Nature beheld a beautiful vista before us

Friday, August 13, 2010

Batak in Medan

Where : North Sumatra, Indonesia
Place : Lake Toba, Medan
When : 19-July-2010

Upon touchdown at Polonia Airport in Medan it took us 4.5hrs to Lake Toba by car. During those hours, our transport passed by four towns. And... (heheeee...) I noted only two towns and they are; L.Bakam town which is riched in paddy and Kabupaten Serdang Bedagai known for its bird nest.

Along the way, saw public transport used to ferry the locals. Its called Angkot (angkutan Kota). It's a mini van that can takes in maximum 15 passengers and goes around and round the area. Taxis are rare due to high charges. Bus/coach is only available for long trips.

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Had lunch at Jalan Lintas Sumatra. Its a Minang food.

From my Medan tour guide, Joey i learnt that there are five Batak tribes; 4 christians and 1 Islam. Mandailing Batak; islam.

For Batak Toba their practise is that they bury bones below ground level. And after 17yrs**, bones were dug up and bury above ground level. As for Batak Semalinggung, they would bury the bones above ground level. And after 17yrs+**, the bones were dug up and bury below ground level.
Note : ** 17 years is of no significance but minimum 15yrs to whenever the family has fund to dug up the bones bcos after bones are dug up, the family needs to spend lotsa money to throw a party/celebration.

When the head of the family (i.e the father) died, and he has a son, there will be like a party. Why? Bcos, this is to show that he had done his best for his entire living age. If he doesn't have a son, the wake will be very quiet. The wake will last for 3D2N for the one with a son and 2D1N for the one without a son.

In Batak Simalungun tribe, big size woman are often sought after bcos it's a sign of fertility. It's a practise till to date. In the Batak culture, males are always regarded above the females.

When we reached Lake Toba...the lake was very big. Even my 11-16mm lens can't capture end to end. Hahahaa...!

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Lake Toba. Snapped from my hotel - Niagara International Hotel

I was told that the water sources for Lake Toba is from a waterfall named Sipiso piso.

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Sipiso-piso waterfall

From the jetty (@Parapat) after lunch, we took a ferry to Samosir Island. Samosir Island is located right in the middle of Lake Toba. There's few villages on Samosir Island. We visited two village : Ambarita and Tomok. The ferry ride took us;
Parapat Jetty to Ambarita Village - 45mins.
Ambarita Village to Tomok Village - 20mins.

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Basically the items sold in all the shops are the same. The only difference is the price after bargain and how persistent is the salesperson in taunting.

@ Ambarita village, the peddlers are more aggressive. But prices are IDR15,000 cheaper than Tomok village.
@ Tomok village, peddlers are not as persistent and do not taunt.

Horas!!! Thats in Batak language which means "Greetings"

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Entrance to the ancient batak tribal village

Its at Ambarita Village that we witness and learnt of the Batak culture as explained by our tour guide. Here we saw the ancient batak tribal village and we learnt that the ancient batak practised cannabalism. Saw some stone chairs and table where the village elders held meetings.

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The victim is held under the head of village house

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Victim in captive. Observe that one of the leg is locked. This is called pemasungan. This is to prevent the victim from escaping.

Whenever an enemy was captured, the elders would invite the rulers of neighbouring villages to a meeting, to determine the fate of the victim. The victim will be held captive behind bars under the head of villager's house.

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Execution ground

If the victim fate is determined to be death, he is taken to a table where he is clobbered to death. There is a boulder where the victim is beheaded. After that, he is chopped up, his flesh is cooked with buffalo meat, and served to the tribal council, who completed the meal with a beverage of the victim's blood!

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Batak calender. Still used by the elderly at present.

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Ulos. Batak traditional textiles.

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Observe the picture above...Look at the arrangement of the house's entrance. On the extreme right, the ladder is built below the flooring of the house and entrance is made underneath. Wherelse, the other two houses to the left, the ladder is built outside and above the flooring. Where the one on the extreme right is built for daughters, the other two was for the sons. Cos in Batak culture, males are regarded as above the females.

Labels: indonesia, indonesia culture

++ quoth nessie at 8:56 PM

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This blog is more of nature themed.

Here i will share my findings and observations by means of photos and narration to places that i rambles in Spore.

Beside that i will post on what i have been doing (but not so much into writing such stuff actually).

There's also post of my overseas trip, with photos and narration of course.

So, please feel free to tell me which other new places or interesting place which of nature related that I should go explore next.

Nature lover.

Hate late-comers. I dunt hv high patience level u know.

One thing that i always hold onto; wenever sometg bad happen to me, i'll nvr ask God "Why me?" Cos in times of goodness and happiness i nvr ask God "Why me?" Cos everything that happened, happens for a reason.

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