Batak

Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The term is used to include the Alas, Kluet, Singkil, Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, Angkola, and Mandailing which are distinct but related groups with distinct - albeit related - languages and customs (adat).

In North Sumatra, Toba people typically assert their identity as 'Batak', while other 'Batak' may explicitly reject that label, preferring instead to identify as specifically 'Mandailing' and 'Karo' people.

Prehistory

Linguistic and archaeological evidence indicates that Austronesian speakers first reached Sumatra from Taiwan and the Philippines through Borneo and/or Java about 2,500 years ago, and the Batak probably descended from these settlers. 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 thanks to their location inland, away from the influence of seafaring European colonials, there is evidence that they have been involved in trade with other neighbouring kingdoms for a millennium or more.

Batak people (Philippines)

The Batak are one of about 70 indigenous peoples of the Philippines. They are located in the northeastern portions of Palawan, a relatively large island in the southwest of the archipelago. There are only about 500 Batak remaining. Also called Tinitianes, the Batak are considered by anthropologists to be closely related to the Ayta of Central Luzon, another Negrito tribe. They tend to be small in stature, with dark skin and short curly or "kinky" hair, traits which originally garnered the "Negrito" groups their name. Still, there is some debate as to whether the Batak are related to the other Negrito groups of the Philippines or actually to other, physically similar groups in Indonesia or as far away as the Andaman islands.

Batak have for centuries combined a hunting-gathering lifestyle with seeding of useful food plants, kaingin, a slash and burn farming method, and trading. It is believed that they may have had trading relations with Chinese merchants as early as 500 AD.

Batak alphabet

The Batak script, natively known as surat Batak, surat na sapulu sia (the nineteen letters), or si-sia-sia, is an abugida used to write the Austronesian Batak languages spoken by several million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The script may derived from the Kawi and Pallava script, ultimately derived from the Brahmi script of India, or from the hypothetical Proto-Sumatran script influenced by Pallava.

History

In most Batak communities, only the priests, or datu were able to use the Batak script, and used it mainly for magical texts and calendars. After the arrival of Europeans in the Batak lands, first German missionaries and, from 1878 onwards, the Dutch, the Batak script was, alongside the Roman script, taught in the schools, and teaching and religious materials were printed in the Batak script. Soon after the first World War the missionaries decided to discontinue printing books in the Batak script. The script soon fell out of use and is now only used for ornamental purposes.

Marga (Batak)

Marga is a term in Batak societies referring to a clan name and Marga is similar with family surname. The term is derived either from the Sanskrit varga, meaning company, party, or group, or, more likely, from the Sanskrit marga, meaning 'road, way or path', referring to a people of 'one origin'.

Batak marga are patrilineal. Marriage in the same Marga is strictly forbidden by tribal law (adat) even between people only distantly related; but it is allowed and often even arranged between cousins of the maternal line (boru). After marriage, Batak women do not change their family (marga) name, but add "boru" to their birth name. Since Batak marga are patrilineal, the children will inherit the marga from their father.

In Batak Toba mythology, Marga are traced to the common ancestor "Si Raja Batak" (The King of the Batak). In Karo mythology, the five Marga (Merga Silima) are defined in terms of matrimonial bonds, with no importance placed on a common ancestor myth. Simalungun have four basic marga, each seen as equal, and likewise with no common ancestor myth.

Batak Christian Protestant Church

The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP), which translates into the Batak Christian Protestant Church, is the largest Protestant denomination in Indonesia, with a baptized membership of 4,100,000. Its present leader is the Ephorus (or Bishop) Rev. WTP Simarmata.

History

The first Protestant missionaries who tried to reach the Batak highlands of inner Northern Sumatra were English and American Baptist preachers in the 1820s and 30s, but without any success. After Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn and Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk did intensive research on Batak language and culture in the 1840s, a new attempt was done in 1861 by several missionaries sent out by the German Rhenish Missionary Society (RMG). The first Bataks were baptized in this year. In 1864, Dr. Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen from Rhenish Missionary Society Germany, reached the Batak region and founded a village called "Huta Dame" (village of peace) in the district of Tapanuli in Tarutung, North Sumatra.

The RMG was associated with the Unierte Kirche, or union of Lutheran and Reformed churches. However, Dr. Nommensen and local leaders developed an approach that applied local custom to Christian belief.