Batak
Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra and parts of adjacent provinces, Indonesia, who speak the Batak languages. The term always includes the Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak-Dairi, Angkola and Mandailing, as well as other related ethnic groups with distinct languages and traditional customs.
History
Prehistory
While the archaeology of southern Sumatra testifies to the existence of Neolithic settlers, it seems that the northern part of Sumatra was settled by agriculturalists at a considerably later stage. Although the Batak are often considered to be isolated peoples due to their location inland, there is evidence that they have been involved in trade with neighbouring kingdoms for a millennium or more.The Bataks practiced a syncretic religion of Hinduism and ancestor worshipping for thousands of years. The Batak may be mentioned in Zhao Rugua's 13th-century Description of the Barbarous Peoples, which refers to a 'Ba-ta' dependency of Srivijaya. The Suma Oriental, of the 15th century, also refers to the kingdom of Bata, bounded by Pasai and the Aru kingdom.
Based on this evidence, the Batak may have been involved in procuring important commodities such as camphor, benzoin, and other forest products, but also pepper, for trade with China, perhaps from the 8th or 9th centuries and continuing for the next thousand years. Batak men carried the products on their backs for sale at ports.
It has been suggested that the important port of Barus in Tapanuli was populated by Batak people. A Tamil inscription has been found in Barus which is dated to 1088. Contact with Chinese and Tamil traders took place at Kota Cina, a trading town located in what is now northern Medan that was established in the 11th century. It comprised 10,000 people by the 12th century. Tamil remains have been found on key trade routes to the Batak lands.
These trading opportunities may have caused migration of Batak from Pakpak and Toba to the present-day Karo and Simalungun 'frontier' lands, where they were exposed to greater influence from visiting Tamil traders. The migration of Batak to the Angkola-Mandailing lands may have been prompted by 8th-century Srivijayan demand for camphor.
The Karo marga or tribe Sembiring is believed to have originated from their ties with Tamil traders. Specific Sembiring sub-marga, namely Brahmana, Colia, Pandia, Depari, Meliala, Muham, Pelawi, and Tekan, are all of Indian origin. Tamil influence on Karo religious practices are also noted, with the pekualuh secondary cremation ritual being specific to the Karo and Dairi people. Moreover, the Pustaka Kembaren, an origin story of the Sembiring Kembaren, suggests linkages with Pagaruyung in the Minangkabau Highlands.
From the 16th century onward, Aceh increased the production of pepper, an important export commodity, in exchange for rice, which grew well in the Batak wetlands. Batak people in different areas cultivated either sawah or ladang. The Toba Batak, most expert in agriculture, must have migrated to meet demand in new areas. The increasing importance of rice had religious significance, which increased the power of the Batak high priests, who had responsibility for ensuring agricultural success.
Language
The Batak speak a variety of closely related languages, all members of the Austronesian language family. There are two major branches, a northern branch comprising the Pakpak-Dairi, Alas-Kluet, and Karo languages, which are similar to each other, and a distinct southern branch, comprising three mutually intelligible dialects: Toba, Pardembanan, Angkola, and Mandailing. Simalungun is an early offspring of the southern branch. Some Simalungun dialects can be understood by speakers of Batak Karo, whereas other dialects of Simalungun can be understood by speakers of Toba. This is due to the existence of a linguistic continuum that often blurs the lines between the Batak dialects. Batak dialect still influences the dialects in Medan city today.The Batak possess their own script known as the Surat Batak. The writing has chiefly ceremonial importance within traditional religious ceremonies, and was subject to little change for this reason. It is likely that the Batak people originally received their writing system from southern Sumatra.
Contribution to modern Malay and Indonesian literature
In the broader context of national language, the modern Batak authors are well-known as the outstanding Malay-speaking writers that shape modern Malay into the national concept of Bahasa Indonesia and its literary canon. These include novelist Merari Siregar, Muhammad Kasim Dalimunte, Soeman Hasiboean, Mochtar Lubis and Iwan Simatupang ; poets Sitor Situmorang; as well as literary critic Bakri Siregar.Profession
The traditional occupation of the Batak was agriculture, hunting and farming. The great lake of Toba provided vast opportunity for freshwater aquaculture since ancient times. Interior rural Batak communities relied heavily on rice farming, horticulture and other plant and commercial crops, and to some extent, acquiring forest products, such as hard wood, plant resin, and wild animals.The port of Barus on the western coast of Batak lands has become famous as the source of kapur barus. In ancient times, Batak warriors were often recruited by neighboring Malay courts as mercenaries. In the colonial era, the Dutch introduced commercial cash crops, such as coffee, sawit palm oil, and rubber, converting some parts of the Batak land into plantations.
Throughout the history of modern Indonesia, the Batak community has made significant contributions. Batak people have engaged in a wide range of occupations, from running modest tire service workshops to serving as state ministers. Today, many Batak individuals are drawn to professions such as bus and taxi drivers, mechanics, engineers, singers and musicians, writers and journalists, teachers, economists, scientists, military officers, and attorneys. Although the Batak represent a minority within the Indonesian population, many notable Batak individuals have achieved prominent positions, particularly in the field of law, such as Adnan Buyung Nasution who founded the Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Jakarta, Todung Mulya Lubis, Ruhut Sitompul and Hotman Paris Hutapea.
Society
Batak societies are patriarchally organized along clans known as Marga. A traditional belief among the Toba Batak is that they originate from one ancestor "Si Raja Batak", with all Margas descended from him. A family tree that defines the father-son relationship among Batak people is called tarombo. In contemporary Indonesia, the Batak people have a strong focus on education and a prominent position in the professions, particularly as teachers, engineers, doctors and lawyers. Toba Batak are known traditionally for their weaving, wood carving and especially ornate stone tombs.Before they became subjects of the colonial Dutch East Indies government, the Batak had a reputation for being fierce warriors. Today the Batak are mostly Christian with a Muslim minority. Currently the largest Christian congregation in Indonesia is the HKBP Christian church. The dominant Christian theology was brought by Lutheran German missionaries in the 19th century, including the well-known missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen. Christianity was introduced to the Karo by Dutch Calvinist missionaries, and their largest church is the GBKP. The Mandailing and Angkola Batak were converted to Islam in the early 19th century during the reign of Minangkabaus Padri. A significant minority of Batak people do not adhere to either Christianity or Islam, however, and follow traditional practices known as the agama si dekah, the old religion, which is also called perbegu or pemena.
Dalihan Na Tolu
Dalihan Na Tolu is the philosophy of life of the Batak people. It consisted of three general rules in Batak society. Those are:- Somba Marhulahula. Even though somba could mean worship, in Dalihan Na Tolu, it means respect to those with wife family and those with the same clan. Those family includes wife of the grandfathers, wife of the fathers, and wife of the children.
- Elek Marboru. Kindness in this context means not accompanied by ulterior motives and self-interest. Also, women in this context means the family who marry the daughter, including the daughter itself.
- Manat Mardongan Tubu. Living carefully means a cautious attitude towards fellow Marga to prevent misunderstandings in the implementation of custom tradition events. This act was reflected in the Batak proverb "hau na jonok do na boi marsiogoson". This illustrates that it is in close and frequent intercourse that possible conflicts of interest, status, etc. can occur
Ritual cannibalism
Ritual cannibalism was well documented among pre-colonial Batak people, being performed in order to strengthen the eater's tendi. In particular, the blood, heart, palms and soles of the feet were seen as rich in tendi.In Marco Polo’s memoirs of his stay on the east coast of Sumatra from April to September 1292, he mentions an encounter with hill folk whom he refers to as "man-eaters". From secondary sources, Marco Polo recorded stories of ritual cannibalism among the "Battas". Marco Polo's stay was restricted to the coastal areas, and he never ventured inland to directly verify such claims. Despite never personally witnessing these events, he was nonetheless willing to pass on descriptions which were provided to him, in which a condemned man was eaten: "They suffocate him. And when he is dead they have him cooked, and gather together all the dead man's kin, and eat him. And I assure you they do suck the very bones till not a particle of marrow remains in them...And so they eat him up stump and rump. And when they have thus eaten him they collect his bones and put them in fine chests, and carry them away, and place them in caverns among the mountains where no beast nor other creature can get at them. And you must know also that if they take prisoner a man of another country, and he cannot pay a ransom in coin, they kill him and eat him straightway.
The Venetian Niccolò de' Conti spent most of 1421 in Sumatra in the course of a long trading journey to Southeast Asia, and wrote a brief description of the inhabitants: "In a part of the island called Batech live cannibals who wage continual war on their neighbors."
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the 1820s studied the Batak and their rituals and laws regarding the consumption of human flesh, writing in detail about the transgressions that warranted such an act as well as their methods. Raffles stated that "It is usual for the people to eat their parents when too old to work," and that for certain crimes a criminal would be eaten alive: "The flesh is eaten raw or grilled, with lime, salt and a little rice."
The German physician and geographer Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn visited the Batak lands between 1840 and 1841. Junghuhn says about cannibalism among the Batak :
"People do the honest Battaer an injustice when it is said that they sell human flesh in the markets, and that they slaughter their old people as soon as they are unfit for work...They eat human flesh only in wartime, when they are enraged, and in a few legal instances."
Junghuhn tells how after a perilous and hungry flight he arrived in a friendly village, and the food that was offered by his hosts was the flesh of two prisoners who had been slaughtered the day before, however he maintains that the Batak exaggerated their love of human flesh in order to frighten off would-be invaders and to gain occasional employment as mercenaries for the coastal tribes who were plagued by pirates.
Oscar von Kessel visited Silindung in the 1840s and in 1844 was probably the first European to observe a Batak cannibalistic ritual in which a convicted adulterer was eaten alive. His description parallels that of Marsden in some important respects, however von Kessel states that cannibalism was regarded by the Batak as a judicial act and its application was restricted to very narrowly defined infringements of the law including theft, adultery, spying or treason. Salt, red pepper and lemons had to be provided by the relatives of the victim as a sign that they accepted the verdict of the community and were not thinking of revenge.
Ida Laura Pfeiffer visited the Batak in August 1852 and although she did not observe any cannibalism, she was told that:
Samuel Munson and Henry Lyman, American Baptist missionaries to the Batak, were cannibalized in 1834. Dutch and German missionaries to the Batak in the late 19th century observed a few instances of cannibalism and wrote lurid descriptions to their home parishes in order to raise donations for further missions. The growing Dutch influence in northern Sumatra led to increased Malay influence in coastal trade and plantations, pushing the Karo farther inland. Growing ethnic tensions culminated in the 1872 Karo Rebellion where the Karo were suppressed by Dutch and Malay forces. Despite this, Karo resistance to Dutch imperialism lingered into the early 20th century. In 1890 the Dutch colonial government banned cannibalism in the regions under their control. Rumors of Batak cannibalism survived into the early 20th century but it seems probable that the custom was rare after 1816, due partially to the influence of Islam.