Muslim itu akan lebih baik dibandingkan dengan sebuah Filipina yang Katolik? Indonesia adalah bangsa Muslim terbesar di muka bumi, tetapi dalam bisnis siapa yang berdaulat di sini? Sama halnya dengan Filipina yang Katolik, siapa yang berdaulat di sana dalam dunia bisnis? Bukan penduduk asli Filipina.

Hotel Shangri-La yang mewah itu bukanlah milik warga Filipina. Begitu juga pusat-pusat industri dikuasai asing. Sopir kami seorang Filipina mengatakan, "Warga Filipina hanyalah sebagai pekerja," sebuah ungkapan hampir putus asa. Inilah dua bangsa di Asia Tenggara yang tingkat korupsinya cukup bersaing: Filipina dan Indonesia! Kedua bangsa ini telah melahirkan banyak pahlawan kemerdekaan, tetapi setelah merdeka mengapa malah tersungkur?

http://www.republika.co.id/kolom.asp?kat_id=19
A View of a Japanese On Batak Struggle Against Colonialism

A View of a Japanese On Batak Struggle Against Colonialism

The Batak Millenarian Response to the Colonial Order

Journal article by Masashi Hirosue; Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies, Vol. 25, 1994

by Masashi Hirosue

Introduction

One of the central problems that faced Third World peoples under European colonial rule was how to reform distorted power relations between the colonial and indigenous entities. Although indigenous peoples were generally forced to recognize the superiority of European power, the newly introduced colonial order often frustrated them. The millenarian movement(1) is one type of endeavour to overcome this dilemma by constructing a new socio-cultural order legitimized by a source of power which prophetic leaders insisted ruled their world.


Scholars have dealt with millenarian movements as key examples of social protest primarily under colonial regimes.(2) Studies of Southeast Asia have also paid attention to this type of movement, and many scholars have tried to explain what factors drew followers to such a movement, to the point of sometimes driving them into rebellion. The generally accepted explanations so far have included the propositions that societies were socially or culturally distorted by the influence of colonialism, that people were on the verge of a subsistence crisis,(3) or that they had no alternative but to resort to millenarian solutions to change their situations.( 4) They were drawn to such movements by charismatic leaders or prophets who showed them a millenarian vision.(5) This millenarian vision was generally a restoration of the idealized traditional world with the total transformation of the existing order and the expulsion of the Europeans.(6) Millenarian leaders were able to articulate their belief through their supernatural or magical powers.(7) They had contacts with deities or holy spirits, and their preachings were sanctioned by these supernatural forces.(8)

However, such definitions have not given a full answer to the basic question of why it was that only certain leaders were able to organize these movements. There were many people who longed for the restoration of a traditional order and who claimed to communicate with deities or holy spirits. Around them there must have been many more who were dissatisfied with the existing order. In the Batak area of Sumatra, which is the subject of this paper, there were numerous magicians who were believed to have superhuman abilities and to make contact with deities or ancestral spirits.(9) However, only a certain type of religious leader was able to organize the millenarian movement in that region.

The basic problem with conventional scholarly explanations is that they have not sufficiently examined the prophets’ new messages and the terms the prophets used in order to share their millenarian vision with their followers.(10) Although the existing literature explains that such religious leaders displayed magical or supernatural powers, it has not made clear what these powers represented. These leaders were unlikely to be able to draw people to millenarian movements through their magical or divine abilities based on their indigenous magico-religious belief system, because people often no longer relied on their traditional systems of religious belief, which had been distorted by colonialism. In order to change the existing order totally, millenarian leaders needed to show the people new visions of their world in transformation.

In order better to understand millenarian leadership, it is interesting to look at the religious movements which arose in the Batak area of north Sumatra beginning in 1890. The movements, called “Parmalim” and “Parhudamdam” , arose as responses to colonization and Christianization. The leaders of these movements preached a kind of “millenarian” vision, that promised the restoration of the kingdom of Si Singa Mangaraja, a Batak holy king who had been driven away from his own territory by the Dutch colonial army in 1883. These religious movements often developed into protests against the colonial order.

The point I would like to draw from the Batak case is that the only leaders who were able to organize movements were those whose doctrine appeared to give access to a source of power, a central principle which appeared to animate their changing world. The millenarian leaders saw their main task as reconstructing the socio-cultural system distorted by unbalanced power relations between the indigenous and the external. They had to show what the real source of power was and also how they were able to gain access to it. In order to explain more clearly the role of prophets in millenarian movements, I will classify these leaders into two types,(11) depending on their approach.

The first type of leader is one with strong roots in his traditional cultural system, who found a means to harness the new source of power in traditional terms. For example, Guru Somalaing founded the Parmalim movement after receiving a revelation from “Jahoba” [Jehova] through a dream, the typical Batak way to receive divine inspiration. (12) His doctrine consisted basically of traditional Batak ethics. The important point is that he found a Toba-Batak way to gain access to the new power, “Jahoba”.

The second type of leader is one who at first involved himself in a new environment such as missionary education, the Christian Church, or a job in the modern sector of the economy, such as colonial public service or a plantation company. Some leaders of this type later returned to traditional religion, having found a way to understand it in new terms. One major leader of the Parmalim movement in its later stages, and all the Parhudamdam leaders, were of this type. After they found that the Christian Church could not satisfactorily initiate Toba-Batak into the essential principle of the world (the mysterious power which animated Dutch guns, steamships and telegraphs), they started to reconsider traditional belief. Then they established new religions by revitalizing the indigenous High God as their source of power through Christian or Islamic terms.(13) Leaders of this type revived beliefs in their traditional High God or deities by giving modern meaning to them.

The difference between these two types of leader lies in the way they articulated their doctrines to their followers. To attract people who still had their roots in the indigenous cultural system, the first type of leader had to articulate his millenarian vision in traditional terms, while at the same time showing how he could gain access to the power of the colonial dominating force. To appeal to people whose traditional religious belief system was already somewhat distorted, leaders of the second type had to use new terms to explain their ideas. Once the foreign powers had proved to be unreliable allies, a revitalized traditional source of power could often provide a unitary symbol for their anti-colonialism.

This paper deals primarily with the first of these two patterns, the indigenous leader who gained access to the new external power, using the earlier stage of the Parmalim movement to provide a case study.

The materials which I have used to analyse the Parmalim movement are mainly the testimonies of leaders, in addition to colonial and missionary reports. In order to understand the role of prophets, their own testimonies are especially helpful. As these personal statements were made only after arrest by the colonial authorities, (14) we must recognize the danger that they may have modified their anti-colonial sentiments. However, because the Parmalim leaders believed that they were obliged under God to preach their belief to the world, which also encompassed the Dutch, their basic ideas appear to be consistently upheld in their testimonies. Dutch colonial officials and German missionaries also referred frequently to the movement, although each was concerned with a specific aspect of it. However, together they give us relatively abundant information about the movement.

Besides these three types of source material, description by explorers or travellers and vernacular materials are also helpful. Explorers and travellers were relatively detached and objective. In particular, E. Modigliani, who travelled through the upper Asahan area from December 1890 till January 1891 guided by Guru Somalaing, gives us interesting information on this leader.(15) Most of the vernacular materials about the movement were written by Batak colonial officials and Christians.( 16) Although their perspective is often narrow, their statements help us to understand the movement at the local level. I was able to find very little material produced by followers of the Parmalim movement; however, I believe the data from all the above source are sufficient to sustain the argument I will advance.

The Rise of the Parmalim Movement

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the northern part of the Batak area had successfully maintained its social order. The Batak people, whose population was about three quarters of a million at the beginning of the twentieth century,(17) are an Austronesian- speaking population living in the northern part of Sumatra. Some of the Batak inhabited mountainous highland, living by slash and burn cultivation, while others lived in river valleys and the low land around Lake Toba, cultivating sawah (wet-rice fields). The Batak are usually divided into six sub-groups: Toba, Karo, Dairi, Simalungun, Angkola and Mandailing.( 18) The Toba-Batak, the largest sub-group, and the focus of this paper, were settled on the island of Samosir and from the south-western and south-eastern sides of Lake Toba clown to the west coast. Difficult access to the inner Batak area from the coasts due to steep hillsides, the fact that the region produced little of commercial value except a few forest products, and the reputation of the Batak for cannibalism helped the Batak world remain relatively undisturbed by external powers, at least from the seventeenth till the beginning of the nineteenth century.(19)

Traditional Toba-Batak society was organized around its own religion with some ancient Hindu influences and a bit of Islam. The Batak originally shared with other Indonesian peoples basic ideas about the nature of life and death (so called “animism”), and a cosmological dualism of the upperworld and underworld.( 20) They believed that all beings in the world had tondi (souls). Batak perceived tondi as independent entities and believed that the tondi of a man determined his life. In order to maintain and enlarge his tondi-power (sahala), a Batak would seek the advice of a datu (magician). Datu had much knowledge of the Batak sacred and medical texts, and were also able to make contact with ancestral spirits and deities.(21) Datu were regarded highly as persons who had much knowledge about religious affairs and could share supernatural power. The skill of the datu (hadatuon) was also resorted to when a community was suffering from such calamities as disease, drought and a poor harvest, or when it was going into battle against other villagers or family groups.

The founder of the Parmalim movement, Guru Somalaing, had been a well-known datu among the Toba-Batak. He had been a typical upholder of Toba-Batak traditional culture. However, he later acknowledged the superior power of the Dutch and the Christian Church. Establishing a new religion was the outcome of his quest for the best way to share this new power.

Before he started to preach a new doctrine, Guru Somalaing had been an advisor of Si Singa Mangaraja, a Batak holy king who had been revered as an incarnation of Batara Guru, a son of the Batak High God. Si Singa Mangaraja was believed to have the superhuman abilities to control rice-growing, to summon rain, and to drive evil spirits away.(22) Although Europeans usually defined Si Singa Mangaraja as a priest-king or a spiritual leader with no significant secular power,(23) the Toba-Batak not only prayed to Si Singa Mangaraja for his magical power, but also requested him to arbitrate disputes among them. The special importance of Si Singa Mangaraja lay in his role in maintaining stable relations between the Batak world and the outside world. From the seventeenth till the nineteenth centuries, Barus and Asahan were the two most important outlets for the Toba-Batak. Si Singa Mangaraja was on good terms with the ruler of Barus Hilir (Downstream Barus) and the Sultan of Asahan.(24) When relations between the inner and the outer world were disturbed, Si Singa Mangaraja played a major role in preserving the world order. Nevertheless, since Si Singa Mangaraja’s sacred status was based on Batak religious concepts, he could not disregard the opinions of the datu who had had a far longer history in Batak religious affairs than he.

After intervening in the Padri movement, the Dutch established their rule in Minangkabau and the southern part of the Batak area during the mid-1830s. As the colonial government extended its influence to Mandailing, Angkola and Sibolga in the 1840s and 50s, the southern part of the Toba-Batak area became firmly linked commercially to the colonized areas.(25) Under such circumstances, the Dutch government allowed the German missionary society of Rheinischen Missions-Gesellscha ft to start missionary work in the Batak area in 1861. By the mid-1870s, several missionary stations were established in the southern part of Toba with the support of local chiefs, who tried to extend their power through firm connections with the Dutch.(26)

However, other chieftains in the northern part of Toba were afraid that the power balance between them and the chieftains who accepted the missionaries would be upset. They urged Si Singa Mangaraja XII to drive the missionaries away from Toba. With their support Si Singa Mangaraja started a war against the Europeans in 1878.(27)

Somalaing joined the war and became advisor to Si Singa Mangaraja. Somalaing played an important role in uniting the people around Lake Toba to fight under the banner of Si Singa Mangaraja against the colonial and Christian penetration. However, in 1878 and 1883, the army of Si Singa Mangaraja was defeated twice by the colonial army, which was better armed with guns. After the battle of 1883, which marked the defeat of Si Singa Mangaraja, the dominance of the Dutch and the Christian Church over Toba-Batak society was established. Si Singa Mangaraja himself was wounded in the battle and had to flee from his home at Bakkara. In due course, it seems that there arose some discord between Somalaing and Si Singa Mangaraja over whether to continue fighting. Somalaing recognized the superiority of the Dutch and the Christian Church and withdrew from the war leaving Si Singa Mangaraja to fend for himself.(28) Somalaing now faced a dilemma. He recognized that the Dutch colonial goverment and the Christian Church would not be driven away easily, yet he also saw the disruption they were causing in Batak society.

Many chieftains and datu who had at first sided with Si Singa Mangaraja later accepted Christianity and Dutch rule, seeking a share in that mysterious power which had brought about their defeat. Neither the Christian Church nor the colonial goverment could operate without support from the local elites, and most of the influential chieftains Who became Christians were appointed district, sub-district, or village heads by the colonial authorities. (29) Some newly converted datu became parish elders or helpers of the German missionaries. (30)

However, Somalaing could not cast himself into this new regime. In his testimony, he complained of the inflation of the power of Batak chieftains under colonialism. (31) After gaining the sanction of the colonial authorities, they became more oppressive than before towards their subordinates and towards the chieftains who did not receive positions in the Dutch scheme, although they had previously been autonomous rulers. Concerning missionary activities, he complained of the abolition of the Toba-Batak custom in which a married man would take the widow of his brother as his second wife. Somalaing thought that on the whole the traditional society was better than the new European-influenced one. In short, he faced a contradiction between the irresistible power of the new order and the social disruption to which it gave rise.

After reflecting on this dilemma, Somalaing received a revelation from God, who, he later said, showed him the best way to share the power which had brought Dutch rule and Christianity to the Batak area.

I thought over these affairs and how to bring improvement on them. Then the Lord Jesus appeared in my retreat and while my body remained on the earth, my soul was raised to heaven by him and brought before God. This gave me to understand that I am the “anggini Tuhan”, the brother of the Lord. By the Lord, I was sent in order to preach a new doctrine to the people, so that my followers would be the permalims.(32)

Somalaing claimed that he was brought to heaven by Jesus and was ordered to preach a new doctrine by God. The god who gave Somalaing this order was not the Batak High God, Debata Mulajadi Na Bolon. According to Somalaing, it was Jehova and he insisted that his God was the same as that of the Christians.( 33) However, his path of access to God was not a modern Christian way, but rather a traditional Batak one. In Batak religion a datu frequently received messages from deities in dreams or visions.(34)

The doctrine which Jehova ordered him to preach was, according to his own account: pay respect to the elders; never tell a lie; do not partake of dog’s meat or pork, or of the meat or the blood of animals which had died of illness; and purify both soul and body. These were not especially new ideas, and generally reflected traditional Toba-Batak morals. Somalaing’s followers, who were to be called Parmalim, were “the people who endeavour to be holy or to be pure”. The word Parmalim is derived from the Arabic word “muallim”, which means a religious leader. However, among the Toba-Batak the word “malim” seems to have hanged over the centuries into the meaning of “holy” or “pure”. For instance, in one prayer Si Singa Mangaraja was referred to as “raja na pitu hali malim”(35) (raja who is sevenfold holy). This holy raja Si Singa Mangaraja and his appointed sacrifice-priests (parbaringin) did not consume either dog’s meat or pork.(36) Islamic ideas had spread from Barus to the Toba area centuries earlier, and avoiding pork and dog meat had long been part of Toba-Batak religious doctrine. Somalaing applied this elite religious code to all his followers, and also prohibited them from eating the flesh of animals which died of illness because they were not malim. The determination of what was holy or pure was based on Toba-Batak values. While maintaining the essence of the indigenous religion and value system, Somalaing believed he had found a way tomthe source of power that was transforming Batak society. He received the revelation in 1890.

Guru Somalaing and Raja Rum

Somalaing’s next task was to show followers the way to cope with the colonial power. His conviction of sharing the power of Jehova led him to expect European newcomers to assist him in the movement. His encounter with an Italian traveller, Elio Modigliani, just after the revelation increased Somalaing’s expectation.

Modigliani stayed in the Toba area from October 1890 till February 1891. To the Toba-Batak, this Italian was a type of European different from the Dutch and German missionaries. The people who were at the same time oppressed by the colonial regime and impressed by the superiority of Dutch power, were hoping for the appearance of a different kind of European who would help them to share European power without having to accept it on Dutch or missionary terms.(37) The appearance of such a Westerner made it possible for the Batak people to question the legitimacy of Dutch rule and even hope to use his power to change the existing regime.

When Modigliani was travelling around the southern shore of Lake Toba, he had a chance to talk with the local people.(38) He was asked various questions, including who his raja was. He answered that it was “Raja Roma”. Then there arose an unexpected stir among the people. One of them asked Modigliani, “Why did Raja Rom never accept any of the numerous gifts of horses and buffaloes which they regularly presented?” Modigliani was unable to understand who Raja Rom (correctly Rum) was. The name Raja Rum derived from the legend of Sultan Iskandar Dzulkarnain, Alexander the Great. According to the Toba-Batak, Alexander the Great had three sons. One was the king of Rum (also called Raja Stambul), the second was the king of China, and the third was the king of Minangkabau. (39) As Islam spread into the west coast of Sumatra, the name of Raja Rum came to be more well-known among the Toba-Batak through influence from Barus.

The rumour that a delegate of Raja Rum was staying in Balige spread around the lake-side and finally reached Somalaing. This datu visited Modigliani many times, showing much politeness and pressing friendship upon him. Modigliani accordingly asked Somalaing to guide him to the upper Asahan area (on the east coast of Sumatra) where he had not been allowed to travel by Dutch officials because it was outside Dutch authority. Modigliani vividly described the scene after he asked Somalaing for help:

My heart beat with a double blow, while I waited for Somalaing’s answer.

And he made me wait a very long time. His black eyebrows wrinkled, he

remained silent while his face underwent queer distortions. “I will offer

you my revolver as a present and one dollar per day for every man who goes

with you. “I continued in order that I could overcome a dislike of him.

Suddenly he roared out his agreement rather than answering. He took my

hands in his, brought them to his heart, embraced me, kissed me on both

cheeks, and even planted teeth in them. “Amatta [”my father”, alluding to Raja Rom] has sent you in order to drive away the Dutch and Guru Samalaingwill help you!”(40)

Somalaing had been seeking for a way to drive the Dutch away. Looking for a means to master the power of the foreign newcomers, he seized upon the Italian, a supposed son of Raja Rum, as a key to success in the fight against the Dutch.

Modigliani left the Batak area after travelling through the upper Asahan area, but the encounter convinced Somalaing that his claim was confirmed through the appearance of Modigliani. He adopted the belief in Raja Rum as part of his Parmalim doctrine. Raja Rum and Si Singa Mangaraja, he claimed, were sons of God.(41) Some day Raja Rum would come to the Batak area with his son, Modigliani, to expel the Dutch. Then a new Si Singa Mangaraja would arise, and the glorious Batak order, “harajaon Si Singa Mangaraja” (Kingdom of Si Singa Mangaraja), would be restored. After Modigliani’s departure Somalaing and his followers prayed to Raja Rum in the same manner as had been done in traditional religious ceremonies when people had wanted to ask Si Singa Mangaraja or Batak deities for help.

The earlier stages of the Parmalim movement can be described as anendeavour to maintain the Batak traditional social order under the new source of power. The movement spread quickly into the northeastern part of Toba,(42) which was being radically influenced by the colonial government and economy from the Sumatran east coast, though its cultural system was still intact. Somalaing was not able to find many followers in the southern part of Toba where the Christian Church had already established a dominant position, or in the places where the population was not substantially under European influence. He found the greatest support in the places where people had just started to feel the Dutch and the missionary influence.

Somalaing’s followers were mostly minor chieftains and their relatives. In order to retain their status and their social system,
they also sought access to the source of European power in order to combat it. In their Parmalim ceremonies, they prayed to Jehova, the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Raja Rum, as well as Batak deities.(43)

Then, the Parmalims started to revere the German missionaries working in the northeastern part of Toba as Batak kings. Like Modigliani, the German missionaries had objectives different from the Dutch colonial officials. The Parmalims began to expect the missionaries to assist them.

The case of a German named Pohlig, who had been in Toba since 1890, provides an example of this process. He was an engineer and among missionaries was known as “the capable Brother Pohlig” (der tuchtige Br. Pohlig).(44) He occasionally repaired guns for the colonial goverment.(45) Such technical knowledge, which was a major aspect of the superiority of European power, was of great interest to the Parmalims. They were eager to be initiated into its mysteries. According to Pohlig, one Parmalim local leader wrote to him in 1891 saying he would bring presents to celebrate the birth of Pohlig’s son. “We come to you tomorrow with our wives because a son is born to you. God has instructed me that we must salute this”.(46) The following day thousands of Parmalims visited the embarrassed Pohlig, firing salutes and playing music, and presented him a mare and a foal.(47) Pohlig, however, returned these presents to them, because he thought that accepting them would indicate approval of their religion.

In spite of Pohlig’s cold response, the Parmalims increased their reverence towards him. As the colonial goverment intensified its
influence on the northeastern part of Toba, introducing corvee labour from the end of 1892,(48) the Parmalims began to believe that Pohlig was a person who could intervene with the Dutch on their behalf. According to Pohlig’s report of 1893, he came to be regarded as an incarnation of Si Singa Mangaraja.

These men [Parmalims] reveal really crazy ideas. Just now I have become the

Singamangaraja. “You are it”, they say. “You have only changed your form!”

A few days ago some were still here. I said to them. “Don’t bother me with

your absurd reasonings, I am not the Singamangaraja. ” “We know very

accurately that you are it”, they said. “Debata [God] has told us”.

Moreover, they said in order to convince me that I am he, “Your
father, the former Singamangaraja, was shot by the Dutch in the arm, then went toheaven.

He has sent you, but he has given you another form, so that the Dutch could not recognize you.” They believe such nonsense, and that is their gospel.(49)

According to the belief of the Toba-Batak, the sahala of Si Singa Mangaraja could be shifted to another person who would then be the next Si Singa Mangaraja.(50) After Si Singa Mangaraja XII, Ompu Pulo Batu, was wounded in the battle of 1883, those who believed that Si Singa Mangaraja was invulnerable began to doubt whether he still possessed the sahala of Si Singa Mangaraja.(51) The Parmalims began to claim that Si Singa Mangaraja XII, having lost his sahala, had gone to heaven and that the sahala was now in Pohlig, who appeared in the form of a Westerner. Incidentally, Pohlig had a scar on his hand similar to Si Singa Mangaraja XII. This was a sign to the Parmalims reconfirming their belief that in Pohlig Si Singa Mangaraja was reincarnated. When the Parmalims visited Pohlig, they offered gifts, expecting him to support their protests against the colonial government, and anticipating that he would in due course declare himself to be Si Singa Mangaraja, and together with Raja Rum would drive the Dutch away.

As the colonial goverment intensified its authority in the Toba-Batak area, the Parmalims’ expectations escalated. They claimed: before long the seven dark days and nights would come; then the Dutch would be driven away from the Batak country by the appearance of Raja Rum and Si Singa Mangaraja; non Parmalims would be destroyed by earthquakes, and the Parmalims would inherit all things.(52) Occasional collisions occurred between the Parmalims and the colonial government. The leader Somalaing was arrested by the colonial authorities in 1895 and was exiled to Java.(53) However, his removal did not end the movement. The basic problem of the Parmalims — that the colonial goverment and German missionaries should share their assets with the Batak people — was not resolved at all. Among the believers protest movements continued to arise.(54)

Conclusion

This article has argued the role of the Batak milienarian leader in the Parmalim movement against the European colonial order. Guru Somalaing successfully established the Parmalim movement because he was able to show his followers an apparent way to share the new power of the Europeans in indigenous Toba-Batak terms. His claim was confirmed through the appearance of Modigliani and Pohlig who would assist him in the movement. Although previous accounts have suggested that the Batak millenarian vision, the restoration of Si Singa Mangaraja and the expulsion of the Dutch by supernatural means, induced the Batak people to join the Parmalim movement and anti-Dutch protests,(55) such accounts have not given sufficient attention to the basic question of why a certain type of leader was successful.

The role of the prophet in the earlier stages of the Parmalim movement would suggest a tentative model to explain the role of prophets in other millenarian movements which arose in areas newly subjected under European power. Most of the Cargo Cults(56) in Melanesia, as well as the Taiping rebellion(57) in China and the Cao Dai movement(58) in Vietnam, show that the millenarian leader’s main task, like that of Somalaing, was to suggest a way to share the new European power through their own indigenous means regarded as “traditional” . This type of leader’s other characteristics, such as the ability to contact supernatural forces, healing or divination were of only secondary importance.

Somalaing’s claim began to appear questionable to followers when Modigliani and Pohlig proved to be unreliable allies. In spite of the Parmalims’ ardent hopes, neither Modigliani nor Pohlig came to their aid, and the Parmalims began to doubt their doctrine. Re-clarifying to them what the real source of power was and how they could gain access to it was the task of future millenarian leaders. The Parmalim movement was reorganized in the late 1890s by another millenarian leader, who revitalized the Batak traditional High God as their source of power through new terms. Thus when a prophet successfully suggested a new solution in familiar terms to people dissatisfied with the existing order, such a movement again arose. Batak millenarian responses continued. This article is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 12th IAHA [International Association of Historians of Asia] Conference, University of Hong Kong, 24-28 June 1991. The issues discussed here are explored more fully in my Ph.D. diss., “Prophets and Followers in Batak Millenarian Responses to the Colonial Order: Parmalim, Na Siak Bagi and Parhudamdam, 1890-1930″ (The Australian National University, 1988). I am very grateful to B. Dahm, G. Daws, J. Fox, R. de Iongh, Y. Ishii, M. van Langenberg, D. Marr, A. Reid, L. Schreiner, A.A. Sitompul and S. Situmorang for their comments and advice.

(1) I generally follow the definition of a “millenarian” movement as conceived by Y. Talmon and N. Cohn, who use the term not in a specific and limited historical sense, but in the wider sense of characterizing religious movements that expect imminent, total, ultimate, this-worldly, collective salvation [Y. Talmon, “Millenarism” , in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. D.L. Sills, vol. 10 (New York: The Macmillan Company and The Free Press, 1968), p. 349, and N. Cohn, “Medieval Millenarism: Its Bearing on the Comparative Study of Millenarian Movements”, in Millennial Dreams in Action Essays in Comparative Study, ed. S.L. Thrupp (The Hague: Mouton, 1962). Though “messianic” movements, which arose where history was seen as a series of recurrent cycles, have little of the linear quality of many European millenary movements, we can use the term “millenarism” to refer to them because their prophetic leaders endeavoured to initiate followers into the source of power appearing to cause such a total transformation.

(2) This does not mean that millenarian movements arose only in colonial situations or because of foreign impact. Such movements were also evident in the pre-colonial period without foreign influence, when established socio-cultural conditions were distorted by disasters such as plagues, devasting fires, recurrent long droughts or by the unjustified assumption of power [S. Kartodirdjo, “Agrarian Radicalism in Java: Its Setting and Development” , in Culture and Politics inIndonesia, ed. C. Holt (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1972), and Talmon, “Millenarism” p.354. There are two main reasons why I have chosen to study millenarian movements under colonial regimes or foreign influence. The first reason is that by dealing with cross-cultural millenarian movements, I would like to consider through what millenarian vision prophets were able to draw people into movements in order to explain the role of prophets better. The other is because there are abundant source materials about millenarian movements during the colonial era.

(3) J. C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976).

(4) M. Adas, Prophets of Rebellion Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979).

(5) Ibid., pp. 92-121, and J.M. van der Kroef, “Messianic Movements in the Celebes, Sumatra, and Borneo”, in Millennial Dreams, ed. Thrupp, pp. 117-20.

(6) This does not mean that millenarian movements were mere retreats into the traditional world. Even when millenarian visions put great stress on nativistic elements, these movements endeavoured to keep some aspects of their indigenous culture alive in new situations or revitalize these traditions by giving them new meanings. In this sense, millenarian movements were new attempts to establish new world views by taking both the indigenous and the externals into consideration. See for instance, Adas, Prophets, pp. xxvi-xxvii, and Talmon, “Millenarism” p. 353.

(7) S. Kartodirdjo, “Agrarian Radicalism”, pp. 78-82 and Protest Movements in Rural Java A Study of Agrarian Unrest in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 7-8.

(8) Adas, Prophets, p. xx and 112.

(9) J. Warneck, Die Religion der Batak: Ein Paradigma fur die animistischen Religionen des Indischen Archipels (Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1909), pp. 109-113.

(10) Related works include Adas, Prophets, and S.L. Popkin, The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 252-66. The former still needs to explain why prophets were important in these movements, and the latter uses very general terms that are applicable not only to millenarian movements hut also to other socio-political movements. In this paper, I will not refer to unorganized protest movements in which no prophetic leader appeared; however, so long as existing co-ordination systems continue to
function, leaderless opposition is possible [see Popkin, The Rational Peasant,p. 266, and J.C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985)].

(11) I exclude from millenarian leaders those who endeavoured to share the indigenous source of power through traditional ways or who endeavoured to gain access to the external source of power through external ways. When the traditional approach [to share the indigenous source of power through indigenous ways] collapsed in new situations, millenarian movements generally started. The latter pattern is a pure assimilation into a new power. Such adherence to traditional ways or to a new power, that caused no competitive situation between an indigenous power and an external power, inhibited people from engaging in millenarian activities. See K.O.L. Burridge, New Heaven New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1969), pp. 33-35.

(12) Process-Verbaal of Guru Somalaing (Tarutung, 31 Jan. 1896), Indischen brief, 22 May 1896, no. 910/2, Verbaal 25/6/1896/96.

(13) For instance, Waldemar, Testimony of Gayus Hutahaean (Pangururan, 2 Feb. 1922), V.E. Korn Collection, no. 454.

(14) Since the main leaders of the earlier stages of the Parmalim movement were sentenced to exile by decision of the Governor-General of Netherlands India, their testimonies, which had first been sent to the Council of Netherlands India [in Batavia] from Tapanuli, were later sent to Netherlands Ministry of Colonies along with the Governor-General’ s decisions. These testimonies can be found in the Archives of the Ministry of Colonies in Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague.

(15) E. Modigliani, Fra i Batacchi indipendenti (Rome: Societa Geografica Italiana, 1892).

(16) Most of them are stored in V.E. Korn Collection (no. 441 and 454) in Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Leiden.

(17) “Bataks”, in Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch- Indie, vol. 1 (The Hague and Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff and E.J. Brill, 1917).

(18) F.M. Lebar, Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, vol. 1 (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1972), p. 20.

(19) L. Castles, “Statelessness and Stateforming Tendencies among the Batak before Colonial Rule” in Pre-colonial State Systems in Southeast Asia, ed. A. Reid and L. Castles (Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1979), p. 75, and R. Heine-Geldern, “Le pays de P’i-K’ien, le Roi au Grand Cou et le Singa Mangaradja”, Bulletin de l’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient 49 (1959): 363.

(20) Warneck, Die Religion, p. 25-26; E.M. Loeb, Sumatra: Its History and People (Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta: Oxford University Press, 1972); and H. Parkin, Batak Fruit of Hindu Thought (Madras: The Christian Literature Society, 1978), pp. 145-49.

(21) J. Winkler, Die Toba=Batak auf Sumatra in gesunden und kranken Tagen: Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des animistischen Heidentums (Stuttgart: Chr. Belser A. G., 1925), pp. 72-78; and Warneck, Die Religion, pp. 109-113.

(22) Heine-Geldern, “Le pays”, pp. 374-78; and C.M. Pleyte, “Singe Mangaradja: De heilige koning der Bataks”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-,Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indie 55 (1903): 1-17.

(23) For example, J.H. Meerwaldt, “De laatste Singamangaradja” , De Rijnsche Zending (1908): 2-7.

(24) Van Lith and E. Gobee, “Rapport omtrent Si Singamangaradja en zijn naaste familieleden” , Mail-rapport 2674/1929, Verbaal 14/10/1930/20; Resident van Oostkust van Sumatra aan Gouverneur Generaal van Nederlandsch- Indie (Bengkalis, 28 Aug. 1885), Malirapport 648/1885; and J. Drakard, A Malay Frontier: Unity and Duality in a Sumatran Kingdom (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1990), pp. 81-82.

(25) M. Joustra, Batakspiegel (Leiden: Bataksch Instituut, 1910), and O. von Kessel, “Reis in de nog onafhankelijke Batak-landen van Klein-Toba, op Sumatra, in 1844″, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indie 4 (1856): 73-76.

(26) S. Coolsma, De zendingseeuw voor Nederlandsch Oost-Indie (Utrecht: C. H. E. Breijer, 1901), pp. 309-385; and J.R. Hutauruk, “Die Batakkirche vor ihrer Unabhangigkeit (1899-1942): Probleme der kirchlichen Unabhangigkeit angesichts der Problematik von Mission, Kolonialismus und Nationalismus” (Ph.D. diss. Hamburg University, 1980), p. 101.

(27) Meerwaldt, “De laatste Singamangaradja” , pp. 87-88; Resident van Tapanuli, “Extract uit het verslag betrekkelijk de verwikkelingen in de Battaklanden en de daarop gevolgde militaire expeditie naar Toba”, Mailrapport 801/1878; W.B. Sidjabat, Ahu Si Singamangaraja: Arti Historis, Politis, Ekonomis dan Religius Si Singamangaraja XII (Jakarta: Sinar Harapan, 1982), pp. 165-70.

(28) Proces-Verbaal of Guru Somalaing.

(29) “De zendingsposten der Rijnsche zending in Silindoeng en Toba”, De Rijnsche Zending (1887), pp. 63-68; and Joustra, Batakspiegel, p. 258.

(30) G. Pilgram, Laban: Ein Lebensbild aus der Batak=Mission auf Sumatra (Barmen: Rheinischen Missions-Gesellscha ft, 1921), pp. 12-28; and “Eenige schetsen uit de Batta-zending” , De Rijnsche Zending 1883), p. 99.

(31) Proces-Verbaal of Guru Somalaing.

(32) Ibid.

(33) Ibid., and D.W.N. de Boer, “De Permalimsekten van Oeloean, Toba en Habinsaran”, Tijdschrift voor het Binnenlandsch Bestuur 47 (1914): 382-83.

(34) Winkler, Die Toba=Batak, p. 75.

(35) Sidjabat, Ahu Si Singamangaraja, p. 442; and A.L. Tobing, Si Singamangaradja I-XII (Medan: W. Marpaung, 1967).

(36) J. Keuning, “Einige beschouwingen betreffende de staatkundige organisatie onder de Toba-Bataks” , Koloniaal Tijdschrift 28 (1939): 497; and Sidjabat, Ahu Si Singamangaraja, pp. 373-77.

(37) For example, see Burridge, New Heaven, pp. 67-68; and A.F.C. Wallace, “Handsome Lake and the Great Revival in the West”, American Quarterly (Summer 1952): 149-65.

(38) Modigliani, Fra i Batacchi, pp. 71-77; and J.C. Vergouwen, “Een Italiaan onder de Bataks”, Koloniaal Tijdschrift 21 (1932): 553-55.

(39) “Verslag van eene reis in het land der Bataks, in het binnenland van Sumatra, ondernomen in het jaar 1824, door de heeren Burton en Ward, zendelingen der Baptisten. Medegedeeld door wijlen sir Stamford Raffles”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indie 5 (1856): 283.

(40) Modigliani, Fra i Batacchi, p. 85

(41) Proces-Verbaal of Guru Somalaing.

(42) Boer, “De Permalimsekten” , pp. 391-92.

(43) Ibid., pp. 382-84.

(44) M. Joustra, “Een bezoek aan de Rijnsche Zendelingen in Silindoeng en Toba”, Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootscha p 43 (1899): 260.

(45) Controleur van Toba aan Assistent Resident van Toba en Silindung, (Balige, 21 Mar. 1904), agenda no. 2294/1904 [in Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia].

(46) P. Pohlig to the Inspector of the Rheinischen Missions-Gesellscha ft (Siantar, 28 Dec. 1891), B/f 34 (in Archiv der
Vereinigte Evangelische Mission, Wuppertal).

(47) “De Batta-zending” , De Rijnsche Zending (1892), p. 195.

(48) The Governor-General’ s Decision of 29 December 1892, no. 3.

(49) “Aus der Battamission” , Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellscha ft (1893), pp. 325-26.

(50) M. Joustra, “De Singa Mangaradja-figuur” , in Gedenkschrift voor het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indie (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1926), p. 211.

(51) J. Warneck, Sechzig Jahre Batakmission in Sumatra (Berlin: Martin Warneck, 1925), p. 118; and Sidjabat, Ahu Si Singamangaraja, p. 119.

(52) O. Marcks to the Inspector of the Rheinischen Missions-Gesellscha ft (Sitorang, 13 Mar. 1902), F/a 50.

(53) Extract uit het Register der Besluiten van den Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch- Indie” (Cipanas, 22 May 1896),
Indischen brief, 22 May 1896, no. 910/2.

(54) For further details, see Hirosue, “Prophets and Followers”, pp. 160-212. (55) For example, van der Kroef, “Messianic Movements”, pp. 92-106; Mohammad Said, Tokoh Singa Mangaradja XII (Medan: Waspada, 1961), pp. 54-73; and L. Castles, “The Political Life of a Sumatran Residency: Tapanuli 1915-1940″ (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1972), pp. 74-76.

(56) P. Lawrence, Road Belong Cargo: A Study of the Cargo Movement in the Southern Madang District New Guinea (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1964); and Burridge, New Heaven, pp. 47-74.

(57) F. Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, vol. 1 (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1966), pp. 21-50.

(58) Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Millenarianism and Peasant Politics in Vietnam (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: Harvard University Press, 1983), pp. 84-86; and J.S. Werner, Peasant Politics and Religious Sectarianism: Peasant and Priest in the Cao Dai in Viet Nam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981).