in the middle of Sumatra there is a massive lake called Toba. it's on a
super volcano which erupted 70,000 years ago and nearly destroyed the entire
human race, reducing it to just three thousand to ten thousand people. there is
an island in the lake called Samosir inhabited by Batak people
Marco Polo observed that they were cannibals when he encountered them in
the Middle Ages. the native religion of the Batak people was revived in a
Nationalistic form as part of the 20th century Indonesian independence movement,
which was led by Muslims and communists. the modern form derived from this
revival is called Malim, unfortunately it is heavily influenced by Islam and
Christianity, forbidding the consumption of pork and worshipping what they call
"one and only Almighty God" this was part of an effort to conform to "Pancasila" the
Indonesian state enforced monotheism. However it failed because the government
only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism
the latter of which has had to adapt, I will explain this in my next video.
Even the traditional Batak religion, widely practiced in the 19th century, was
probably influenced by Hinduism which first arrived here at least 1500 years
ago. They believe in three worlds; the Middle Earth of men, the underworld of
ghosts and demons and the heavens ruled by the Creator God Mulajadi Na Bolon.
His first creation was Manukmanuk Hulambujati, a magical chicken with an
iron-beak who laid 3 eggs from which other gods hatched.
worship of Mulajadi Na Bolon was not as important in day-to-day rituals at the Tondi.
Tondi or Tendi is one of three kinds of soul, it is an accompanying soul
just like the North fylgja, it attaches to a person prior to birth and
then determines the fate of that person in life.
men receive the tondi from Mulajadi Na Bolon. they believed an individual has
seven tondi the second of which named saudara "brother" comes with the placenta
just like a fylgja, which is then buried under the house. Special powerful
people also have a second kind of soul called Sahala which is associated with
the luck and magic of the king or the hula-hula. the third kind, begu, is the
tondi of people who have died. these spirits of the Dead appear at night.
great harm can be done to a person if they are separated from their Tondi and
this can be done by a malicious Datu, a priest. The wooden statues in this photo from
the Batak Museum in samosir are related to cultic activities of datu
these may be the entities which a datu must employ to work his magic
or perhaps they represent accomplished datu of days gone by and
are now used for ancestor worship. they hold votive offering bowls on their
heads and hands. the tondi connect an individual with the Batak people living
and dead. the dead is so important in a religion based heavily on ancestor
worship. this mounted figure is a Hoda hoda bakawan, representing a deceased
clan chief and this enormous Idol depicts a clan chief with two tigers.
during funerals Batak chieftains used human sized puppets, like this, which
were dressed like the dead and manipulated by the datu to make them dance, weep, gnash
teeth and speak in the voice of the deceased. the puppets were used to revive begu
Souls and communicate with them. Christian and Muslim leaders have tried
to wipe out such activities.
the traditional Taba house is called a jabu. the large roof area was used to
store rice and also had a platform for unmarried male guests to sleep on.
ornamental carvings were traditionally made to protect the residents from evil
spirits and black magic but now they are merely decorative and a reminder of the
past. this mask on the front is called a jaga dopak "protector".
the ends of the main floor joists are carved at the front of the house and these iconic figures
called singa singa may originally have represented lines but they often look
more like people.
The inherited Souls ancestor worship, dressing wooden figures
as spirits of the Dead, and ornamenting houses with religious carvings of the
Batak religion were all aspects of Germanic paganism too... this shows the
perennial truths inherent to pagan religions.
in my next video I will look at Hinduism in Bali.