The Batak world around 1800

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the largest Batak settlements were found in the longitudinal troughs slashed through the mountain range of the Bukit Barisan by the rivers Angkola and Batang Toru. The few European travellers who visited the southern part of the Toba Batak region in the first half of the nineteenth century were particularly struck by the beauty of the fertile valley of Silindung and the density of its population. The gently sloping southern shores of Lake Toba were also well suited for wet rice agriculture and counted numerous villages.

Between the valley of Silindung and Lake Toba lies the Humbang plateau with a savannah-type vegetation which was less suitable for cultivation and human settlement. This is also true of the eastern part of the region called Dolok, which means ‘mountain’ or ‘mountainous’. The western territory of the Batak region, stretching from the Minangkabau to Aceh, consists of hilly terrain covered with forests, where the two major products for export at the time, camphor and benzoin, came from. On the western coast were a number of settlements at the mouth of rivers—Sibolga in the bay of Tapanuli, the smaller harbours of Sorkam and Barus to the north, and Air Bangis, Natal and Sinkuan in the south. Here the sparse population consisted of a mixture of Batak and Minangkabau, the latter dominating the trade from the interior.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Batak were not yet known as consisting of separate ethnic groups.⁵ Internal diversity between Batak groups was thought to be the result of migration in all directions over a period of centuries from the mythical point of origin of all Batak people, the mountain Pusuk Buhit on the northwestern bank of Lake Toba.

The reason for migration was probably not only the need for more arable land for subsistence farming, but also the demand for benzoin and camphor. These resins, found in the forests in the hinterland, had been in demand at the major port cities in the Straits of Malacca since as far back as the fifth century, leading to the emergence of Barus as Sumatra’s main intermediate port on the west coast and Kota Cina on the east coast (Andaya 2008:149-53). In the fifteenth century the emergence of pepper as an important export commodity for China and Europe began to

nation’, which today rings of political unity and ‘nationalist’ feeling, which did not exist in the nineteenth century.

4 This chapter does not cover the last phase of the encroachment: the Dutch annexation of the Dairi-Pakpak, Karo, and Simalungun Batak regions, which occurred around 1900.

5 Marsden did not yet distinguish the Toba Batak as a separate ethnic group from other Batak groups. For Marsden’s sources on the Batak, see Wink 1924 and Viner 1979:85.

draw Batak to Deli on Sumatra’s east coast to work in the pepper fields. It also stimulated the production of rice in the Batak interior for export to pepper-producing areas as far as Aceh. In short, the geographical expansion of the Batak world was the result of pull factors originating from outside the Batak region. Contact with other peoples living on the coast probably engendered a sense of ethnic identity as Batak, based on the use of a different language, the supra-village organization, the bius, discussed below, and wandering experts of healing and divination, the datu (Andaya 2008:154-9).

In the early nineteenth century the Batak world was already well connected internally and with the outside world as a result of earlier trade contacts. The main avenues for trade followed the course of the river Batang Toru from Lake Toba to Sibolga on the western coast, connecting the communities around the lake with those of Silindung and Pahae and with the communities along the river Angkola in the south (Dobbin 1983:175-176).These communities maintained relationships with each other through a chain of markets along these routes. The biggest markets were found in Payabungan in Mandailing, in the centre of the valley of Silindung, in Butar on the Humbang plateau, and in Bangkara and Balige on the southwestern and southern shore of Lake Toba. The number of people visiting the biggest markets must have been considerable: the Dutch official Van Kessel (1856:69), who visited Silindung in 1844, estimated that some three or four thousand people attended the market there. Peace and order in marketplaces and the protection of traders were regulated by strict rules and guaranteed by local rajas, even if the surrounding area was at war (Ruhut 1898 [tr. Vergouwen 1932:131-2]).

A great variety of products were traded at these markets. These included natural produce such as rice, chickens, sugar, coconut oil, fruits, and locally produced woven cloth, knives and swords. Cows and buffaloes, the main source of wealth in Batak society and extensively used in Batak ceremonies, were bought and sold in the markets, too. Imported products brought from the coastal areas to the interior were salt and dried fish, weapons of foreign origin, cotton cloth, iron, copper, thread, and tobacco. Traders from outside bought the resins benzoin and camphor, but also gold from the gold mines in Upper Mandailing, horses from Toba, and pepper from the northern parts, Singkel, Gayo, and Karo. Slaves were a commodity too, although it is difficult to establish the extent of the trade.⁶

The map of the Batak world was divided along lines of conglomerates of marga who revered a common ancestor. A village incorporated the marga raja (the marga who had first settled in an area) and the marga boru, its bridegiving marga who had assisted them at the time or had come to live with them later. Each village was ruled by the raja of the village (raja huta) and a council of senior heads of households, including those of the in-living marga boru. Clusters of villages were united in a common religious community called bius. The bius organized the yearly ceremonies at the beginning of the planting season to ask for the blessing of the gods and ancestors for a good harvest. The bius also had a function in the administration of justice.

The male religious leaders of a bius were representatives from the villages which were part of the bius and were called parbaringin, and their wives paniaran. Those with an aptitude for it

6 Referring to John Anderson’s book Acheen (1840:188-9, 202), Sidjabat (1983:89-92) states that Batak and also Nias slaves were traded in Aceh, as well as in Batu Bara and Asahan on Sumatra’s east coast. Batak female slaves were traded for rifles used in internal warfare. Anderson does not mention the ethnic or geographical origin of the slaves sold on these markets. Angerler (2009:461-2) claims that the Toba Batak did not engage in the trade in slaves prior to the Padri war and that the slave trade was a result of it, which is not very convincing; but it is probable that during and after the war more people were enslaved and sold.

functioned as spirit mediums, communicating with ancestors and the spirits residing in rivers, wells, and caves.⁷ Leadership within the bius was communal, with the college of parbaringin as the supreme institution. The office of parbaringin was hereditary. Decisions were made on a communal basis, and involved rajas who officiated in other functions. They held different titles and governed separate units of villages referred to by terms such as horja or turpak. They organized the building and maintenance of irrigation systems, plotted out land for agriculture, and waged war against outsiders. Each bius had a big marketplace, which also served as a place of worship. People could also turn to the rajas assembled there if they wanted their mediation in a dispute (Angerler 2009:105-48).

Batak society never developed into a ‘state’ in the Western sense of the word and has long been thought of as acephalous.⁸ However, supra-village organization was not vague, shifting, and acephalous. The bius maintained relations with other bius and the Singamangaraja, who is usually referred to as the Batak priest-king.⁹ The priest-kings of the Singamangaraja dynasty were revered as the representatives of ‘Batara Guru’, the eldest of the trinity of the gods of the Batak pantheon.¹⁰ Their legitimacy rested on their magical powers to communicate with the cosmos, and they were often invoked in Batak prayers. At the bius level, the Singamangaraja was represented by a college of rajas which in Silindung was called raja opat (four rajas), probably the parbaringin of the four major lineages comprising the marga conglomerate called Siopatpusoran (‘the four from one navel’), inhabiting the southern part of the valley.¹¹

By the early nineteenth century, the power of the Singamangaraja—emanating from his residence in the rock-walled valley of Bangkara on the shore of the southwest corner of Lake Toba—appears to have been limited to religious affairs. Moreover, the further removed from that centre, the less his influence was felt. The Singamangaraja was the head of the largest cluster of lineages in the Toba region, the so-called Sumba group, consisting of numerous minor conglomerates of marga, such as the Siopatpusoran in Silindung. Its pendant was the Lontung cluster of marga, headed by Ompu Palti Raja, who had a similar status as lineage elder, but, unlike the Singamangaraja, did not claim any sort of authority beyond the Lontung group.

Together these two large clusters of lineages occupied nearly the entire Toba Batak region.¹²

7 Schreiber (1976:352) wrote that each clan had in every village one or more spirit mediums, called sibaso, men and women. Traditional midwives were also called sibaso.

8 The ‘statelessness’ of Batak society and the acephalous character of its social organization are common themes in the literature on the Toba Batak, summarized by Castles (1979), criticized by Angerler (2009:359-69; 396-8) and Andaya (2008:161-6). Angerler attributes the lack of understanding of the function of the bius as a supra-village organization in pre- and early colonial times to the influence of the Batak Mission, which actively and effectively undermined the role of the parbaringin, regarding them as the representatives of the Batak pagan religion. The missionaries chose to cooperate with the so-called secular rajas. They were followed by the colonial government, which bypassed the parbaringin as well, but incorporated the ‘secular’ rajas to the offices it created (Drijvers 1941, Angerler 2009:4, 362-5, 435-7). Today, only vestiges of the bius have survived, in certain areas such as Samosir.

9 Situmorang (1993:70) emphasizes that one should not regard the Singamangaraja as a primus inter pares on a level with the parbaringin of the bius. He was not the representative of the bius where he lived, but revered by all Batak as the representative of the gods.

10 The Singamangaraja dynasty traced its divine ancestry through Si Raja Batak, a descendant of the first divine couple who descended from the world of the gods (see graphic 1). On the nature of the Singamangaraja’s kingship, see Reid 2008:

254.

11 For a map of the territories of the four lineages combined in the marga conglomerate called Siopatpusoran (‘the four of one navel’), see Angerler 2009:499. Perhaps other similar marga conglomerates elsewhere had a different number of representatives, depending on the number of lineages making up the conglomerate. For a different explanation of the origin of the Siopatpusoran, see Andaya 2008:255.

12 The Sumba clans spread out over the northern part of the island Samosir, the western shore of Lake Toba, Toba Holbung, Habinsaran, the northern Humbang Plateau and Silindung, while Lontung occupied the areas South Samosir, Muara, Meat, a number of valleys to the west of Bangkara, the south of the Humbang plateau and the valley Pahae south of

Similar lineage-based leadership was probably also known throughout the rest of the Batak world.

Due to the existence of the bius, Batak society appears to have been able to manage its affairs quite well, and apparently had no need for a strong political centre and ruler. But the fragmented power structure of Batak society also had a ‘dark side’ to it. Rivalry was a common feature. Marsden sketched a vivid picture of this:

The government of the Batta country, although nominally in the hands of three or more sovereign rajas, is effectively (so far as our intercourse with the people enables us to ascertain), divided into numberless petty chiefships, the heads of which, also styled rajas, have no appearance of being dependent upon any superior power, but enter into associations with each other, particularly with those belonging to the same tribe, for mutual defence and security against any distant enemy. They are at the same time extremely jealous of any increase of their relative power, and on the slightest pretext a war breaks out between them. The force of different kampong¹³ is, notwithstanding this, very unequal, and some rajas possess a much more extensive sway then others; and this must be so, where every man who can get a dozen followers, and two or three muskets, sets up for independence (Marsden [1783]1975:374-375).

The usually small-scale wars the Toba Batak waged on each other were rarely a bloody affair, since the Toba Batak dealt with war in a ritual fashion. Armed conflict ended when one of the parties had lost one of its men, but skirmishes could continue for years.¹⁴ The Batak villages were heavily fortified by mud walls, planted with thick bamboo and sometimes surrounded by a moat; and men were heavily armed with loaded guns, pikes, and sabres (Marsden [1783] 1975:379). The heavy weaponry and village fortifications indicate that the Batak lived in more or less constant fear of attack.If a war broke out, and in particular if it was prolonged, it had a pernicious effect on the food supply, because the village population was hindered from cultivating their fields undisturbed.¹⁵ These conditions caused not only poor health, but probably a higher death toll than actual battle. More disastrous were the consequences of arson, a war tactic used by the Batak (Ruhut 1898 [tr. Vergouwen 1932:118]).

No study is available about the exact causes of internal wars in the pre- and early colonial period.¹⁶ The author of Patik (1899 [tr. Vergouwen 1932:95]), however, gives a general overview, listing the following causes for conflict: broken off betrothals and abductions of women (hata boru), disputes over land (hata tano), unpaid debts (hata singir), and theft (hata uasan dipogo donganna). Another probable reason was the killing of a person, usually a child or a slave belonging to another community.¹⁷

Silindung (Situmorang 1993:76-7).

13 Note that Marsden does not use the Batak word for village, which is huta, not kampong (Malay).

14 Sometimes a small war between two parties could become extended if either side managed to involve a wider network of marga lineages and affined marga (Vergouwen [1933] 1964:381).

15 Henny (1869:54) mentioned that the fields in Silindung in 1858 were surrounded by bamboo and that those working the fields were protected by armed men.

16 References to specific localized wars can be found in the yearly colonial reports (Koloniale Verslagen), which may reveal why specific wars broke out, the clans involved, the scope and duration of the conflicts, as well as the outcome and impact on local communities. Lando (1979:150-8) has done this for the so-called Lontung wars involving clans from Samosir and Balige, using interview material.

17 Such a killing was done on the order of a datu who used the body to make a magic staff (tunggal panaluan), a custom which Westerners abhorred as much as Batak cannibalism. Procedures for mediation and the administration of justice to solve conflicts have been discussed in the previous chapter.

In sum, around 1800 the Batak were certainly not cut off from the outside world; and they possessed a loose supra-local organization which existed independently of surrounding Muslim kingdoms in Aceh, Minangkabau, and on the east coast of Sumatra. It appears that the Batak deliberately kept their distance, not wanting to convert to Islam and never accepting effective control. A kind of symbolic but harmless coastal kingship and tribute was as far as they were prepared to go.¹⁸

The internal equilibrium of the Batak world, kept by its rules of conduct regulating conflict, became subject to pressure in the early nineteenth century when the Padri armies invaded the southern parts of the Batak world and beyond. Because the common Batak type of warfare did not make the formation of standing armies necessary, Batak society was not equipped to confront this strong and well-organized enemy in the 1820s and 1830s (Angerler 2009:456-7)—

nor, for that matter, the Dutch colonial army in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

6.2. The invasions of the Padri and their impact (1825–1860)

The man who led the Padri into the Batak region was Tuanku Rao, also known as ‘Pongki na Ngolngolan’.¹⁹ This latter name indicates that he was of Batak descent, Nainggolan being the name of one of the clans in the southern Batak lands. This man,

a ‘shadowy’ figure in the sense that not much is known about him, established himself in the most northern valley of the Minangkabau, the valley of Rao. He converted to Islam around 1810 and became an ally of Imam Bonjol, the most well-known Minangkabau leader of the Padri movement. Tuanku Rao made the conversion to Islam of all the Batak his ardent mission and led the Rao Padri first into Mandailing, the Batak region to the north of the Rao valley.

Around 1822 the Padri armies marched from Mandailing into Angkola, crushing local resistance with ease. A few years later—the exact year is not known, but it must have been not long after 1824—Tuanku Rao succeeded in advancing as far north as the Humbang plateau.²⁰ Allegedly, he killed Singamangaraja X in the Butar marketplace, after inviting him there for a meeting.

Batak sources say that this murder was probably motivated by revenge (Sangti [1977]:32-9). But Dobbin (1983:183) suggests that Tuanku Rao perceived Singamangaraja X as a figurehead around whom the Toba Batak clans could unite to oppose Islam; he also wanted to cut off the Singamangaraja’s profitable commercial relationship with Barus on the west coast. Whatever

18 Reid 2008:255. For the relationship between the royal family of Barus (the Hulu family) and the Batak in the interior since the sixteenth century, see Drakard 1990.

19 The following description of the Padri invasion of the Batak lands is based largely on Dobbin 1983:175-87.

20 In his letter to Major General Michiels (Civil and Military Governor of the West Coast of Sumatra), written after his return, missionary N. Ward of the Baptist Mission Society, who had visited Silindung with missionary R. Burton in 1824, made no mention of any activity of the Padri (KITLV, H 302).

Stuers, H.J.J.L. de, De vestiging en

his reason(s) may have been, Tuanku Rao considered Singamangaraja X a sufficiently important foe to kill him. Tuanku Rao did not stay very long in the northern Batak lands, but his followers returned in 1827 and 1829, probably in search of more booty from the already weakened Batak lands. In 1833 Tuanku Rao was captured by the Dutch in Air Bangis and died shortly afterwards.

The impact of the Padri invasions was dramatic: it left behind a trail of destruction.

According to Junghuhn (1847:53), the population decreased by a third.²¹ Van Kessel (1856:57), who visited the region between Sipirok and Silindung in 1844, saw many abandoned villages.

There is no way to establish whether the region around Lake Toba was affected as severely as

There is no way to establish whether the region around Lake Toba was affected as severely as