The concept of a blessed life

The Toba Batak aspires to wealth (hamoraon), a respected position in society (hasangapon), and a large progeny, both male and female (hagabeon). Sitompul (1986:214-5) has coined the achievement of this set of three ideals as the fundamental desire (das Grundverlangen) of every Batak, even in modern times. How these three elements are connected becomes clear when situated in the Batak perspective of what constitutes the present ideal of a successful life.

A person is considered particularly fortunate when he reaches a good old age, having both female and male progeny, all of whom are married, and (great) grandchildren. Such a person is called a saurmatua, reflecting that he or she has been able to climb ‘to life’s pinnacle’. Of slightly lower status is the sarimatua, a person who also has many children, but who are not all married at the time of his or her death (Niessen 1985:102). The most elaborate mortuary ritual is reserved for only the saurmatua. The wish to become a saur- or sarimatua is expressed in the following saying:

Tubuan lak-lak ma tubuan singkoru, tu danka ni purba tua tubuan anak ma hamu tubuan boru, dongan sarimatua

‘rind grows, the singkoru plant climbs up the purba tua branch, that you will beget sons and daughters, who will support the sarimatua in old age.’

(Patik 1899 [tr. Vergouwen 1932: 8)

The combination of a large offspring (hagabeon), the respect originating from a large

19 This was over three times the maternal mortality rate of the Netherlands at the time (2.4:1000) and also compared unfavorably to countries like Germany and France (3.6:1000 and 4.9:1000).

21. The large family of Sitaha Dugachi (1890)

RMV, no. A 056-001. Photograph by E. Modigliani

21. The proud pater familias Si Taha Dugachi (Modigliani’s Italian spelling) squats on his haunches (right, second row) happily smiling. His family counts seven daughters and three sons. The torsos of all his daughters are decently covered with a woven cloth, including the youngest (right, front row). They probably did not usually wear an upper garment but wrapped themselves like this for the picture. Si Taha Dugachi’s emaciated wife (left, front row) sits bare-breasted with her youngest child on her lap. The child is probably naked, wearing only a necklace, meant as a charm against evil spirits. Note the trousers worn by the second son sitting on the stairs leading into the house. This article of clothing had apparently already found its way into the still-independent Batak lands at the time.

network of affines (hasangapon), and wealth (hamoraon) is a sine qua non for holding the mortuary rite for the saurmatua and sarimatua. Both have numerous bridegivers and bridetakers through their married sons and daughters, and therefore their children are able to mobilize the material resources and labour to stage a huge and costly ritual. Such a ritual also mobilizes a large reservoir of potent spiritual power (sahala) that the family of the deceased can bestow on its bridetakers. The host also receives blessings from all his bridegivers. The bridegivers present are divided in three categories: the hulahula of the deceased from previous generations,²⁰ the hulahula begotten through the marriage of the deceased²¹, and the hulahula acquired by the marriage of his/her children. The attendance of the bridetakers of the host follows the same pattern.

The saurmatua’s blessed status becomes visible for the first time at the moment he or she has passed away. The representatives of his or her bridegiving lineages come to the home as soon as possible to cover the body of the deceased with woven cloths, the ‘cloths of separation’

(ulos parsirangan), which are spread out one atop of the other. These cloths remain there until the casket containing the body is to be closed. At the time the casket is closed, the cloth that is wrapped around the corpse stays there, whereas the rest will be distributed amongst the three generations of bridetaking groups of the deceased, the daughters, sisters, and paternal aunts. The bridegivers will also give cloths to those left behind by the saurmatua. The widowed spouse receives the mourning shroud (ulos tujung) which is wrapped around her head.²² When no widowed spouse is left behind, the bridegivers present their textiles to the children and grandchildren of the deceased; these cloths are meant to fortify their soul (ulos tondi). Another contribution from the bridegivers to the deceased family consists of rice, which is brought in woven baskets carried on the head by the women on the day of burial. The bridetakers provide the ceremonial meat. The basic desire of the Batak as described by Sitompul is a construct of the past, which is confirmed by the following statement of missionary Bruch (1912:16): ‘The Batak expects to gain esteem and wealth in his life through his sons, and tries to frighten off his enemies by the large male offspring of his clan, and to make his friends and underlings into badly needed supporters’. This statement demonstrates that in the past the triadic desire of the Batak encompassed more than ensuring an impressive funeral and the subsequent ceremony for an ancestor (mangongkal holiholi) of the present.²³ How male progeny was intertwined with wealth and status is explained by Lando (1979:165-6) in his narration of the historical background of the large irrigation system Silean Banua, dating from the late nineteenth century in the area of Lintong ni Huta (southern basin of Lake Toba). Using genealogical data, Lando shows how the lineage of Ompu Barita Laut of the marga Simanjuntak had become the most affluent and powerful of all lineages in the area, because of the large number of his sons, grandsons, and so forth. Two of his great-grandsons became the men financially responsible (suhut) for the

20 In the case of a man, the family of birth of his mother, grandmother, and so forth; in the case of a woman, the family of birth of her mother-in-law, and so forth.

21 In the case of a man, that is the family of his wife; in the case of the wife, her family of origin.

22 The widow receives this cloth from her parboru, a widower from the representative descendant of his mother’s brother, his tulang.

23 Simon (1982) describes a ceremony of reburial of the bones (mangongkal holiholi) held in 1981 for seventy-one ancestors, all descendants of Pangaraja Bulan Hutajulu and their wives. This description brings across very well what is meant by being blessed in terms of numerous offspring (hagabeon), enjoying status because of an extended kinship network (hasangapon) and wealth (hamoraon), since the concrete tomb holding the bones of these seventy-one ancestors cost a fortune. The importance of fertility is expressed in two of the customary dances, the gondang sampur marmeme (the dance of the mother masticating the rice for her child) and the gondang sampur marorot (watching over the children).

construction of Silean Banua. The lineage also took the lead in the actual construction of the large irrigation system, and after that managed to control four out of the six irrigation systems surrounding the village. They also founded no less than twenty hamlets in the course of four generations. Moreover, two of his grandsons were appointed raja ihutan, a function created by the Dutch in the mid-1880s, and the highest title, given to only a select group of traditional rajas in the region.²⁴ One of them, Ompu Sotaronggal, had no fewer than twelve sons by five wives, one of whom became a parbaringin, the highest priest officiating during the large rituals staged by the Simanjuntak descent group. In other words, the lineage was able to claim the position of traditional religious leadership, that of the parbaringin, as well as that of ‘modern’ leadership in the nascent colonial bureaucracy. The lineage also held the rights over the large market at Lintong ni huta. The family history of this lineage of the Simanjuntak clan demonstrates that having many children, in particular sons, could pay off very well in the long run.

In view of the high child mortality in pre- and early colonial society, the good fortune of Ompu Barita and his male descendants was probably exceptional. Nonetheless, in the past, rajas belonging to the line of a ruling marga of the village must have been in a relatively better position to sire many children, amass wealth, and rise to power, because they had the resources to marry more than one wife, thereby increasing the number of their children.²⁵ They possessed ample land and had control over the labour of wives, adult children, and debt-bonded serfs, which ensured them a sufficient supply of food to support a large family. These advantages were not always enough to reach the pinnacle of life: people rarely lived until old age.²⁶ Moreover, the misfortune of losing one’s children because of disease could just as well befall the rich as the poor and thus thwart the hope to become a ‘blessed’ person. Nevertheless, a raja in his prime could still make sure that his funeral would be a grand affair: important chiefs had their sarcophagi made of stone or wood years in advance, and they stood on display in the village as a visible token of their power and wealth (Warneck 1909:70).

The lack of male offspring of course ruled out the possibility of becoming as powerful as the Ompu Barita and his descendants. On the other hand, too many sons and few daughters was not conducive to amassing wealth either. A charming Batak folk tale about a dying widowed mother with seven sons and one daughter illustrates this point. The family is poor, and the sons do not have the money to give their beloved mother a worthy funeral. So they think up a ruse.

Each of them goes to the son of a different raja and offers him their younger sister in marriage, asking for an advance on the brideprice. Because the girl is a beauty, the prospective grooms are more than willing to pay. Having cashed in the advance on seven brideprices, the sons are satisfied that they can honour their beloved mother appropriately, and they postpone the thorny problem how to deal with the seven fiancés of their sister. The poor girl, aware of what her brothers have done, asks her deceased father to take her spirit to save her brothers from being sold as slaves for being unable to keep their promise to her fiancés. Her father transforms her

24 On the introduction of offices and titles introduced in the Batak lands by the Dutch colonial government, see Chapter 8, page 211.

25 Renes-Boldingh’s volume on Batak folk tales includes the story of a wealthy and wise raja who married several wives, but all his marriages remained barren. He turned to Mula Jadi Na Bolon and asked the god to give him at least one son, even if it would be only half a human being. This last request was granted: one of his wives gave him a child with one eye, one ear, one arm, and so forth (Renes-Boldingh 1933:62).

26 Schreiber (1911:530) wrote that in European countries, 15–20% of the population reached the advanced age of seventy, while in Silindung a person of that age was a rare exception.

into a sugar palm.²⁷ In real life, too, poor families wished to arrange a proper funeral for a parent, and often took a loan to slaughter an animal for the feast (Warneck 1909:72).